verismo

American  

[vuh-riz-moh, ve-reez-maw] / vəˈrɪz moʊ, vɛˈriz mɔ /

noun

1. the use of everyday life and actions in artistic works: introduced into opera in the early 1900s in reaction to contemporary conventions, which were seen as artificial and untruthful.

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verismo British  

/ veˈrismo, vɛˈrɪzməʊ /

noun

1. music a school of composition that originated in Italian opera towards the end of the 19th century, drawing its themes from real life and emphasizing naturalistic elements. Its chief exponent was Puccini

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Etymology

Origin of verismo

1905–10; < Italian: realism, equivalent to ver ( o ) true (< Latin vērus ) + -ismo -ism

Example Sentences

Puccini’s “Turandot,” a verismo opera set in a fabled version of ancient China, makes for an odd love story.

From New York Times

It is verismo without the melodrama, a knowing soundtrack for how goodness is found in the quotidian.

From Los Angeles Times

Some Stamos fans may enjoy this kind of Malibu verismo, but I found myself repeatedly looking floorward in search of a dog to pet.

From New York Times

It’s very different from verismo, or Verdi.

From New York Times

Giordano, Puccini and other Italian composers who came of age in the 1880s and ’90s have become known to posterity under the catchall “verismo,” a term which came to suggest a style of sumptuous orchestral complexity and moment-by-moment emotional responsiveness, with arias and other numbers that emerge and recede organically rather than formally — at least compared to Italian opera as it had been before — but with a melodic lushness that set them apart from Wagner.

From New York Times