Short and Catchy

Comic opera at the Delaware Valley College Visiting Artists Series Feb. 10 in Doylestown, Pa.

By: Daniel Shearer
   They called it "the war of the buffoons." A number of composers, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of a new style of comic opera, were writing their own works and trying to pass them off as the product of an Italian composer, Giovanni Pergolesi.

Elizabeth Freeman

   Pergolesi died young, nearly 20 years earlier, without ever having achieved much fame outside of Rome or Naples. Nonetheless, his works caused quite a stir in the Parisian opera scene in the early 1750s. Today, La Serva Padrona (The Maid as Mistress, circa 1733) remains one of the earliest regularly performed "opera buffa," Italian for comic opera. The work will be presented in Doylestown, Pa., as part of the Delaware Valley College Visiting Artist Series Feb. 10.
   "I think probably a lot of the publicity surrounding its performance in Paris emerged between people who loved this sort of lighthearted comic opera and sort of the old guard associated with Paris opera," says Jack Schmidt, an assistant professor of music at Delaware Valley College. "There was quite a bit of debate going back and forth in the papers in Paris between the staunch supporters of serious opera, and the people who thought this new comic style opera was a lot of fun."
   Sung in English, La Serva Padrona tells the story of a clever maid who wins over her master, becoming the lady of the house through intrigue and deception. The performance features soprano Elizabeth Freeman and bass David Brundage, who previously worked together as chorus members with the Washington Opera under artistic director Placido Domingo.
   Ms. Freeman made her Washington Opera debut as Clytemnestra’s confidante in Elektra and has performed in numerous productions with the group since 1997. Mr. Brundage’s operatic credits include performances with Deutsches Oper Berlin, Wolf Trap Opera and the Opera Theater of Northern Virginia. He recently performed Handel’s Solomon at the Maryland Handel Festival and Messiah with the National Chamber Orchestra.

David Brundage

   " ‘La Serva Padrona’ was actually first written to be performed between the acts of a serious opera, the comic intermezzo," Mr. Schmidt says. "It really burst on the scene as intermission music.
   "Opera had been around for over a century when this work was first performed, but primarily it was serious opera — historic operas that were written to make the noblity look good and to show off the singers, the castrati (singers castrated to preserve the soprano or contralto voice quality) and the superstars of the opera world."
   An hour-long work staged with simple sets, the production features an eight-piece chamber orchestra with free-lance musicians recruited from The Bucks County Symphony and Musica 2000, among other organizations.
   "The melodies are quite short," Mr. Schmidt says. "If you don’t like the way a theme sounds, don’t worry about it. Within 15 seconds, there will be another theme. This early-classic style really bounces from one theme to the next, so expect short, very catchy themes, not quite as long-winded as later opera."
   Mr. Schmidt, a Doylestown resident with a doctorate in music history from Northwestern University, will conduct.
   "We don’t do a whole lot of opera at Delaware Valley College, but we bring in all sorts of concerts for our visiting artists series," he says. "One of the things we’ve been trying to work in over the last couple of years is more music and drama. Last year, we did Stravinsky’s ‘L’Histoire de Soldat,’ the Soldier’s Tale, which is a piece for chamber ensemble and narrator. So this year, we took the plunge and went all the way with opera."
   In March, the series will present a piano recital from Marcantonio Barone, a prizewinner at the Busoni and Leeds international piano competitions. Mr. Barone made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 10.
   "We’re sort of an emerging concert series," Mr. Schmidt says. "This is our fifth year. We’ve got a loyal audience, but we certainly would like to see that audience grow."
The Delaware Valley College Visiting Artists Series presents La Serva Padrona at the Student Center
Auditorium, 700 Butler Ave., near the intersection of routes 202 and 611, Doylestown, Pa., Feb. 10, 3 p.m.
Tickets cost $12; seniors $10; family rate $25. Pianist Marcantonio Barone closes the season with a recital
March 24, 3 p.m. For information, call (215) 489-2233.