a diverting opera with spoken dialogue and a happy ending.
the tradition or genre of such operas.
First recorded in 1905–10
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hemingway once wrote, “And Barcelona. You should see Barcelona. It is all still comic opera… Barcelona makes you laugh.”
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2025
In "La Fille du Regiment," Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera, the Canadian-American actress plays the Duchess of Krakenthorp, who reluctantly marries off her son.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025
He has many more wild dreams — to write a comic opera, to make a French record, possibly to score a film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
In this showstopper from Rossini’s elegant comic opera “Le Comte Ory,” Oropesa’s classy singing sneaks subtle flecks of color into fiendish runs taken at the speed of light.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2022
“It’s like a comic opera to-day. Maybe I'm hungry.”
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
When Treloar brought her “thanks” in for a long-delayed landing, others in the room laughed at her effective resolution of the comic-opera beat.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2023
In the blinding light of day, the mass of rock flattens into two dimensions, like a cardboard cutout on a comic-opera set.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 6, 2016
One day, several comic-opera officials from the Italian border police boarded our Centovalli Railway train high in the mountains to check passports.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2015
"I had to pinch myself several times during her visit to be sure I wasn't dreaming the comic-opera story she unfolded," he wrote.
From Seattle Times ● May 30, 2010
Like many red hunts of the day, the Tenney hearing had a Gilbert and Sullivan comic-opera flavor.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
