intermedii (or intermezzi)

In 15th- and 16th-century Italy, musical or dramatic interludes played between the acts of a play or during the intervals of a banquet. The musical intermedii consisted of instrumental pieces played out of sight of the audience. The dramatic intermedii were stage spectacles performed by singers, dancers, and actors in costume. These were broadly similar to the English interlude.

In their combination of music and drama, intermedii can be regarded as an important forerunner of opera.

Intermedii were first performed during the intervals of Renaissance plays – the court of 15th-century Ferrara was particularly important in their development. Sometimes the subject matter of the intermedii was connected with that of the play, though more often unrelated pastoral scenes with allegorical figures were presented. The Medici court in Florence was the scene of many lavish entertainments, the most spectacular being that performed in 1589 at the wedding of Christine of Lorraine and Ferdinando de' Medici, for which the music was provided by leading composers, including Luca Marenzio and Giulio Caccini.