2.5 (above average)
Tune of the Day: A Serpina penserete
La serva padrona (“The Servant Mistress”) is an opera buffa (a comic opera) by Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736). The whole opera is only 45 minutes long, and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger opera.
La serva padrona is often seen as the quintessential piece that bridges the gap from the Baroque to the Classical period. Owing to its importance, over time it came to be known as more than just an intermezzo and was performed as a stand-alone work.
The aria “A Serpina penserete” (“You will think of Serpina”) is taken from the second part of the opera. Serpina, a maidservant, has come up with a trick to get her master Uberto, an elderly bachelor, to marry her. She tells him that she has found a handsome man to marry and then, in melodramatic sorrow, laments how Uberto will probably forget her after she is gone.