madrigal comedy

A sequence of madrigals in a quasi-dramatic form. The most famous but not the earliest example is Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso, and similar works of his are La selva di varie ricreazioni/The Forest of Multifarious Delights, Il convito musicale/The Musical Banquet and Le veglie di Siena/The Vigils of Siena. A similar work, Simone Balsamino's Novellette, based on Tasso's Aminta, appeared the same year as L'Amfiparnaso (1594), but there were earlier ones, notably Striggio's Il cicalamento delle donne al bucato/The Cackling of Women at the Wash, and later Vecchi was imitated by Banchieri and others.