Pergolese's "Serva Padrona" which was first produced in Naples in 1730, was another example of an intermezzo for two characters; it met with great success not only in Italy, but in France[3] and Germany,[4] and set the fashion for similar pieces. Very soon an intrigue was introduced, a connected plot was supplied, and the number of characters increased first to three, then to four.[5] The development of the intermezzo was rapid, and before long the inconvenience of carrying on two independent dramas simultaneously caused the complete emancipation of opera buffa from opera seria.[6] Equal rank with the latter it never attained. It came to {THE INTERMEZZO.} (205) maturity on the boards of the smaller theatres ("teatrini"), and was long in gaining admission into the larger theatres. Even then it was only exceptionally introduced during the season or stagione, side by side with the opera seria, although in the German court theatres an opera seria and a buffa were not seldom played alternately during the carnival. In Italy comic operas were only admitted in summer, and at those times when there was no grand opera. They did not pass for exhibitions of perfect vocal art, and fewer calls were made on the powers of the singers apart from their comic talent in delivery and action. There is no doubt that this external subordination was of inestimable value to the development of the opera buffa. It received a firm foundation of musical configuration--recitative, aria, ensemble--without the necessity of submitting to limitations and laws so fixed as to have become absolute. The bass voice, which was considered most suitable to comic characters, and had already been appropriated to them in the old opera, was made the chief vehicle for comic effects in the intermezzo. Volubility of utterance, mimicry, and comic action were as necessary as a fine voice. The highly paid male soprano might therefore be dispensed with in opera buffa; the unnatural conventionality of the opera seria would have been insupportable in representations of daily life. By this means the voices were brought into their proper relations; the lover's part was allotted to the tenor, and the performance generally gained in variety and in the natural grouping of the parts. The distinction of primary and secondary parts was disregarded, as well as the limitation to a small number of vocalists; though these seldom went beyond seven.[7] There were usually three female parts; the most decidedly comic was the sly, pert waiting-maid (a standing figure of the opera buffa), or a scolding old woman, an unsophisticated peasant-girl, &c. {OPERA BUFFA.} (206)