Entremés, is a short, comic theatrical performance of one act, usually played during the interlude of a performance of a long dramatic work, in the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Later it became the sainete

Sainete

A sainete was a popular Spanish comic opera piece, a one-act dramatic vignette, with music. It was often placed at the end of entertainments, or between other types of performance. It was vernacular in style, and used scenes of low life. Active from the 18th to 20th centuries, it superseded the...

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When the genre begun it was written both in prose and verse, but after Luis Quiñones de Benavente (1600-1650) defined the genre, all works were written in verse. The usual characters of the entremés were the common people; the plot usually satirized the customs and the occupations of the characters, subjects that couldn't be treated in the dramatic works during which the entremés works were played.

Sometimes the playings included songs that were the origin of another genre, the tonadilla.

Some of the most important authors of this genre are: Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...

, Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco de Quevedo

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Santibáñez Villegas was a Spanish nobleman, politician and writer of the Baroque era. Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo...

, Luis Quiñones de Benavente, Luis Vélez de Guevara

Luís Vélez de Guevara

Luis Vélez de Guevara was a Spanish dramatist and novelist.Velez de Guevara was born at Écija and was of Jewish converso descent...

, Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo

Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo

Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo was a Spanish novelist and playwright, born in Madrid, and educated in Alcalá de Henares and Valladolid....

, Alonso del Castillo Solórzano, Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza

Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza

-Biography:Hurtado was born in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria.He became page to the count de Saldaña , and was recognized as a rising poet by Cervantes in the Viaje del Parnaso...

, Francisco Bernardo de Quirós, Jerónimo de Cáncer y Velasco

Jerónimo de Cáncer

Jerónimo de Cáncer y Velasco was a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age....

, Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...

, Vicente Suárez de Deza y Ávila, Sebastián Rodríguez de Villaviciosa, Agustín Moreto and Francisco Bances Candamo

Francisco Bances Candamo

Francisco Bances Candamo was a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age....

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See also

• Baile (Spanish play)
  Baile (Spanish play)
  A baile or baile entremesado is a short theatrical piece in the Spanish Golden Age tradition. It consists of an elaborate production number with singing and dancing, and is used between the acts of a comedia. Bailes were humorous performances featuring elaborate choreography and acrobatics...
  
  
• entremet
  Entremet
  An entremet is in modern French cuisine a small dish served between courses or simply a dessert. Originally it was an elaborate form of entertainment dish common among the nobility and upper middle class in Western Europe during the later part of the Middle Ages and the early modern period...
  
  
• Spanish Enlightenment literature#Theater