cabaletta

[ kab-uh-let-uh, kah-buh-; Italian kah-bah-let-tah ]

noun

, plural ca·ba·let·tas, ca·ba·let·te [kab-, uh, -, let, -ey, kah-b, uh, -, kah-bah-, let, -te].

1. a short, operatic aria of simple form and style.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabaletta¹

1835–45; < Italian, alteration of coboletta stanza, diminutive of cob ( b ) ola, cobla stanza, couplet < Old Provençal cobla < Latin cōpula bond; copula

Example Sentences

“By the time Verdi wrote ‘Falstaff,’ when he was almost 80,” he said, “he had learned to do in 16 measures what in ‘Nabucco’” — 50 years earlier — “would have taken him a big aria and a cabaletta and all that. There’s nothing wasted, no decoration, just the thing itself. I’m not lucky enough to have had that experience a lot, but I recognize it when I see it and it almost makes me laugh.”

From New York Times

After initial studies in mice, Payne is now involved in a clinical trial sponsored by a company she co-founded, Cabaletta Bio, that has shared results on 15 patients so far.

From Science Magazine

An associate director an ocean away didn’t realize he also planned to perform the cabaletta, the faster-moving second part.

From Washington Times

As Donizetti’s doomed Anne Boleyn at the Met in 2011, her mad scene cabaletta was imbued with the kind of crapulent ardor one might encounter at a truck rally or in line for a Nintendo Switch.

From New York Times

And in fast music, that part in particular turns blustery and cloudy, making Mr. Domingo sound awkward in, for example, Miller’s big cabaletta, “Ah! fu giusto,” which should be an early showstopper.

From New York Times