Opéra comique

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This article is about the opera genre. For the Paris opera house, see Opéra-Comique. For the London opera house associated with the premieres of several Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, see Opera Comique.

Opéra comique (pl., opéras comiques) is a French genre of opera that contains spoken dialogue, and sometimes recitatives, in addition to arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a lesser extent the Comédie-Italienne), which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections. The name first appeared in reference to Télémaque, a text by A R Lesage (1715)^{[citation needed]}, but the tradition lasted well into the 20th century.

Associated with the same name Paris theatre, Opéra-Comique, opéra comique is, despite its name, not necessarily comic or light in nature—indeed, Carmen, likely the most famous opéra comique, is a tragedy. It is sometimes confused with 18th-century French version of the Italian opera buffa, in French known as opéra bouffon (different again from the 19th century opéra bouffe).