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★ Follow music ► Composer: Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) Work: Sinfonia (Mi bemolle maggiore) per orchestra () Performers: Staatsphilharmonie Krаkаu; Roland Bаder (conductor) Painting: Unknown artist (19th Century) - Ritratto di giovane compositore e famiglia (Vincenzo Bellini) HD image: Painting: Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) - Ritratto del compositore Vincenzo Bellini HD image: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Vincenzo (Salvatore Carmelo Francesco) Bellini [Billini, Paellini] (Catania, 3 November 1801 - Puteaux, nr Paris, 23 September 1835) Italian composer. He was born into a musical family, the eldest of seven children of Rosario Bellini (1776-1840) and Agata Ferlito (1779-1842), and niece of the organist and composer Vincenzo Tobia Bellini (1744-1829). He received his first musical instruction from his father and grandfather, and soon revealed a fine gift of melody. The Duke and Duchess of San Martino e Montalbo took interest in him and in 1819 arranged to have him enter the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano in Naples, where he studied harmony and accompaniment with Giovanni Furno and counterpoint with Giacomo Tritto. He further studied the vocal arts with Girolamo Crescentini and composition with Nicola Zingarelli. Under their guidance, he made a detailed study of the works of Pergolesi, Jommelli, Paisiello, and Cimarosa, as well as those of the German classics. While still in school, he wrote several sinfonias, two masses, and the cantata 'Ismene' (1824). His first opera, 'Adelson e Salvini', was given at the Collegio in 1825; it was followed by the premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples of his second opera, 'Bianca e Gernando' (1826). In 1827 he went to Milan, where he was commissioned by the impresario Barbaja to write an opera seria for the famous Teatro alla Scala; it was 'Il Pirata', which obtained fine success at its premiere on 1827; it was also given in Vienna in 1828. It was followed by another opera, 'La Straniera' (1829). He was then commissioned to write a new opera for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, on a Shakespearean libretto; it was I Capuleti e i Montecchi; first performed on 1830, it had a decisive success. Even more successful was his next opera, 'La Sonnambula', which was premiered in Milan on 1831, with the celebrated prima donna Giuditta Pasta as Amina. Pasta also appeared in the title role of Bellini's most famous opera, 'Norma', first given at La Scala on 26 December 1831, which at its repeated productions established Bellini's reputation as a young master of the Italian operatic bel canto. He then had an opportunity to go to London and Paris, and it was in Paris that he brought out his last opera, 'I Puritani' (1835), which fully justified the expectations of his admirers. He was on his way to fame and universal artistic recognition when he was stricken with a fatal affliction of amebiasis, and died six weeks before his 34th birthday. His remains were reverently removed to his native Catania in 1876. Bellini's music represents the Italian operatic school at its most glorious melodiousness, truly reflected by the term 'bel canto'. In his writing, the words, the rhythm, the melody, the harmony, and the instrumental accompaniment unite in mutual perfection. The lyric flow and dramatic expressiveness of his music provide a natural medium for singers in the Italian language, with the result that his greatest masterpieces, 'La Sonnambula' and 'Norma', remain in the active repertoire of opera houses of the entire world, repeatedly performed by touring Italian opera companies and by native forces everywhere.
