Cabaletta

Cabaletta (French cavalette , from Italian cobbola : "stanza") is a term for an aria form or for a final movement in an aria.

In the 18th century, a cabaletta is a short, simple aria made up of one stanza. Since the early 19th century, the cabaletta can form the final movement of an aria (like the cavatine ) or a duet in Italian opera. While the first movement (often referred to as cantabile ) is kept at a moderate tempo, the cabaletta forms a stretta closure, i.e. it is faster and more virtuoso for the voices, while the orchestra repeats a succinct rhythm. A late example of a cabaletta can be found in Violetta's aria in Act 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata (1853). The cabaletta was superseded by the one-movement aria in the second half of the 19th century.

literature

• Riemann Musik Lexikon , subject part, Mainz: Schott 1967, p. 136