Il prigionier superbo

Based on the anonymous recasting of a libretto derived in turn from La fede tradita e vendicata by Francesco Silvani (1705), Il prigionier superbo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was first performed on 5 September 1733 at the Teatro di San Bartolomeoin Naples. With this opera – his second dramma serio for San Bartolomeo in less than two years – the young composer (who had already acquired considerable professional stature in the city’s theatres, churches, and aristocratic circles) reprised aperennially popular subject centered around the dramatic conflict between filial piety and devotion to one’s betrothed.

Inserted between the opera’s three acts were the intermezzi of La serva padrona, which would soon go on to take all of Europe bystorm.The primary source for this edition is a manuscript copy of the score currently housed in the Conservatorio di Musica “San Pietro a Majella” in Naples and prepared by Giuseppe Sigismondo, who was quite probably working from the now-lost autograph.Two other significant manuscript copies of the score also housed in Naples (respectively in the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini and the aforementioned conservatory) were consulted, along with a number of manuscript copies of individual arias.