Pergolesi's second opera is a comedy. La serva padrona gets the credit for showing you could make operas about "normal" people, but this one came first. I guess it's just happenstance what gets the most attention. This does have the same librettist as serva, at any rate (Gennaro Antonio Federico).
It's a pretty typical opera-buffa-type plot, anyway: there are two sisters, Nina and Nena. Also, they have a long-lost brother, a detail that will definitely not prove relevant in any way. There are two guys who want to marry them, Don Pietro and Marcaniello, but they're both in love with Ascanio, who is also in love with them. How's that gonna work? There are various machinations, and also two maids, Vannella and Cardella, who comment on the goings on. In the end, it's revealed--get ready for your monocle to pop out in amazement--Ascanio is actually the long-lost brother of Nina and Nena! He has a birthmark that reveals this, you see. Do people in real life ever have birthmarks distinctive enough to facilitate these sorts of revelations? I have my doubts. The fact that I was actually their brother is why I was in love with them! Ascanio exclaims. I...don't think that's how anything works. In any case, he is now free to marry his adopted sister Luggrezia. Surprisingly for the type of opera it is, there are no other couples at the end, but everyone's happy, so it's all good.
It's a lot of fun, for sure. The libretto is a bit clumsy, I feel, but plenty good enough to support some great music. Definitely, the show is stolen by Vannella and Cardella, the soubrette maids, here played effectively by Laura Cherici and Rosa Bove respectively. The production is nineteen fifties or sixties themed, and it works well. I liked this better than La Salustia, though not I think particularly because I think opera buffa is "better" than opera seria. Pergolesi was getting better, is what I think it is.
Worth noting--or maybe not, but too bad; I'm noting it anyway: a character named Ascanio being revealed via birthmark as a long-lost son? That is exactly what happens in Leonardo Leo's L'Alidoro. The two plots aren't otherwise very similar, but that...is what it is. Though I suppose you could say that, given the commonness of the birthmark thing, the only real coincidence is the names. Still seems kinda weird, though. Coincidence? Probably!
No comments:
Post a Comment