opera buffa
Americannoun
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an Italian farcical comic opera originating in the 18th century and containing recitativo secco, patter songs, and ensemble finales.
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the operatic genre comprising such works.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of opera buffa
Borrowed into English from Italian around 1795–1805
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.
Felice Romani’s libretto also has an unusual—rather meta—construction: It includes a poet who is trying to write an opera buffa and narrates the events, a nod to Mozart’s “Così fan tutte.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
A comic opera ends with a wedding, and our opera buffa is no exception.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2023
And the fierce attachment to the female point of view has the effect of turning the male characters’ rage and violence into a tragicomic opera buffa, a stylized performance of endangered pride.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2020
It has more in common with Mozart’s opera buffa than with “Days of Our Lives.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 16, 2015
He had just undertaken the uncongenial and now hateful task of composing an opera buffa entitled, Un Giorno di Regno; and, as might have been expected, this work was somewhat deficient in comedy.
From The Great Musicians: Rossini and His School by Edwards, Henry Sutherland
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.