The opera Pimpinone or the Unequal Marriage by Georg Philipp Telemann, which was created as a “comic intermezzo”, was first performed on the 27th of September 1725 in Hamburg between the acts of the opera Tamerlano by George Frideric Handel. The libretto by Pietro Pariati was originally intended for an Italian composer Tomaso Albinoni. Librettist Johann Philipp Praetorius created its German edition. The premiere was so successful that Praetorius and Telemann wrote a new opera Die amours der Vespetta to continue the story. The plot of Pimpinone anticipated La serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, created several years later: an attractive housemaid Vespetta (“little wasp” in Italian) seduces her master Pimpinone and marries him. After that the old man, who is in love but unhappy in marriage, has to bear his wife’s caprices. Having got a firm hold of his house and wallet, Vespetta subordinates her husband.