burletta

[ber-let-uh]

noun

Theater.

1. (in the 18th and 19th centuries) a musical drama containing rhymed lyrics and resembling comic opera or a comic play containing songs.

Word History and Origins

Origin of burletta¹

1740–50; < Italian, equivalent to burl ( a ) jest ( burlesque ) + -etta -ette

Example Sentences

The old theatres were successful in maintaining their monopoly in regular plays, but the irregular houses gained permission to give performances under the loosely defined term "burletta."

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The acting of Harley, an admirable dry comedian, gave some vitality to The Strange Gentleman, a “comic burletta,” or farce, in two acts, founded upon the tale in the Sketches called The Great Winglebury Duel.

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Golden Pippin: an English burletta, in three acts.

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This proving a success was immediately followed by a burletta, entitled The Opera of Operas, based on Fielding’s Tragedy of Tragedies.

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We move ourselves—they are moved by wires; but we do just the same things—we are life and we are art, in the burletta we are both.

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