Opera Buffa
Eighteenth-century Italian comic opera, trading in everyday characters and rapid patter
Related
Opera buffa is the Italian comic opera of the eighteenth century, grown out of the intermezzo: servants, townspeople and ordinary households replace gods and heroes, and a comic bass with rapid patter becomes its signature.
Its plots roll forward through ensembles, above all the long act-finale where misunderstandings, pursuits and reconciliations pile up; Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni bring this to a peak, and Rossini's Barber of Seville carries it on.
It is not simply "opera that is funny": it stands opposite opera seria, yet most of it still uses dry recitative rather than the spoken dialogue of German or French comic theatre. The Chinese term can also mean French opéra comique, so context matters.
Sources
- 意大利喜歌剧的幕间剧起源、喜剧男低音与幕终重唱，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Opera buffa"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.