Editing Operetta (section)

== Definitions ==
The term operetta arises in the mid-eighteenth-century Italy and it is first acknowledged as an independent genre in Paris around 1850.<ref name=":4" /> [[Castil-Blaze]]'s ''Dictionnaire de la musique moderne'' claims that this term has a long history and that [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] was one of the first people to use the word operetta, disparagingly,<ref name=":5" /> describing operettas as "certain dramatic abortions, those miniature compositions in which one finds only cold songs and couplets from vaudeville".<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Sorba |first1=Carlotta |title=The origins of the entertainment industry: the operetta in late nineteenth-century Italy |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=September 2006 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=282–302 |doi=10.1080/13545710600806730 |s2cid=144059143 }}</ref> The definition of operetta has changed over the centuries and ranges depending on each country's history with the genre.<ref name=":1" /> It is often used to refer to pieces that resemble the one-act compositions by Offenbach in contrast with his full length compositions, ‘opéra-bouffe’.<ref name=":4" /> Offenbach invented this art form in response to the French government's oppressive laws surrounding the stagings of works that were larger than one act or contained more than four characters.<ref name="eno.org"/> 
[[File:Boccaccio cover page.jpg|thumb|261x261px|Cover page of ''[[Boccaccio (operetta)|Boccaccio, oder Der Prinz von Palermo]]'' (''Boccaccio, or the Prince of Palermo'') by [[Franz von Suppé]] in 1879. An example of early Viennese operetta.]]