Works in Ricordi Catalogue

Critical Editions
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Beginnings
The son and grandson of musicians, at the age of three he was already starting to play the piano and at six he wrote his first composition to a religious text. Admired while still very young in the salons of Catania as the composer of both sacred and secular music, he went to the Collegio San Sebastiano in Naples in 1819 to continue his musical studies, first with Furno and Tritto and then with Zingarelli. This was the period of his idyll with Maddalena Fumaroli, a love that was opposed by her father, a magistrate who considered Bellini to be just a simple "harpsichord player". On completing his studies (1825), he had his first opera, Adelson e Salvini, performed in the conservatory theatre: it was praised by Donizetti and repeated every Sunday for a year. His next opera, Bianca e Gernando (1826), written for the Teatro San Carlo, was given an enthusiastic reception exceeding his greatest expectations; even the King infringed etiquette and applauded a duet.

First successes
The impresario Barbaja, intuiting his genius, commissioned an opera from Bellini for La Scala; the interpreters – who had already been engaged – were the soprano Meric-Lalande, the tenor Rubini and the bass-baritone Tamburini. The new opera, Il pirata (1827), to a libretto by Felice Romani, was Bellini's first important success and became one of Rubini's favourite roles. In Milan Bellini met Giovanni Ricordi, was welcomed in the salons of the nobility and was immediately invited to compose an opera for the inauguration of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. But instead of writing a new opera Bellini presented Bianca e Fernando (1828), a reworking of Bianca e Gernando. In a box of the Carlo Felice he met Giuditta Turina with whom he was to have a long relationship, tolerated in silence by her husband. The following year he enjoyed successes with La straniera at La Scala and Zaira in Parma, then in 1830 I Capuleti e i Montecchi was performed to great acclaim at La Fenice in Venice.

International fame
In 1831 La sonnambula and Norma were born: after their premieres in Milan they triumphed on all the stages of Europe. Bellini's last opera to be written in Italy, Beatrice di Tenda, was a failure in Venice in 1833. Disappointed by this and unhappy because his affair with Turina had ended, he went first to London, where La sonnambula and Norma triumphed at Drury Lane with the famous soprano Malibran, then to Paris, where he was enthusiastically welcomed by that musical world and the Théâtre Italien commissioned a new opera from him. This was how I Puritani came into being; five days after the premiere, which took place in January 1835, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur, and later the King of Naples conferred on him the insignia of the Accademia Borbonica.

The sad, premature end of a "romantic" composer
Bellini died that same year from an infection of the intestine which had afflicted him for some time. The whole musical world, led by Rossini and Cherubini, was grieved by his death. In the Church of the Invalides on 2 October, 350 choristers conducted by Habeneck bade him farewell. The soloists were Rubini, Ivanov, Tamburini and Lablache.

Operas

• Adelson e Salvini (A.L. Tottola, Naples – Conservatorio San Sebastiano)

• Bianca e Gernando (D. Gilardoni, Napoli – Teatro San Carlo, then Bianca e Fernando in 1828)

• Il pirata (F. Romani, Milan – Teatro alla Scala)

• La straniera (F. Romani, Milan – Teatro alla Scala)
• Zaira (F. Romani, after Voltaire, Parma – Teatro Nuovo)

• I Capuleti e i Montecchi (F. Romani, Venice – Teatro La Fenice)

• La sonnambula (F. Romani, Milan – Teatro Carcano)
• Norma (F. Romani, Milano – Teatro alla Scala)

• Beatrice di Tenda (F. Romani, Venice – Teatro La Fenice)

• I Puritani e I Cavalieri (C. Pepoli, Paris – Théâtre Italien)

And also: sacred music, vocal and instrumental music.