Comédie en vaudevilles

[1] The annual fairs of Paris at St. Germain and St. Laurent had developed theatrical variety entertainments, with mixed plays, acrobatic displays, and pantomimes, typically featuring vaudevilles (see Théâtre de la foire).

The Querelle des Bouffons (War of the Clowns), a dispute amongst theatrical factions in Paris in the 1750s, in part reflects the rivalry of this form, as it evolved into opéra comique, with the Italian opera buffa.

Comédie en vaudevilles also seems to have influenced the English ballad opera and the German Singspiel.

[1] It became a common feature of the earlier opéras comiques, such as those written by Charles Simon Favart[2] or composed by Egidio Duni, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, and François-André Danican Philidor, and began to frequently utilize new music, although still labelled "vaudeville".

[1] The style can be discerned in many operas, although with newly composed music, including Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (1762),[2] Haydn's Orlando paladino (1782),[citation needed] and Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782),[2] Der Schauspieldirektor (1786),[3] and Don Giovanni (1788),[1] as well as later works, such as Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816),[2] Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury (1875),[citation needed] Verdi's Falstaff (1893),[2] Ravel's L'heure espagnole (1911)[2] and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951).