Comédie en vaudeville in the context of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges

The ballad opera is a genre of English comic opera stage play that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier comédie en vaudeville and the later Singspiel, its distinguishing characteristic is the use of tunes in a popular style (either pre-existing or newly composed) with spoken dialogue. These English plays were 'operas' mainly insofar as they satirized the conventions of the imported opera seria. Music critic Peter Gammond describes the ballad opera as "an important step in the emancipation of both the musical stage and the popular song."

A vaudeville (French pronunciation: [vodvil] ) is a French satirical poem or song born of the 17th and 18th centuries. Its name is lent to the French theatrical entertainment comédie en vaudeville of the 19th and 20th century. From these vaudeville took its name.

The earliest vaudeville was the vau de vire, a Norman song of the 15th century, named after the valley of Vire. During the 16th century emerged a style in urban France called the voix de ville (city voice), whose name may have been a pun on vau de vire, and which was also satirical. The two styles converged and in the 17th and 18th century the term "vaudeville" came to be used for songs satirizing political and court events.