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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=August 2011 Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), Norma (opera)|Norma (1831), Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and I puritani (1835). Known for his long-flowing melodic lines, for which he was named "the Swan of Catania," Bellini was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera.
Life
Born in Catania , Sicily, Bellini was a child prodigy from a highly musical family and legend has it he could sing an aria of Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months. He began studying music theory at two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could apparently play well. Bellini's first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, it is certain that Bellini grew up in a musical household and that a career as a musician was never in doubt.
Having learned from his grandfather, Bellini left provincial Catania in June 1819 to study at the Music Conservatories of Naples|conservatory in Naples , with a stipend from the municipal government of Catania. By 1822 he was in the class of the director Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli|Nicolò Zingarelli , studying the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Joseph Haydn|Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart . It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce a promising student to the public with a dramatic work: the result was Bellini's first opera Adelson e Salvini an opera semiseria that was presented at the Conservatory's theatre. Bellini's next opera, Bianca e Gernando , met with some success at the Teatro San Carlo , leading to a commission from the impresario Barbaia for an opera at Teatro alla Scala|La Scala . Il pirata was a resounding immediate success and began Bellini's faithful and fruitful collaboration with the librettist and poet Felice Romani , and cemented his friendship with his favored tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini , who had sung in Bianca e Gernando . Bellini spent the next years, 1827–33 in Milan, where all doors were open to him. Sparking controversy in the press for its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys, La straniera (1828) was even more successful than Il pirata , and allowed Bellini to support himself solely by his opera commissions. The composer showed the taste for social life and the dandy ism that Heinrich Heine emphasized in his literary portrait of Bellini ( Florentinische Nächte , 1837). Opening a new theatre in Parma , his Zaira (1829) was a failure at the Teatro Ducale, but Venice welcomed I Capuleti e i Montecchi , which was based on the same Italian source as Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet .
The next five years were triumphant, with major successes with his greatest works, La sonnambula , Norma (opera)|Norma and I puritani , cut short by Bellini's premature death just nine months after the premiere of I puritani . Bellini left London for Paris, but never completed the journey back to Milan.
Bellini died in Puteaux , near Paris of acute inflammation of the intestine, and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise , Paris; his remains were removed to the cathedral of Catania in 1876. The Museo Belliniano housed in the Gravina Cruyllas Palace, in Catania, preserves memorabilia and scores.
Works
In 1999, the Italian music publisher Casa Ricordi , in collaboration with the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania , embarked on a project to publish critical editions of the complete works of Bellini.
The following fifteen songs were published as a collection, Composizioni da Camera (Bellini)|Composizioni da Camera , by Casa Ricordi in 1935 on the centenary of Bellini's death.
Six Early Songs:
*"La farfalletta" – canzoncina
*"Quando incise su quel marmo" – scena ed aria
*"Sogno d'infanzia" – romanza
*"L'abbandono" – romanza
*"L'allegro marinaro – ballata
*"Torna, vezzosa fillide" – romanza
Tre Ariette:
*"Il fervido Desiderio"
*"Dolente immagine di Fille mia"
*" Vaga luna, che inargenti "
Sei Ariette:
*"Malinconia, Ninfa gentile"
*"Vanne, o rosa fortunata"
*"Bella Nice, che d'amore"
*"Almen se non poss'io"
*"Per pietà, bell'idol mio"
*"Ma rendi pur contento"
See also
Commons|Vincenzo Bellini|Vincenzo BelliniPortal|BiographyOther important bel canto opera composers:
Casa Ricordi. http://www.ricordi.it/compositori/b/vincenzo-bellini/edizioni-critiche/le-edizioni-critiche-di-vincenzo-bellini Edizione Critica delle Opere di Vincenzo Belliniit
Rosselli, John (1996). http://books.google.co.uk/books? id=bVCPmc7nkV4C The life of Bellini. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521467810
Willier, Stephen Ace (2002). http://books.google.co.uk/books? id=BPrARpPBGv Vincenzo Bellini: A guide to research . Routledge. ISBN 0815338058,
External links
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php? query=Bellini%2C+Vincenzo& queryType=%40attr+1%3D1 Bellini cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
IMSLP|id=Bellini,_Vincenzo
IckingArchive|idx=Bellini|name=Vincenzo Bellini
ChoralWiki
http://www.teatromassimobellini.it/ Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania
Find a Grave|7748
Romanticism Persondata|NAME= Bellini, Vincenzo |ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bellini, Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco |SHORT DESCRIPTION= Sicily|Sicilian opera composer |DATE OF BIRTH=3 November 1801 |PLACE OF BIRTH= Catania , Sicily |DATE OF DEATH=23 September 1835 |PLACE OF DEATH= Puteaux DEFAULTSORT:Bellini, Vincenzo Category:1801 births Category:1835 deaths Category:People from Catania Category:Italian composers Category:Opera composers Category:Romantic composers Category:Sicilian composers Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:Burials at Catania Cathedral, Sicily
