INTERMEZZO. — Also called “intermediate,” “intermediated representation,” it is a brief scenic composition to be inserted between two acts of the principal composition. It originated in court performances. The comedy performed in Florence in 1589 for the wedding of Ferdinando dei Medici to Cristina di Lorena had six i. with madrigal music by C. Malvezzi and L. Marenzio.
In the sixteenth century and at the beginning of the seventeenth, i. had mythological or pastoral content; the comic tendency prevailed in the second half of the seventeenth century and gave rise to i. of Molièresque or even regional inspiration, with more or less pronounced caricatures, performances by servant girls and zanni (servants), and varied choreographic contributions, with the aim of providing a pleasant diversion from melodrama and comedy: “for the repose of the performers and for the audience’s pleasure.” The history of the theater in Bologna, Venice, and Naples is particularly rich in i. There is no shortage of delightful titles: Bacocco, La moglie a forza. Many were set to music by celebrated masters: thus Il tutore was set to music by Hasse, Tracollo by Pergolesi, and Achille placato by Lotti. I. written by Goldoni had music by Apolloni, Maccari, and Sacchini. The i. is rare in a comic opera, as in I tre gobbi, for Galuppi’s Filosofo di campagna. The i. was also cultivated as a genre in its own right (e.g., by the Accademia degli Instabili, in the early eighteenth century). I. were the first Italian comic operas, whose perfect example is Pergolesi’s Serrò padrona, performed in Paris in 1752 (but already in 1729), with a success that made an epoch. As late as 1779, Cimarosa’s L’italiana a Londra was called an “i. for five voices.” The eighteenth-century i. with music, at least two characters, and often dancers and mimes, is constructed in two acts (whereas comedy has three and farce one).
Today this name is given to the musical composition that serves as a link and interlude between two movements of the same act, often descriptive in character and with notable melodic or symphonic substance, as well as to organ pieces played during the intervals of the Mass and sacred services.