top of page

Huen Yuk Wan reviewsLa Serva Padrona

The popularization of high art


The recent performance of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona in the Macau International Music Festival exemplifies how high art can be popularized without sacrificing the aura of the original art. In the mind of many, the Italian language and the art of opera, like Shakespearean plays, are almost unreachable. The discussed performance adopted an innovative approach to translate the 18th century opera buffa into a lively and comical show tailored to the contemporary audience.

The ambition and the creativity of the director can be exemplified by the unconventional costumes (such as the Serpina's knee-length, velvet one-piece dress in bright red), makeup (consider the powder coated, pink, blushing face of Vespone) and props (such as a pink plastic suitcase and the unexpected use of a red Chinese bridal sedan chair). The facial expression and body movements are also rather exaggerated and lively in this performance, when compared to older versions such as the one directed by Mando Bernardinello, which fully lives up to the expectations one could have for an 18th century work. No doubt these are all amendments and alterations to the original work that may not be easily accepted by many in the world of opera. However, it is also beyond doubt that the audience was taken with these changes and welcomed the pleasure they brought.

In this performance, important issues such as the liberation of high art, the readers' interpretation of a creative work and the intricate relationship between the original work, the performers and the audience.

The relationship between the work, the performers and the audience

In the interview session after the show, I raised a question concerning the issue of the language of Italian creating difficulties for the audience to understand and appreciate an opera and I have received interesting answers. Both the director, Li Wei and the conductor, Zhang Jiemin provided inspiring answers. Li acknowledged the undesirable effects Italian has for non-Italian speakers and discussed his past experience in changing the recitativo of a performance to Chinese so as to accommodate the Chinese audience. He was open to adaptation and claimed that his role as the director was to help the audience get closer to the work. His job was to evoke the actors' participation in the performance and to 'be honest to the composer'. By being honest I think he meant to present genuinely his interpretation of the work so that the audience can enjoy a truthful performance without pretense. Indeed the only way to achieve this is to produce the director's own version of the opera because any other form would involve considerable mimicry and lack originality. Zhang emphasized the crucial role of the music in the performance and insisted that 'great music lasts'. Her opinion was in line with that of Li's and reminded us that 'the composer has written everything, you just need to find it.' She thought the problem created by the understanding of the language is not a significant one and referred to the way even Chinese audience cannot understand the lines spoken in Chinese operas because the languages used on the stage and in real life are so unlike each other.

'The composer had written everything, you just need to find it.'

This truthful statement contains a fine analogy about the relationship between the music, the composer and the audience. The composer had left behind a treasure for us and he was gone. We are allowed to experiment this with the help and guidance of the performing artists including the director and the conductor. The pronoun 'you' in the above statement refers to the audience as well as the performers. As the audience's guide for exploring the work, the producers and performers of nowadays and in the past must take the initiative to recover the jewels in the treasure and showcase them before the eyes of the audience. As audience we should be alert to such discovery and it is through such complex procedures that we are able to make connection with the work.


Also relevant to the discussion here is Roland Barthes's famous notion of 'Death of the Author'. Once the work is finished, the connection between him/her and the work cease to exist and it is not up to him/her to produce any kind of interpretation. Although Barthes's concern is on literature and literary criticism but the ideas of the democratization of the interpretation and the liberation of the limitless layers of meanings of a work are useful to us here. If Pergolesi no longer possesses the exclusive authority to interpret the work, all others are free to offer their own explanation - like what we have seen in the show staged in Macau this time. After all, one of the critical aspect to determine the success of a performance is the response of the audience. When I entered the beautiful Teatro de Pedro V and sat down, I started to be worried that this comedy may not be successful or the audience may not be amused because of the cultural boundaries - but I was totally wrong - the majority of the audience enjoyed the show, thanks to the unique adaptations implemented by the director and the crew. More importantly, from my perspective, this special performance was created for the audience. This approach serves to spark new interest in the decades-old art form and also helps to preserve and promote it.

If you think consider the origin of La Serva Padrona, you would see that it again exemplifies the prioritization of the audience. Originally a small performance designed to fill the gap between the intermission between acts of a larger opera, the prototypical opera buffa caught audience's attention and gained the appreciation and respect that it deserve as an independant performance. Such an inclination for a lighter, shorter and simpler show has continued through history until today and the passion has not ceased. The opera buffa is remarkably different from major opera titles and appeals especially to the mass. The rise of such an alienated form of opera (if this is an appropriate name) resonates with my central argument here, that La Serva Padrona embodies the popularization of art. In the act of such popularization, the experience of the audience gains prime importance. There are tonnes of various factors that could affect the experience and different types of manipulation of the audience experience are possible, such as the venue.

As part of the music festival and as part of an all-round tourism campaign, the performance was staged in the historic site Teatro de Pedro V. The choice was purposeful to produce an overall mood and atmosphere for the audience. As commented on by the supplementary print materials distributed with the show, the venue is best fitted for such a small-scale performance. The elegant, if not extravagant interior deco also enhanced the overall experience of the audience. All in all, I would say that La Serva Padrona had been a successful and creative show that cared for audience and in turns received the appreciation it deserved.




Performance Reviewed:

La Serva Pandrova

21 October 2012, 3pm

Dom Pedro V Theatre

bottom of page