coloratura
noun
col·or·a·tu·ra ˌkə-lə-rə-ˈtu̇r-ə 
-ˈtyu̇r-
often attributive
1
: elaborate embellishment in vocal music
broadly : music with ornate figuration
2
: a soprano with a light agile voice specializing in coloratura
Example Sentences
a performance without much coloratura
Recent Examples on the Web And Kyaunnee Richardson is especially memorable with a beautifully playful coloratura and a winning way with a snarky aside. 
Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 18 Dec. 2020 Known for long phrases with boundless colors, emotions and dynamics, Rae’s coloratura soared effortlessly with a glittery vibrato, especially in the Richard Strauss and Fanny Mendelssohn pieces. Grace Jean, Washington Post, 16 Sep. 2019 His agility might be compared to that of a coloratura soprano. Emily Langer, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2020 With immaculate coloratura chops and nuanced acting, soprano Helen Zhibing Huang illustrated Singa’s transformation from American Dream almost-believer to awakened ally. BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2019 Meade showed her credentials as the perfect coloratura. Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 8 Jan. 2018 In arias, the coloratura writing is often intense, so that — as in some Handel operas, only more so — each character plunges at once into a vortex of emotion conveyed by the knots and chains of the rapid-moving vocal line. Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2018 Meade showed her credentials as the perfect coloratura. Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 8 Jan. 2018 My mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, was a singer, an opera singer, with a very beautiful lyric coloratura and a brief but dazzling career in New York. Linda Lavin, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2017 See More
Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 18 Dec. 2020 Known for long phrases with boundless colors, emotions and dynamics, Rae’s coloratura soared effortlessly with a glittery vibrato, especially in the Richard Strauss and Fanny Mendelssohn pieces. Grace Jean, Washington Post, 16 Sep. 2019 His agility might be compared to that of a coloratura soprano. Emily Langer, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2020 With immaculate coloratura chops and nuanced acting, soprano Helen Zhibing Huang illustrated Singa’s transformation from American Dream almost-believer to awakened ally. BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2019 Meade showed her credentials as the perfect coloratura. Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 8 Jan. 2018 In arias, the coloratura writing is often intense, so that — as in some Handel operas, only more so — each character plunges at once into a vortex of emotion conveyed by the knots and chains of the rapid-moving vocal line. Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2018 Meade showed her credentials as the perfect coloratura. Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 8 Jan. 2018 My mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, was a singer, an opera singer, with a very beautiful lyric coloratura and a brief but dazzling career in New York. Linda Lavin, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2017 See More Word History
Etymology
borrowed from 17th-century Italian, "coloring," from Latin colōrātus, past participle of colōrāre "to color entry 2" + Italian -ura -ure
Note: Though conventionally attributed to Italian in German dictionaries since the 17th century, the word apparently first appears in a musical sense in German (as Coloraturen, given as a synonym of Latin Diminutiones "diminutions," in Michael Praetorius, Syntagmatis musici tomus tertius, Wolfenbüttel, 1619, p. 232).
First Known Use
circa 1740, in the meaning defined at sense 1