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{{Short description|Opera genre}}
{{About|the musical term|other uses|Intermezzo (disambiguation)}}

{{more footnotes|date=December 2018}}
In [[music]], an '''intermezzo''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɪ|n|t|ər|ˈ|m|ɛ|t|s|oʊ}}, {{IPA|it|interˈmɛddzo}}, plural form: '''intermezzi'''), 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.
{{wiktionary|intermezzo}}

==Renaissance intermezzo==
{{main|Intermedio}}
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. In Baroque Spain the equivalent [[entremés]] or paso was a one-act comic scene, often ending in music and dance, between ''jornadas'' (acts) of a play.<ref>Lewis W. Heniford ''1/2/3/4 for the Show: A Guide to Small-cast One-act Plays''
 0810836009  1995  "A paso is a seventeenth-century Spanish one-act comic scene, which became synonymous with entremes (a short comic interlude often ending in music and dance that played between jornadas, the acts of a long play)"</ref>

==Opera intermezzo==
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 [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi|Pergolesi]]'s ''[[La serva padrona]]'', which was an ''[[opera buffa]]'' that after the death of Pergolesi kicked off the [[Querelle des Bouffons]].

In some cases the intermezzo repertory spread more quickly than did the ''opera seria'' itself; the singers were often renowned, the comic effects were popular, and intermezzi were relatively easy to produce and stage. In the 1730s the style spread around Europe, and some cities—for example Moscow—recorded visits and performances by troupes performing intermezzi years before any actual ''opera seria'' were done.

The [[intermède]] (the French equivalent of the intermezzo) was the single most important outside operatic influence in [[Paris]] in the mid-18th century, and helped create an entire new repertory of opera in [[France]] (see ''[[opéra comique]]'').

The word was used (with a hint of irony) as the title of [[Richard Strauss]]'s two-act opera, ''[[Intermezzo (opera)|Intermezzo]]'' (1924), the scale of which far exceeds the intermezzo of tradition.

Many of the most celebrated intermezzi are from operas of the verismo period: Mascagni's ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'' and ''[[L'amico Fritz]]'', Leoncavallo's ''[[Pagliacci]]'', Puccini's ''[[Suor Angelica]]'', Giordano's ''[[Fedora_(opera)|Fedora]]'', and especially that from Massenet's ''[[Thaïs_(opera)|Thais]]'', which became known as the ''Méditation''.

==Instrumental intermezzo==
In the 19th century, the intermezzo acquired another meaning: an instrumental piece which was either a movement between two others in a larger work or a character piece that could stand on its own. These intermezzi show a wide variation in the style and function: in [[Mendelssohn]]'s [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|incidental music to ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'']] the intermezzo serves as musical connecting material for action in [[Shakespeare]]'s play; in chamber music by Mendelssohn and [[Brahms]], the intermezzi are names for interior movements which would otherwise be called [[scherzi]]; and the piano intermezzi by Brahms, some of his last compositions, are sets of independent character pieces not intended to connect anything else together. Stylistically, intermezzi of the 19th century are usually lyrical and melodic, especially compared to the movements on either side, when they occur in larger works. The Brahms piano intermezzi in particular have an extremely wide emotional range, and are often considered some of the finest [[character piece]]s written in the 19th century. 

Opera composers sometimes wrote instrumental intermezzi as connecting pieces between acts of operas. In this sense, an intermezzo is similar to the [[entr'acte]]. The most famous of this type of intermezzo is probably the intermezzo from [[Pietro Mascagni|Mascagni]]'s ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]''. [[Puccini]] also wrote intermezzi for ''[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]'' and ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'', and examples exist by [[Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari|Wolf-Ferrari]], [[Delius]] and others.

Also, [[incidental music]] for [[Play (theatre)|plays]] usually contained several intermezzi. [[Schubert]]'s ''[[Rosamunde]]'' music as well as [[Grieg]]'s ''[[Peer Gynt (Grieg)|Peer Gynt]]'' contained several intermezzi for the respective plays.

Schumann combined intermezzi in several of his works featuring piano, including the [[Piano Concerto (Schumann)|Piano Concerto]] Op. 54. [[Carnaval (Schumann)|''Carnaval'']] Op. 9 and intermezzi Op. 4

In the 20th century, the term was used occasionally. [[Shostakovich]] named one movement of his dark [[String Quartet No. 15 (Shostakovich)|String Quartet No. 15]] "intermezzo"; [[Bartók]] used the term for the fourth movement (of five) of his ''[[Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók)|Concerto for Orchestra]]''.

==See also==
* [[Entr'acte]]
* [[Divertimento]]
* [[Interlude (disambiguation)]]
* [[Entremet]]
* [[Entremés]]

==Sources==
* ''The New Harvard Dictionary of Music'', ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. {{ISBN|0-674-61525-5}}
* Articles "Intermezzo," "Intermedio" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}}
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