intermezzo
Americannoun
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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:
“We like drama here,” a server tells us as she pours liquid nitrogen around an intermezzo: a sparkling granita flavored with yuzu and fennel and framed for a few seconds in fog.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2020
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
Anyway, I found last night's Alyson-Cole-Helen episode a welcome intermezzo.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2017
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 Henderson, W. J. (William James)
He became 186 prominent as one of the early composers of intermezzi and he was employed also to write church music for wedding festivals.
From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by Henderson, W. J. (William James)
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 Henderson, W. J. (William James)
We possess the scheme for the four intermezzi designed for this occasion, representing the Musica della Terra, del Mare, dell' Aria, and Celeste.
From Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage in England by Greg, Walter W.
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
As Crispin, he spikes the suspense with some hilarious rustic intermezzos worthy of Wodehouse.
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.
