BELLINI, VINCENZO (1801-1835), operatic composer of the Italian school, was born at Catania in Sicily, on Nov. 3, 18o1. He was descended from a family of musicians, both his father and grandfather having been composers of some reputation. After having received his preparatory musical education at home, he entered the conservatoire of Naples, where he studied singing and composition under Tritto_ and Zingarelli. His first opera, Adelson e Savina, was performed in 1825 at a small theatre in Naples; his second dramatic work, Bianca e Fernando, was produced next year at the San Carlo theatre of the same city, and made his name known in Italy. His next work, 11 Pirata (1827), was writ ten for the Scala in Milan, to words by Felice Romano, with whom Bellini formed a union of friendship to be severed only by his early death. Of Bellini's operas the best known are : 1 Montecchi e Capuleti (1830), in which the part of Romeo, sung in England by Madame Pasta, became a favourite with all the great contraltos; La Sonnambula (1831) ; Norma, Bellini's best and most popular creation (1831) ; and 1 Puritani (1835), written for the Italian opera in Paris, and to some extent under the in fluence of French music. He was seized with a sudden illness, and died at his villa in Puteaux near Paris, on Sept. 24, Bellini's operas had an immense vogue in their day, and then suffered a rather undeserved eclipse. They had little dramatic force, but a wealth of melody.
See C. Labat, Bellini (Bordeaux, 1865) ; A. Pougin, Bellini, sa vie et ses oeuvres (i868) ; Pizzetti, La musica di Vincenzo Bellini (1916).