coloratura

Florid ornamentation, or ‘colouring’, of a melody, especially in vocal music. A coloratura soprano is one with a high voice who specializes in such music.

The term is correctly applied to any passage sung in this manner by any voice type, but it is also commonly used as a noun to describe operatic soprano roles characterized by flexibility and embellishments such as runs and trills, with a strong head voice including abilities in the whistle register, or the voice that sings such roles (coloratura soprano).

Although most often associated with the soprano voice, the term coloratura as such does not say anything about the colour or range of the voice. There are coloratura parts for all voice types in different musical genres:

Mozart's Allelujah (from Exsultate, jubilate) may be arranged for and sung by a properly trained contralto, mezzo soprano or soprano.

In the bel canto era, all singers had to be coloratura specialists, that is, they had to be able to add ornamentations to the written music. A soprano leggero, a very flexible light soprano, often used in soubrette roles, such as 'Zerlina' in Don Giovanni (Mozart) A high lyric soprano, such as Sofie in Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss);

Occasionally the term coloratura soprano is used to describe a non-classical singer, always denoting a singer of acrobatic range, easily accessing whistle register. Mariah Carey, Minnie Riperton, Shanice, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Debelah Morgan are examples of popular music coloratura sopranos.