cabaletta

American  

[kab-uh-let-uh, kah-buh-, kah-bah-let-tah] / ˌkæb əˈlɛt ə, ˌkɑ bə-, ˌkɑ bɑˈlɛt tɑ /

noun

plural

cabalettas, cabalette

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

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Etymology

Origin of cabaletta

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

Example Sentences

As she scrabbled for a laser pointer in her large handbag, her coloratura was comically on point, though she was inaudible in her middle range during the cabaletta.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 1, 2025

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

From Washington Times • Apr. 26, 2020

And Mr. Hymel dispatched with exciting fervor the brilliant cabaletta in Act IV when Arnold vows to avenge his father, killed by the Austrians, and rally the Swiss resistance, nailing all the high C’s.

From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2016

She made a tremendous impact in her multisectional final scene, in which Gemma sings of entering a convent, then reacts with horror to Tamas’s crime in a final cabaletta of despair.

From New York Times • Sep. 20, 2011

Is there no cabaletta to it—not even a full close?

From The Perfect Wagnerite, Commentary on the Ring by Shaw, Bernard