Opera buffa is the Italian term for comic opera. The word buffa is connected with the English buffoon, a clown or idiot. The term opera buffa originally was one of several names applied to comic Italian operas of the 1700’s, in which the action was carried along by means of recitative (speechlike singing), with arias, ensembles, and choruses coming at various points throughout the work. Today the term is applied much more widely.
Opera buffa began as comic skits, called intermezzi, performed in front of the curtain between acts of an opera seria (serious opera). The characters in opera buffa were common people, unlike the characters in opera seria. Characters in opera buffa represented the professions and social classes of the time, including doctors, farmers, merchants, servants, and soldiers. A typical opera buffa dealt with humorous situations in everyday life. Many characters sang in dialects (local forms) of Italian rather than the formal Italian of opera seria.
Typical opere buffe (the plural of opera buffa) include the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (1816). In France, comic operas of the 1800’s—especially the operettas of Jacques Offenbach—are referred to by the term opera bouffe.
Loading the player...The Barber of Seville Overture
