![]() When the insert was intended only to shift the mood before returning to the main action, without a change of scene being necessary, authors could revert to a " play within a play" technique, or have some accidental guests in a ballroom perform a dance, etc. Eventually the idea of being an insert into a greater whole became looser: interlude sometimes has no other connotation than a "short play". Such pieces also allowed the chief players of the main piece to have a break. These later entr'actes were distinctly intended to break the action or mood with something different, such as comedy or dance. Eventually, entr'actes (or intermezzi) would develop into a separate genre of short theatrical realizations (often with a plot completely independent from the main piece) that could be produced with a minimum of requisites during intermissions of other elaborate theatre pieces. The literal meaning of the German word Verwandlungsmusik refers to its original function – "change music". In traditional theatre, incidental music could also bridge the 'closed curtain' periods: ballet, opera and drama each have a rich tradition of such musical interludes. The Spanish Sainete often performed a similar function. In front of the closed curtains, the action could be continued during these entr'actes, albeit involving only players with no scenery other than the curtain, and a minimum of props.Īn entr'acte can take the action from one part of a large-scale drama to the next by completing the missing links. Originally entr'actes resulted from stage curtains being closed for set or costume changes: to fill time as not to halt the dramatic action, to make a transition from the mood of one act to the next, or to prevent the public from becoming restless. In films that were meant to be shown with an intermission, there was frequently a specially recorded entr'acte on the soundtrack between the first and second half of the film, although this practice eventually died out. In the case of stage musicals, the entr'acte serves as the overture of act 2 (and sometimes acts 3 and 4, as in Carmen). It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission (this is nowadays the more common meaning in French), but it more often (in English) indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production. JSTOR ( June 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Įntr'acte (or entracte, French pronunciation: German: Zwischenspiel and Zwischenakt, Italian: intermezzo, Spanish: intermedio, intervalo) means "between the acts". ![]() Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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