Our first rehearsal for The Messiah went very well on Tuesday evening. OK, so a performance of Messiah is commonplace, but it's special for me as it will be my first ever public performance as a choir member. I find the coloratura passages like this one quite tricky.

Coloratura? For a bass-baritone? Yes, I discover, a coloratura is not only the fat lady before whose singing it ain't over, but, according to Wikipedia "an ornate, flowery style in classical singing."

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 female 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.
• The aria Every Valley Shall be Exalted from Handel's Messiah is an example of a coloratura piece for tenor.
• Osmin, a character in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, is a coloratura role for a bass.

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.