In theater and music history, a burletta (
Italian, meaning "little joke", sometimes burla or burlettina) is a brief comic
opera. In eighteenth-century Italy, a burletta was the comic
intermezzo between the acts of an opera seria. The extended work
Pergolesi's La serva padrona was also designated a "burletta" at its
London premiere in 1758.[1]
In England, the term began to be used, in contrast to
burlesque, for works that satirized opera but did not employ musical parody. Burlettas in
English began to appear in the 1760s, the earliest identified as such being Midas by
Kane O'Hara, first performed privately in 1760 near
Belfast, and produced at
Covent Garden in 1764. The form became debased when the term burletta began to be used for English comic or
ballad operas, as a way of evading the
monopoly on "legitimate drama"[2] in London belonging to Covent Garden and
Drury Lane. After the passage of the
Theatres Act 1843, which repealed crucial regulations of the
Licensing Act 1737, use of the term declined.
The word burletta has also been used for
scherzo-like instrumental music by composers including
Max Reger and
Bartók. In America, the word has sometimes been used as an alternative for
burlesque.
References
Notes
^A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: Tibbett to M. West, Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans, SIU Press, 1973, p51
^Meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music (
"Definition from the Everything 2 website". Everything2.com. 6 January 2002. Retrieved 20 March 2010.)
^Charles H. Parsons, Opera Composers and Their Works: E-K (1986), p. 886
^Parker, John, ed. (1925). Who's Who in the Theatre (fifth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. p. 1196.
OCLC10013159.