Short movement or interlude connecting the main parts of the composition.

Stage plays of light character usually played between the acts of a serious play or an opera. Pergolesi's La Serva padrona is a well-known intermezzo which became the first example of opera buffa in 1733. The other use of intermezzo as instrumental interpolations in an opera (as in Cavalleria Rusticana) is better called entracte.