(Sp.: ‘farce’, ‘titbit’; Fr. saynčte).
A short Spanish theatrical piece, initially equivalent to the entremés (intermezzo), a little play between acts. It came to be called sainete when it was intended for performance after the main play rather than in the middle of it. In the 17th century the sainete was usually spoken, but could also include one or two musical numbers. In the 18th century musical numbers came to be deemed essential. Since most extant sainetes belong to the second half of the 18th century (some 500 were given in Madrid alone during that period), their musical numbers are mostly seguidillas, but there are also choruses, quartets, minuets, jotas, fandangos, French- and Italian-style songs, marches and even short instrumental pieces, especially overtures. Many late 18th-century sainetes were written by the composers of the main tonadillas or zarzuelas, from Luis Misón to Blas de Laserna, and were comic and popular in character.
In the 19th century the sainete lost its hold on the stage, but when after 1870 the género chico type of zarzuela developed, many composers called their pieces sainete or its diminutive sainetillo. Tomás Bretón’s La verbena de la paloma (1894) and Ruperto Chapí’s La revoltosa (1897) were published as sainetes, but during the period such terms had no specific significance. In the late 19th century the words sainete and sainetillo were also used to describe short, farcical theatrical pieces without music. In France Hervé and Planquette wrote lightweight saynčtes, and Massenet described Bérangčre et Anatole as a sainete.
ROGER ALIER