intermezzo

In music, initially a one-act comic opera, such as Giovanni Pergolesi's La serva padrona/The Maid as Mistress (1732); also a short orchestral interlude played between the acts of an opera to denote the passage of time. By extension, an intermezzo has come to mean a short piece to be played between other more substantial works, such as Brahms's Three Intermezzos for Piano (1892).

Intermezzo

Opera by Richard Strauss (libretto by the composer), first produced in Dresden, Germany, on 4 November 1924. The material of the libretto is autobiographical. The composer Robert Storch is in trouble when his wife Christine reads a misdirected love letter.