Intermède (also intermédie, intramède, entremets) is a French term for a musical or theatrical performance involving song and dance, also an 18th-century opera genre. The context in which the 'intermède' was performed has changed over time. During the 16th century they were court entertainments in which

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

was an important element. The intermède was sometimes given between the acts of spoken plays, especially in the 17th century when they were performed with the works of

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

and

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

. During the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

, the term was used for one-act Italian operas, as performed in 18th-century

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, either in the original language or in French translation (such as ''La servante maîtresse'', the French version of

Pergolesi Pergolesi is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, (1710–1736), Italian composer, violinist, and organist * Michael Angelo Pergolesi, 18th-century Italian decorative artist {{Surname Italian-langu ...

's ''

La serva padrona ''La serva padrona'', or ''The Maid Turned Mistress'', is a 1733 intermezzo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) to a libretto by Gennaro Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. It is some 40 minutes long, in two parts without o ...

''), but also for original French works of similar style in one or two acts, with or without spoken dialogue. During the course of the century, the intermède gradually disappeared as it was developed and transformed into the

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...

. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the term was occasionally used, usually anachronistically, by opera composers, but also as a term in relation to instrumental music.

Sources

*Bartlet, M Elizabeth C: ''Intermède'' in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) {{DEFAULTSORT:Intermede Opera genres Opera terminology