Burletta
A burletta (Italian, meaning "little joke"), also sometimes burla or burlettina, is a musical term generally denoting a brief comic Italian (or, later, English) opera. The term was used in the 18th century to denote the comic intermezzos between the acts of an opera seria, but was sometimes given to more extended works; Pergolesi's La serva padrona was designated a 'burletta' at its London premiere in 1750.
In England the term began to be used, in contrast to burlesque, for works that satirized opera but without using musical parody. Burlettas in English began to appear in the 1760s, the earliest identified being Midas by Kane O'Hara, first performed privately in 1760 near Belfast, and produced at Covent Garden in 1764. The form became debased when the term 'burletta' began to be used for English comic or ballad operas, as a way of evading the monopoly on "legitimate drama" in London belonging to Covent Garden and Drury Lane. After repeal of the 1737 Licensing Act in 1843, use of the term declined.
Podcasts:
-
by Prelude
After The Goldrush
by: PreludeWell I dreamed I saw the knights in armour coming saying something about
a queen
There were peasants singing and drummers drumming and the archer split
the tree
There was a fanfare blowing to the sun that was floating on the breeze
Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen-seventies
I was lying in a burned out basement with a full moon in my eyes
I was hoping for a replacement when the sun burst through the skies
There was a band playing in my head and I felt like getting high
I was thinking about what a friend had said I was hoping it was a lie
Thinking about what a friend had said I was hoping it was a lie
Well I dreamed i saw the silver spaceships flying in the yellow haze of
the sun
There were children crying and colors flying all around the chosen one
All in a dream, all in a dream the loading had begun
They were flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun
Flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun