BEMF Recordings
Pergolesi: La Serva Padrona & Livietta e Tracollo
Humor and love abound in a 2 CD-set of Neapolitan comic opera featuring Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona and Livietta e Tracollo.
Originally written as interludes during productions with a more sober tone, Pergolesi’s comedies enchanted audiences with their side-splitting humor and engaging romance. La Serva Padrona tells the tale of a cunning maid who conspires to win the heart of her testy employer, while in Livietta e Tracollo, a duplicitous con artist meets his match in a peasant woman plotting his comeuppance to avenge her brother.
Recorded in Bremen in January 2023 with Musical Directors Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs and Orchestra Director Robert Mealy, the production was originally presented in Boston in 2014 and reprised at the June 2017 Festival. La Serva Padrona features soprano Amanda Forsythe and bass-baritone Christian Immler. Livietta e Tracollo features soprano Carlotta Colombo and baritone Jesse Blumberg.
"★★★★★ Under the joint direction of Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, these productions possess all the fizz they must have had when first performed in the 1730s."
"Lively and polished."
"Slapstick with music. A master performance!"
"[Classics Today Recommendation] The Bremen studio recording… breathes a lively stage atmosphere from the first bar."