Pergolesi's popular short opera La Serva Padrona and the rarely heard Livietta e Tracollo were written as intermezzi--that is, they were rough-and-ready comic interludes placed between the acts of much more high-toned serious operas. Here they are presented as an intriguing 80-minute double-bill which was recorded live at the Luna Theatre in Brussels in 1996. La Serva Padrona tells the story of a shrewish, scheming maid who marries her master, and Livietta is a farcical romp full of disguise and flirtatious intrigue. Both sound fresh and lively here, with Sigiswald Kuikjen's La Petite Bande doing sterling work in the pit: each "opera buffa" moment is treated with jolly instrumental irreverence, and yet the more sentimental arias (such as the gorgeous "A Serpina penserete" from La Serva Padrona) are given weightier, beautifully phrased support. The acting is fairly wooden and the 18th-century-style productions dull (with just back-cloths for sets), but on a vocal level the casting is great. Nancy Argenta's sound is as limpid as a mountain stream, and Donato di Stefano uses his beguiling bass sonorities with comical leaps and skips.

On the DVD: There is a 10-minute interview with Sigiswald Kuikjen about Pergolesi's intermezzi and their context, and there are subtitles in English, German and French. Unfortunately the English translations are unintentionally comic and come a cropper when the Italian gets at all idiomatic: "I will be able to escape of the death", is about as good as it gets. --Warwick Thomson