Such entr'actes were common in the later roth century in the madrigal or dance style, and were called 'intermedi' or 'intermezzi,' sometimes 'balletti' when dancing predominated. After 1600 these turned steadily from the older contrapuntal style to monophonic solos and dances, usually with a slight plot and some personages. They served to popularize the new monodic style, to afford composers a chance for experiment, and finally to lead the way toward the opera' buffa.
The Florentines were prompt to use such forms, followed soon by others in northern Italy, who were not ready for the sustained effort of the real opera. Among the many famous instances of the early use of intermezzi mention may be made of a comedy by Bardi at Florence in 1589, for which several intermezzi were prepared, the texts mostly by Rinuccini, the music by Bardi himself, Cavaliere, Caccini, Peri, Marenzio and Cristofano Malvezzi (d. 1597). Adriano Banchieri (d. 1634), the organist and church composer of Bosco, IInola and Bologna, wrote a number of works of this class (1603-28), one of which (1607) was a pendent in the new style to his La pazzia senile (1598).
Giovanni Boschetto Boschetti brought out at Viterbo in 1616 his Strali d'amore, which illustrates not only the rapid advance of the new style toward questionably sensuous representations, but also the tendency to treat .. intermezzi as parts of a secondary drama in spite of their detached use in the pauses of another play. A similar example is a series by Ottavio Vernizzi in 1623 - the first of the kind in Bologna. From this time intermezzi were certainly as numerous as operas, though usually far less important.
The Development of the Musical Drama
