intermezzo
Americannoun
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intermezzos,
plural
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intermezzi
plural
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a short dramatic, musical, or other entertainment of light character, introduced between the acts of a drama or opera.
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a short musical composition between main divisions of an extended musical work.
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a short, independent musical composition.
noun
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a short piece of instrumental music composed for performance between the acts or scenes of an opera, drama, etc
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an instrumental piece either inserted between two longer movements in an extended composition or intended for independent performance
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another name for interlude
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of intermezzo
1805–15; < Italian < Late Latin intermedium; see intermediary
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.
See Examples For:
Cliff's Edge is offering a three-course, prix-fixe menu for $75 per person, with an additional oyster amuse and granita intermezzo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2018
Because he’s not a fast writer, with nine years between each of his novels, the collection offers his fans a quick fix — a kind of intermezzo — of his distinctive voice.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2017
It is impossible to watch round 13 without the hauntingly beautiful intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana providing subconscious backing music.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2016
Last year sales of accessories reached $500 million in the U.S., an intermezzo compared with the $3.1 billion worth of musical instruments.
From Forbes ● Aug. 20, 2014
We had a really good laugh at this little intermezzo.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
Performers got to rest during the intermezzi between acts, when a ballet or brief comic opera kept the show going.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2014
This confusion of Poliziano's "Orfeo" with spoken drama interspersed with intermezzi is unfortunate.
From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by W. J. (William James) Henderson
The popularity of these intermezzi throws a curious light upon the character of Italian audiences at that time.
From The Opera A Sketch of the Development of Opera. With full Descriptions of all Works in the Modern Repertory. by J. A. Fuller-Maitland
There were no intermezzi at the representation of this lyric drama.
From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by W. J. (William James) Henderson
The second entertainment was a prose comedy of Landi, preceded by a prologue and provided with five intermezzi.
From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by W. J. (William James) Henderson
The notion was not so far removed from the origins of the two works, conceived as comic intermezzos to be presented during breaks of larger serious operas.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2017
Mr. Rose was at his most varied and flexible in the Fantasy Pieces, in which his assertive renderings of the outgoing capriccios were offset by graceful, richly detailed playing in the more subtle intermezzos.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2011
Certainly Intermezzo's pacing feels more cinematic than operatic: 13 snappy episodes are divided by orchestral intermezzos – like breaks in a sitcom when the camera scans the city skyline.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 24, 2011
Meanwhile, the mournful, enigmatic intermezzos of the composer's later years get tender, loving care.
From Time Magazine Archive
Fairy and demon operas and ballets, and farces and intermezzos, form an easy transition to the interludes of tumblers and jugglers.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various
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.
