La Buffonata

This entertaining Ballet Chanté features a small troupe of comedians consisting of one female and four male dancers who enact the seven supposed guiles and vices of women through seven Commedia dell’arte scenes. For La Buffonata, translated as the buffoonery, Wilhelm Killmayer and his librettist Tankred Dorst had in mind a dance work with a blend of pantomime, acrobatics, ballet and song. This genre in which the plot is simultaneously presented by singers and performed by dancers permits the latter to be incorporated into the action in a freer and more artistic manner. The resulting style is reminiscent of the vaudeville comedies of past eras. Killmayer succeeds in an impressive musical characterisation of joviality, irony and acerbic comedy predominantly in simple verse form.