» PLAN OF PUBLICATION
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Bellini is one of my absolute favorites:
his music speaks straight from the heart,
and is intimately tied to the sense of the words.

– Richard Wagner -

Vincenzo Bellini, with his distinct and inimitable style, was the first great composer of Italian musical Romanticism and a key artistic figure of the early  19^th century. Yet until only very recently – notwithstanding the impressive surge of popularity of his operas in the late 20^th century, and the benefit of fresh biographical research – his music circulated in the so-called “traditional” scores which were distorted with respect to the original sources.

As specialists have increasingly discovered while researching the operas of other composers of the time, the peculiarities of the 19^th-century Italian opera “business”, including the ways in which scores were copied and disseminated, even into the 20^th century, meant that many works have come down to us in altered, often severely manipulated versions.

The enormous scholarly efforts of recent decades in the field of opera (such as the monumental series of critical editions dedicated to Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi – the other three “giants” of 19th-century Italian opera) have made it abundantly clear that a modern, accurate, and reliable edition of Bellini’s works was urgently needed. Long awaited by performers, scholars, and music lovers in general, the Critical Edition of the Works of Vincenzo Bellini was launched in 1999 by Casa Ricordi with the contribution and collaboration of the Teatro Massimo “V. Bellini” of Catania (Bellini’s birthplace). The synergy between a specialized music publisher and a major opera theater is an important factor that allows the volume editors the opportunity to test many of their decisions in professional performance, as they shape the definitive edition.

Bellini’s ten operas (some of which exist in alternate versions, and will be considered as independent titles in the series), chamber music for voice, sacred music, and instrumental music comprise a corpus characterized by a particular historical context. In fact, while on the one hand his activity as a composer was fully immersed in the practice of his times (in which modifications, alternate pieces, and adaptations were often required), on the other hand the 19th century’s growing awareness of the professional status of the composer, and Bellini’s quest for a distinct originality of style, as well as his careful pacing of the number of works he would produce, resulted in a high degree of attention to clarity and refined detail in his autograph manuscripts. The critical edition aims to restore the original dramatic and musical character the Bellini’s scores.

Following the editorial philosophy established with the ongoing critical editions of the works Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi, the Bellini edition will produce scores that meet the exacting requirements of both performers and scholars. By offering these scores in reliable editions, cleared from the clutter of banalities layered on by years of “routine”, the series aims to restore these great works to a new generation in versions written or sanctioned by the composer, in their full, fresh vitality. These new scores should also stimulate the circulation of his lesser know works, unjustifiably considered “minor”.

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Scientific and editorial Board

General directors
Fabrizio Della Seta - Alessandro Roccatagliati - Luca Zoppelli

Managing editor
Maro Uvietta

Consultants
Lorenzo Bianconi - Francesco Degrada - Renato Di Benedetto
Grabriele Dotto - Paolo Fabbri - Ohilip Gossett
Friedrich Lippmann - Roger Parker - Pierluigi Petrobelli
Piero Rattalino - John Rosselli
Claudio Toscani

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OTHER CRITICAL EDITIONS

» Gaetano Donizetti «

» Giacomo Puccini «

» Gioachino Rossini «

» Giuseppe Verdi «