burletta

American  

[ber-let-uh] / bərˈlɛt ə /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of burletta

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

Example Sentences

Golden Pippin: an English burletta, in three acts.

From A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 2 of 3) Forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe by Various

The Pickwick Club ... a burletta, in three acts.

From Life of Charles Dickens by Marzials, Frank T. (Frank Thomas)

Cooper's novel has been dramatized by E. Fitzball, under the same name, and Long Tom Coffin preserves in the burletta his reckless daring, his unswerving fidelity, his simple-minded affection, and his love for the sea.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham

Suppose me, for once, a burletta projector, Who attempts a mock musical scrap of a lecture.

From A Lecture On Heads As Delivered By Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, To Which Is Added, An Essay On Satire, With Forty-Seven Heads By Nesbit, From Designs By Thurston, 1812 by Thurston, Katherine Cecil

What were then called the "burletta houses" were permitted performances of dancing, singing, tumbling, juggling—anything, indeed, but speech unaccompanied by music.

From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Cook, Dutton