Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (Catania, 3 November 1801 – Puteaux, 23 September 1835) was an Italian composer who is especially known for his operas.

This young composer who died prematurely, originally buried at Père Lachaise in Paris, was reburied in the Cathedral of Catania, Sicily in 1876. He found the time to compose ten operas in roughly as many years. Together with Gaetano Donizetti and Gioacchino Rossini, he belongs to the Romantic pre-Verdi generation that had a weakness for lyrical arias and supplied an important part of the bel canto repertoire. He studied composition at the conservatory in Naples with Zingarelli. He also wrote his first works there. In 1827, his third opera Il Pirata premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The libretto is by Felice Romani and based on a play by Irish writer Charles Robert Maturin: Bertram, The Castle of St. Aldobrando. The opera was performed fairly quickly in other countries as well, among others in London, Paris and New York.
In 1829 came his fifth opera, also at the Teatro alla Scala: La Straniera, again to a libretto by Romani after Vicomte d'Arlincourt's novel L'Étrangère. This opera too saw performances in London, Paris and New York during Bellini's lifetime.
Barely a year later, his sixth opera premiered, this time in Venice: I Capuleti e i Montecchi.