Moresca

Elements of moresca include blackening of the face, bells attached to the costumes and, in occasions, men disguised as women to portray fools.

The ‘Entrée de' Mori’ at the end of Act 2 of Handel's Ariodante (1735) portrays an eccentric musical character that links it to the moresca tradition.

[6] This genre is related to the villanella, a song that imitates lyric Neapolitan traditions of the street and countryside that became popular in the 1530s[6] (see moresche, which is the Italian plural of moresca).

This popular genre in 16th century had texts that parody the speech of Moors, later defined as Muslims or narrowly as inhabitants of the Barbary Coast.

Other similarly derived words include Blackamoor, Kammermohr, Matamoros, Maure, Mohr im Hemd, Moresche, Moresque, Moreška, Morianbron, Morisco, Moros y cristianos, and Morris dance.