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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > April > 19 > Entry
Review: ‘La Serva Padrona’
La Follia Austin Baroque took a bold step this weekend staging a production of ‘La Serva Padrona,’ a comic operetta by Giovanni Pergolesi.
After all, the longtime period music chamber music group doesn’t have much experience staging operas. And if sometimes that lack of experience showed around the edges on Friday at the First Presbyterian Church, the first of two performances, in the end the utterly charming nature of Pergolesi’s goofball of a piece and some engaging singing made La Follia’s bold step a pleasure.
Hardly a part of any standard opera repertoire, ‘La Serva Padrona’ was originally presented in 1733 as an intermezzo for Pergolesi’s longer opera ‘Il Priogioniero Superbo’ which never exactly became a hit, thus shunting ‘La Serva’ to obscurity for a while before the short piece piece finally got its much deserved solo recognition.
And the operetta is a charmer alright.
Serpina (soprano Gitanjali Mathur) is a spit fire, a cunning young maid to an Italian nobleman, Uberto (Steven Olivares) who desires more from life. So she conspires a way — through the not too unexpected devices of disguise and simple chicanery — to trick Uberto into marrying her and thus making her the mistress of his estate.
With Mathur and Olivares in period Baroque costumes, the action all took place on a small stage backed by drapes — a simple set not without its slightly amateurish look. English supertitles were projected top the right of the stage on the back wall of the church sanctuary. To the left of the stage sat the eight-piece period instrument baroque orchestra lead by La Follia artistic director and harpsichordist Keith Womer.
A regular with Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare, Mathur — while she doesn’t have a big voice — has a sweet clear tone that’s full of delightful color. And humor. Mathur is a natural — and convincing — comedic actress who is a delight to watch. Olivares, too, showed his comedic acting chops, along with good tone that got stronger and more colorful as the operetta progressed.
Though ‘La Serva Padrona’ is a short two acts no more than 45 or 50 minutes, it was nevertheless presented with an intermission. And the second act was proceeded by Pergolesi’s Flute Concerto in G Major, featuring soloist Marcus McGuff.
It was a clever thought to insert an intermezzo piece into a operetta that was itself created as an intermezzo. But the intermission stole energy from Pergolesi’s frothy folly that took the case and ensemble a while to regain after the Concerto.
Still, La Follia earned a tip of the hat for sticking a toe in the opera arena.
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