| Music Encyclopedia: Opera semiseria |
A type of Italian opera, derived from the 18th-century French comédie larmoyante, of a serious, melodramatic character, with subsidiary comic material often provided by servants. Stimulus to the new genre was given by Paisiello's Nina, o sia La pazza per amore (1789). It introduced spoken prose dialogue into Italian opera, where it continued to be used occasionally well into the 19th century.
| Wikipedia: Opera semiseria |
Opera semiseria ('semi-serious opera') is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century.
Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can usually be distinguished from tragic operas or melodramas by the presence of a basso buffo. One of the better known examples is Gaetano Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix. Another example is Gioacchino Rossini's La gazza ladra. Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula has all the characteristics of the genre except the presence of the required basso buffo, hence it fails to qualify.
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