LA SERVA PADRONA / GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI

29 April 2023, Saturday
Time 19:00
The Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery in the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw

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Even though Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, a famous representative of the Italian Baroque, lived for only 26 years, the works he left granted him a permanent place in the history of music. The brightest star in his artistic legacy is the seemingly simple intermezzo La serva padrona (The Servant Turned Mistress). This short work, written when Pergolesi was only 23, is still performed in Europe to this day, both in the original language version and in numerous translations.

The libretto written by Gennaro Antonio Federico is centered around a simple intrigue originating from the commedia dell’arte tradition. Here we have a wealthy old bachelor looking for a wife and his cunning servant who successfully presents herself as the best candidate. Pergolesi finds the perfect musical measures to describe the characters, and the words they sing are reflected in the charming recitatives and arias. All this has been wonderfully summarised by Piotr Kamiński in his lexicon Tysiąc i jedna opera (“1001 Operas”), where he compared young Pergolesi’s talent to the skills of one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time:

Perhaps only Mozart himself would be able to draw such an abundance of cheerful theatrical thought from the twelve tones of the chromatic scale, one hand clinging to the text, the other creating the endless music spells, and from them in accurate, efficient manner, vivid characters that we know everything about.

Marta Dziewanowska-Pachowska

 

MUSIC DIRECTION KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA

DIRECTION JITKA STOKALSKA
SET DESIGNER MARLENA SKONECZKO
LIGHTING DIRECTOR KAROLINA GĘBSKA
STAGE MOVEMENT ALISA MAKARENKO
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AGNIESZKA KOZŁOWSKA
II ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SŁAWOMIR JURCZAK
VIDEO PROJECTIONS MAREK ZAMOJSKI
LIGHTING PIOTR RUDZKI
STAGE MANAGER TATIANA HEMPEL-GIERLACH

 

CAST

SERPINA ALEKSANDRA KLIMCZAK
UBERTO PAWEŁ MICHALCZUK
VESPONE I RAFAŁ KARNICKI
VESPONE II JERZY KLONOWSKI
VESPONE III MACIEJ JAN KRAŚNIEWSKI

THE PERIOD INSTRUMENTS ENSEMBLE OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA CAPELLA REGIA POLONA

CONDUCTOR KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA


Duration: 1 h
The seats in the auditorium are not numbered.
PLEASE NOTE: the entrance to the Royal Theatre in the Łazienki Park is located in Agrykola street.
One hour before the performance as well as for an hour after it is finished, the audience can use the electric cart running between the Royal Theater and the Łazienki Gate at the corner of Myśliwiecka / Agrykola streets.