About the work
La serva padrona is a comic opera intermezzo in two parts by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, with a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico. It was written as an interlude for Pergolesi's opera seria Il prigionier superbo and premiered on 5 September 1733 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples, for the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine.
Plot
The elderly bachelor Uberto finally wants to marry and sends his mute servant Vespone to find him a wife. His housekeeper Serpina seizes the moment and pretends she is engaged to a captain, with the disguised Vespone posing as the groom. Jealous, Uberto agrees to marry Serpina himself instead, turning the servant into the mistress of the house.
Cultural significance
While the opera it accompanied was soon forgotten, the intermezzo became one of the first true repertoire operas, staged at more than 60 European theatres. Its 1752 performance at the Paris Opéra triggered the Querelle des Bouffons between supporters of French and Italian opera, in which Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among others, championed opera buffa.