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

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

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various

Oliver Twist: a serio-comic burletta, in three acts.

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

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

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."

From Tragedy by Thorndike, Ashley H.

Oliver Twist: a serio-comic burletta, in four acts.

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