Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801 --
1835) was an Italian opera composer. A native of
Catania, Sicily, his greatest works are I Capuleti ed i
Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), 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. He died in
Puteaux, France at the age of 33, nine months after the
premiere of his last op...(+)
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801 --
1835) was an Italian opera composer. A native of
Catania, Sicily, his greatest works are I Capuleti ed i
Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), 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. He died in
Puteaux, France at the age of 33, nine months after the
premiere of his last opera, I puritani.
I puritani (The Puritans) is an opera by Vincenzo
Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and
later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino
Rossini, with whom the young composer had become
friends. The music was set to a libretto by Count Carlo
Pepoli, an Italian émigré poet whom Bellini had met
at a salon run by the exile Princess Belgiojoso, which
became a meeting place for many Italian
revolutionaries.
The subject was Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers (Roundheads
and Cavaliers), a historical play written by
Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine,
which some sources state was based on Walter Scott's
1816 novel Old Mortality, while others state that there
is no connection.
When Bellini arrived in Paris in mid-August 1833, he
had intended to stay only about three weeks, the main
aim being to continue the negotiations with the Paris
Opéra which had begun on his way to London a few
months earlier. However, these negotiations came to
nothing, but by October he had decided to spend the
winter in that city, especially as both Il pirata and I
Capuleti e i Montecchi were to be given by the
Théâtre-Italien that season.
The offer from the Théâtre came in January 1834; he
accepted because "the pay was richer than what I had
received in Italy up to then, though only by a little;
then because of so magnificent a company; and finally
so as to remain in Paris at others' expense."
Although originally created for Opera, I created this
arrangement of the Aria: "Cinta di fiori" (Garlanded
with flowers) from "I Puritani" for String Quintet (2
Violins, Viola, Cello & Bass).
