In this they were the reverse of the Renaissance intermezzo, which usually had a mythological or pastoral subject as a contrast to a main comic play. Often they were of a burlesque nature, and characterized by slapstick comedy, disguises, dialect, and ribaldry. The most famous of all intermezzi from the period is Pergolesis La serva padrona, which was an opera buffa that after the death of Pergolesi kicked off the Querelle des Bouffons. In some cases the intermezzo repertory spread more quickly than did the opera seria itself; the singers were often renowned, the comic effects were popular, and intermezzi were relatively easy to produce and stage. In the 1730s the style spread around Europe, and some cities—for example Moscow—recorded visits and performances by troupes performing intermezzi years before any actual opera seria were done. The intermède (the French equivalent of the intermezzo) was the single most important outside operatic influence in Paris in the mid-18th century, and helped create an entire new repertory of opera in France (see opéra comique). The word was used (with a hint of irony) as the title of Richard Strausss two-act opera, Intermezzo (1924), the scale of which far exceeds the intermezzo of tradition. Many of the most celebrated intermezzi are from operas of the verismo period: Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana and Lamico Fritz, Leoncavallos Pagliacci, Puccinis Manon Lescaut and Suor Angelica, Giordanos Fedora, Cileas Adriana Lecouvreur, and especially that from Massenets Thais, which became known as the Méditation.
Shostakovich named one movement of his dark String Quartet No. 15 "intermezzo"; Bartók used the term for the fourth movement (of five) of his Concerto for Orchestra. See also
Entracte
Divertimento
Interlude (disambiguation)
Entremet
Entremés

Sources
The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
Articles "Intermezzo," "Intermedio" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2