In music, an intermezzo (Italian pronunciation: [ˌinterˈmɛddzo]), in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term has had several different usages, which fit into two general categories: the opera intermezzo and the instrumental intermezzo.
The Renaissance intermezzo was also called the intermedio. It was a masque-like dramatic piece with music, which was performed between the acts of a play at Italian court festivities on special occasions, especially weddings. By the late 16th century, the intermezzo had become the most spectacular form of dramatic performance, and an important precursor to opera. The most famous examples were created for Medici weddings in 1539, 1565, and 1589.
The intermezzo, in the 18th century, was a comic operatic interlude inserted between acts or scenes of an opera seria. These intermezzi could be substantial and complete works themselves, though they were shorter than the opera seria which enclosed them; typically they provided comic relief and dramatic contrast to the tone of the bigger opera around them, and often they used one or more of the stock characters from the opera or from the commedia dell'arte. In this they were the reverse of the Renaissance intermezzo, which usually had a mythological or pastoral subject as a contrast to a main comic play. Often they were of a burlesque nature, and characterized by slapstick comedy, disguises, dialect, and ribaldry. The most famous of all intermezzi from the period is Pergolesi's La serva padrona, which was an opera buffa that after the death of Pergolesi kicked off the Querelle des Bouffons.
Intermezzo (also called Intermezzo: A Love Story) (1939) is a romantic film made in the USA by Selznick International Pictures and nominated for two Academy Awards. It was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by David O. Selznick. It is a remake of the Swedish film Intermezzo (1936) and features multiple orchestrations of the Heinz Provost's piece of the same name, which won a contest associated with the original film's production. The screenplay by George O'Neil was based on the screenplay of the original film by Gösta Stevens and Gustaf Molander. The scoring by Lou Forbes was nominated for an Academy Award, and music credit was given to Robert Russell Bennett, Max Steiner, Heinz Provost, and Christian Sinding. The cinematography by Gregg Toland who replaced Harry Stradling was also nominated for an Academy Award.
It stars Leslie Howard as a (married) virtuoso violinist who falls in love with his accompanist, played by Ingrid Bergman in her Hollywood debut.
Intermezzo is a musical term.
It may also refer to:
A LOVE STORY - INTERMEZZO
Guy Lombardo
- words by Robert Henning, music by Heinz Provost
- from the David O. Selznick production "Intermezzo - A Love Story"
released through United Artists Corporation, featuring Leslie Howard
and introducing Ingrid Bergman
Like the dream you dream tonight
That fades from sight when darkness disappears
Maybe you will vanish too
The moment when tomorrow's dawn appears
So, my love while stars above in Heaven's blue
Are softly gleaming I'll dream of you
And I'll live in the glory of your love
When I see the shadows falling
On a purple summer evening
Then is when I hear you calling
Across the lonely years
Oh, how well I still remember
When another summer evening
One that started out in splendor
Ended in tears
Like the dream you dream tonight
That fades from sight when darkness disappears
Maybe you will vanish too
The moment when tomorrow's dawn appears
So, my love while stars above
In Heaven's blue are softly beaming and gleaming
Then I'll live in the glory of your love
------------------------------------------------