“It’s amazing what can happen over a cup of coffee,” says Christopher Jackson, Guest Conductor for the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra (PSO) performance of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s 1733 intermezzo “La serva padrona.”

Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra presents “Pergolesi Celebration: La Serva Padrona,” 7:30 p.m. with a 6:30 p.m. pre-concert talk, Nov. 15, Christ Lutheran Church, Allentown.

Says Jackson, “Paul Chou [PSO music director] and I met at a coffee shop about two years ago and talked about what kind of music the Lehigh Valley might need more of and mused that there really hasn’t been a lot of local opera.”

“La serva padrona” (“The Servant as Mistress”) was written as light-hearted staged entertainment between acts of Pergolesi’s serious opera, “Il prigionier superbo” (“The Proud Prisoner”). Although the opera was unsuccessful, the intermezzo became immensely popular and was a significant influence on the development of comic opera.

With three characters (two singers and a silent actor), the performance will not be staged as an opera although the performers will interact.

Soprano Ashley Milanese is Serpina, the maid turned mistress. Baritone Johnathan McCullough sings the role of Uberto, a bachelor. Giovanni Marini is the silent Vesponi, Uberto’s servant.

“This is a concert, but we do a little bit more movement than you would see in your typical concert,” says McCullough. “We have some tricks up our sleeves and some things that might surprise the audience.

“This is a perfect piece if it’s your first introduction to opera: short and very entertaining,” McCullough says.

McCullough has sung lead roles with Opera Philadelphia, Komische Oper Berlin, English National Opera and Opéra de Lausanne. McCullough is Director of The National Youth Opera Academy of the National Children’s Chorus.

Milanese has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Regio Torino, Komische Oper Berlin, Opera Philadelphia and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.

Marini has appeared at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, DeSales University Act I, Civic Theatre of Allentown, Cedar Crest College theater and The Pennsylvania Playhouse.

Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, “Pergolesi Celebration: La Serva Padrona,” 7:30 p.m.; 6:30 p.m. pre-concert talk, Nov. 15, Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets: PSO office, 1524 W. Linden St., Allentown; 610-434-7811; https://www.pasinfonia.org/

“From beginning to end, this concert is really all about fun,” says Diane Wittry, Allentown Symphony Orchestra (ASO) Music Director and Conductor.

Allentown Symphony Orchestra presents “Beethoven’s 8th,” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8; 2 p.m. Nov. 9, Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown.

The concert opens with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Rondo in the Hungarian Style, Almost a Caprice,” where the addition of “caprice” implies the humorous nature of the work.

Beethoven’s friend and early biographer Anton Schindler added the nickname “Rage Over a Lost Penny” prior to its publication in 1828.

Originally scored for piano, the orchestral arrangement is by Steven Reisteter, American composer and educator, bass clarinetist with the ASO and Principal Clarinet of the Allentown Band.

Says Reisteter, “I feel that there are two challenges when orchestrating a piano piece.

“The first is to try to not make the orchestration sound like it’s from piano music.

“The second is dealing with the piano’s inherent resonance for which I had to judiciously add sustained notes so that the piece wouldn’t sound too ‘dry.’”

Next on the program is the second movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Symphony No. 94 in G major.” Dubbed the “Surprise Symphony,” the “surprise” occurs after a muted passage when the full orchestra enters with a loud and startling chord.

The audience will enjoy Leroy Anderson’s humorous and light piece “The Typewriter” with a typewriter soloist, ASO Principal Percussionist Anthony DiBartolo.

Says Wittry, “The most difficult thing about this piece was trying to find an old-fashioned typewriter which still worked.”

The concert’s first half closes with Clarice Assad’s “PLAY!, A Concerto for Percussion Quartet, Vocalist and Orchestra,” which she composed in 2023 for the Grammy Award- winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion, which accompanies the ASO.

“It was this piece that gave me the idea to include program selections which were not so serious and which used unusual instruments,” says Wittry.

“This work is just absolute fun and is so imaginative. There’s a pig squeaky toy, slide whistles, thunder tubes, bird call whistles and much more, but my favorites are the yellow rubber chickens,” Wittry says.

Says composer Assad, “Play: a word of boundless meanings. Fascinated by this word’s depth, I began a sonic exploration with the captivating Third Coast Percussion quartet.”

After intermission, the concert’s second half is Beethoven’s lighthearted and humorous “Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93.” The second movement parodies a metronome.

Allentown Symphony Orchestra, “Beethoven’s 8th,” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8; 2 p.m. Nov. 9, Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown. Free tickets for those 21 and under. Tickets: box office; 610-432-6715; https://millersymphonyhall.org/

“Classical View” is a column about classical music concerts, conductors and performers. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com