giocoso
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of giocoso
1820–30; < Italian: playful < Latin jocōsus jocose
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As a dramma giocoso, it treads the line between comedy and tragedy, making it harder for Mozart to employ the same effects he applied to Count Almaviva without undermining the work’s seriousness.
From Slate
Other scenes, though, were well-drawn, especially the Act I finale — a three-ring circus where the eyes and ears were pulled every which way — and the cemetery scene, which in its blending of terror and silliness encapsulated Mozart’s enigmatic subtitle for the opera, a “Dramma Giocoso.”
From Washington Post
Photograph: Robert Workman Premiered in January 1775, just before the composer's 19th birthday, Mozart's dramma giocoso has never been accepted into the canon of his great operas, which starts with Idomeneo, first performed six years later.
From The Guardian
Mozart called his masterpiece a “dramma giocoso” -- a comic tragedy.
From BusinessWeek
He had hardly caught sight of me when he held out two volumes to me: the orchestral score of Le Nozze di Figaro, dramma giocoso in quarti atti.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
