"La serva onorata"

Abstract

In September 1792 the Neapolitan Teatro dei Fiorentini hosted the performance of a new dramma giocoso by Niccolò Piccinni, titled La serva onorata, which has never been revived in modern times. The libretto was a reelaboration by Giambattista Lorenzi of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s Le nozze di Figaro, set to music by Mozart six years before. The work and the Viennese masterpiece show many concurrences, but Lorenzi’s text is marked by a different tone and a radical restructuring—a reduction from four to two acts and from eleven to six characters, as well as the elimination of the chorus. In it a mature Piccinni, just returned to Italy after the long stay in Paris, proves capable of writing a refined score and of showcasing the skills of his singers, among them the famous buffo Antonio Casaccia in the role of Nardillo Barracca, corresponding to that of Figaro.