Editing Coloratura (section)

{{about|the melody|the Coldplay song|Coloratura (song)}}
{{short description|Type of elaborate melody}}
[[File:Bartolomeo Nazari - Portrait of Farinelli 1734 - Royal College of Music London.jpg|thumb|[[Farinelli]], a soprano [[castrato]] famous for singing [[Baroque music|baroque]] coloratura roles ([[Bartolomeo Nazari]], 1734)]]

'''Coloratura''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|k|ɒ|l|ər|ə|ˈ|tj|ʊər|ə}} {{respell|KOL|ər|ə|TURE|ə}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|k|ʌ|l|-}} {{respell|KUL|-}}, {{IPA|it|koloraˈtuːra|lang}}; {{lit|coloring}}, from [[Latin]] ''colorare'' 'to color')<ref name="MacOSXDictionary" /> is an elaborate [[melody]] with [[run (music)|runs]], [[Trill (music)|trills]], wide [[Steps and skips|leaps]], or similar [[virtuoso]]-like material,<ref name="MacOSXDictionary">''Oxford American Dictionaries''.</ref><ref name=Harvard1969>Apel (1969), p. 184.</ref> or a [[passage (music)|passage]] of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, and singers of these roles, are also called coloratura.<ref name="NewGroveOpera">Steane, J. B.; Jander, Owen, "Coloratura" in Sadie (1992) '''1''': 907.</ref> Its instrumental equivalent is [[ornamentation (music)|ornamentation]]. Coloratura is particularly found in vocal music and especially in [[opera]]tic singing of the 18th and 19th centuries.