Opera buffa is comic opera — the italian counterpart to opera seria, dealing with everyday characters and sung throughout in colloquial italian.
Opera buffa emerged in Naples in the early 18th century from short comic intermezzi performed between the acts of serious operas. Pergolesi's 'La serva padrona' (1733) was the form's first international hit. By the late 18th century, opera buffa rivalled opera seria as the dominant Italian operatic form, with Galuppi, Piccinni, and Paisiello as leading exponents. Then came Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Their three collaborations — 'Le nozze di Figaro' (1786), 'Don Giovanni' (1787), and 'Così fan tutte' (1790) — used the comic frame to explore class, sexuality, faith, and forgiveness with a depth that opera seria, fixed on heroic ideals, could not match. Rossini's 'Il barbiere di Siviglia' (1816) carried the form into the 19th century, and Donizetti's 'L'elisir d'amore' (1832) extended it. Opera buffa sang in the language people actually spoke — and proved that comedy could be the place where opera grew up.