# Burletta

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Burletta
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Burletta.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burletta
> Source revision: 1252689821
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Brief comic opera}}
In theater and music history, a '''burletta''' ([Italian](/source/Italian_language), meaning "little joke", sometimes '''burla''' or '''burlettina''') is a brief comic [opera](/source/opera). In eighteenth-century Italy, a burletta was the comic [intermezzo](/source/intermezzo) between the acts of an ''[opera seria](/source/opera_seria)''. The extended work [Pergolesi](/source/Giovanni_Battista_Pergolesi)'s {{Lang|it|[La serva padrona](/source/La_serva_padrona)}} was also designated a "burletta" at its [London](/source/London) premiere in 1758.<ref>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</ref>

In England, the term began to be used, in contrast to [burlesque](/source/Victorian_burlesque), for works that satirized opera but did not employ musical parody. Burlettas in [English](/source/English_language) began to appear in the 1760s, the earliest identified as such being ''[Midas](/source/Midas_(burletta))'' by [Kane O'Hara](/source/Kane_O'Hara), first performed privately in 1760 near [Belfast](/source/Belfast), and produced at [Covent Garden](/source/Covent_Garden_Theatre) in 1764. The form became debased when the term ''burletta'' began to be used for English comic or [ballad opera](/source/ballad_opera)s, as a way of evading the [monopoly](/source/monopoly) on "legitimate drama"<ref>Meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music ({{cite web|url=http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1229543 |title=Definition from the Everything 2 website |publisher=Everything2.com |date=6 January 2002 |access-date=20 March 2010}})</ref> in London belonging to Covent Garden and [Drury Lane](/source/Theatre_Royal%2C_Drury_Lane). After the passage of the [Theatres Act 1843](/source/Theatres_Act_1843), which repealed crucial regulations of the [Licensing Act 1737](/source/Licensing_Act_1737), use of the term declined.

== List of theatrical Burlettas ==
* ''[Midas](/source/Midas_(burletta))'' by [Kane O'Hara](/source/Kane_O'Hara) (Belfast, 1760, Dublin, 1762)
* ''Orpheus'' by [François-Hippolyte Barthélémon](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois-Hippolyte_Barth%C3%A9l%C3%A9mon) (London, 1767)
* ''The Judgement of Paris'' by Barthélémon (London, 1768)
* ''[The Recruiting Serjeant](/source/The_Recruiting_Serjeant)'' by [Charles Dibdin](/source/Charles_Dibdin) (London, 1770)
* ''The Portrait'' by [Samuel Arnold](/source/Samuel_Arnold_(composer)) (1770)
* ''The Portrait'' by Barthélémon (Dublin, c. 1771)
* ''[L'infedeltà delusa](/source/L'infedelt%C3%A0_delusa)'' by [Joseph Haydn](/source/Joseph_Haydn) (1773)
* ''The Golden Pippin'' by John Abraham Fisher (1773)
* ''Buxom Joan'' by [Raynor Taylor](/source/Raynor_Taylor) (1778)
* ''Poor Vulcan'' by Dibdin (1778)
* ''Marie Tanner'', words by Broughton Black and Poland Henry, music by [John Ivimey](/source/John_Ivimey) (produced at Cardiff, 1897)<ref>Charles H. Parsons, ''Opera Composers and Their Works: E-K'' (1986), p. 886</ref>
* ''[Tom and Jerry, or Life in London](/source/Tom_and_Jerry%2C_or_Life_in_London)'' by [W. T. Moncrieff](/source/William_Thomas_Moncrieff) (1821)<ref>{{cite book | editor-last= Parker | editor-first= John | year=1925 | title= Who's Who in the Theatre | location=London |edition=fifth| publisher=Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | page=1196| oclc=10013159}}</ref>

== Other Meanings ==
The word ''burletta'' has also been used for [scherzo](/source/scherzo)-like instrumental music by composers including [Max Reger](/source/Max_Reger) and [Bartók](/source/Bart%C3%B3k). In America, the word has sometimes been used as an alternative for [burlesque](/source/burlesque).

== References ==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;Sources
* {{cite book| author = John Hamilton Warrack| author2 = Ewan West| title = The Oxford Dictionary of Opera| date = 1992-10-15| publisher = Oxford University Press, USA| isbn = 978-0-19-869164-8| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00warr}}
* {{Cite Grove |last=Temperley |first=Nicholas |title=Burletta}}

{{Opera genres}}

Category:Opera genres
Category:Italian opera terminology
Category:Comedy genres
Category:19th-century theatre

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Burletta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burletta) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burletta?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.