Obs. [a. It. burletta, dim. f. burla fun.] A comic opera; a musical farce.
1748. H. Walpole, Corr. (ed. 5), II. cxcv. 243. The burlettas are begun; I think not decisively liked or condemned yet.
1813. Examiner, 15 Feb., 106/2. A revived Olio, calling itself the burletta of Poor Vulcan.
1879. Planché, Extravag., I. 13. A more appropriate name than ‘Burletta,’ which disappeared from the play-bills on the emancipation of the minor theatres from their legal fetters in 1844.
b. attrib.
1762. Lond. Mag., XXXI. 674. She then sings a very pretty song of Arne’s in the Burletta taste.
1831. Examiner, 10 April, 228/1, note. Edwin, the best buffo and burletta singer that ever trod the English stage.
