1Music A short operatic aria in simple style without repeated sections.
‘Erik is a mere operatic tenor lover, and his cavatinas have tunefulness enough, without a trace of the warmth of melody which characterises Wagner's later works.’
‘His bright tenor was untiring in the taxing role, full of Italianate cavatinas.’
‘In her cavatina ‘Me voila seule dans la nuit’ she spun the line beautifully.’
‘For example, Act One loses the ‘Giovani liete’ choruses, Act Three loses the sextet, and Act Four loses Barbarina's cavatina, Marcellina's song about the he-goat and the she-goat, and Basilio's ‘In quegli anni.’’
‘The Boccherini is superb as well, the overture and cavatina from ‘Clementina’, which I gather is a scandalously neglected masterpiece of the genre; I'd certainly like to hear more of it after this tempting nine minute excerpt.’
1.1A piece of lyrical instrumental music similar to a cavatina.
‘Berg also embeds within the score a number of self-contained closed forms: sonata-allegro, rondo, variation, canzonetta, cavatina, etc.’
‘These pieces have both style and substance, epitomised by the brilliant concert variations on a Bellini cavatina, here played by de Beenhouwer.’
Origin
Early 19th century from Italian.
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