About the work
L’uccellatrice (The Bird Catcher) is a two-act opera intermezzo with music by Niccolò Jommelli and a libretto of unknown authorship, occasionally attributed to Carlo Goldoni. It premiered on 6 May 1750 at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, performed between the acts of Domènec Terradellas's serious opera Imeneo in Atene as its comic counterpart.
Plot
The vain fop Don Narciso meets the bird-catcher Mergellina in the countryside and, dazzled by her beauty, mistakes her for the goddess Diana. As she sets her nets with the help of her assistant Lesbino, she teases the infatuated fool, lets him get tangled in his own net, and finally demands his diamond ring as proof of his love. Having thoroughly made a fool of him, she ultimately returns his affection.
Cultural significance
The work was restaged across Europe well into the 1770s, from Leipzig and Bologna to Edinburgh and London. Its 1753 reworking for the Paris Opéra, given as Il paratajo or La pipée, gained particular significance: alongside Pergolesi's La serva padrona, it became a central work in the so-called Querelle des Bouffons that advanced the adoption of Italian elements into French opera.