Opéra bouffon is the French term for the Italian genre of opera buffa (comic opera) performed in 18th-century France, either in the original language or in French translation. It was also applied to original French opéras comiques having Italianate or near-farcical plots.[1]
^Notably André-Guillaume Contant d'Orville (Histoire de l'opéra bouffon, Amsterdam 1768, Vol. I and Vol. II) used the term as a synonym for opéra comique (Bartlet).