A is a song in which a company is exhorted to drink, a drinking song

Drinking song

A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol. Most drinking songs are folk songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music...

.

The word is Italian, but it derives from an old German phrase, – "(I) offer it to you", which at one time was used to introduce a toast

Toast (honor)

A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...

. The transformation of that phrase into the current Italian word may have been influenced by similar-sounding name of the Italian city of Brindisi

Brindisi

Brindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...

, but otherwise the city and the term are etymologically unrelated.

The term is often used in opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

. Typically, in an operatic , one character introduces a toast with a solo melody and the full ensemble later joins in the refrain.

Some well-known operatic numbers labeled are:

• "Libiamo ne' lieti calici
  Libiamo ne' lieti calici
  Libiamo ne'lieti calici is the most famous duet from Verdi's La traviata, one of the most well known fragments of opera around the world, and an obligatory performance for any great tenor. The song is categorised as a Brindisi, which encourages alcoholic drinking...
  
  ", sung by Alfredo and Violetta in act 1 of Verdi
  Giuseppe Verdi
  Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
  
  's La traviata
  La traviata
  La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
  
  
• "Viva, il vino spumeggiante", sung by Turiddu in scene 2 of Mascagni
  Pietro Mascagni
  Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
  
  's Cavalleria rusticana
  Cavalleria rusticana
  Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
  
  
• "Il segreto per esser felici", sung by Orsini in act 2 of Donizetti
  Gaetano Donizetti
  Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
  
  's Lucrezia Borgia
  Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
  Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
  
  
• "Inaffia l'ugola!", sung by Iago in act 1 of Verdi's Otello
  Otello
  Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
  
  
• "Si colmi il calice", sung by Lady Macbeth in act 2 of Verdi's Macbeth
  Macbeth (opera)
  Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
  
  
• "The Tea-Cup Brindisi", in the finale of act 1 of Gilbert and Sullivan
  Gilbert and Sullivan
  Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
  
  's The Sorcerer
  The Sorcerer
  The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...