BELLINI, VINCENZO ( 1802-35). A famous Italian operatic composer. Ile was horn at Ca tania, Sicily, and died at. Puteaux, near Paris. Born of a musical family, he entered the conser vatory of Naples (1819), where he studied under Zingarelli. After writing various instrumental and choral compositins. he produced Ade/son e ,'.(atrina (1821), the success of which was dupli cated by that of Bianca c Fernando at the San Carlo, Naples (1826), and Bellini was engaged to write an opera for La Scala at Milan. After ft Piottr: I ls27). he became the most popular composer in Europe, and his fame grew with each of the following operas: La Straniera (182.8) : ('almly! e .11 on t eeeh 11830) ; Non na bu la 183l); Norma ( IS3I ; Beatrice eli (183:0 • lie settled in Paris and gage himself up to the study of French music, diction, and verse, and then produced I Puritani (1834) at the Thntre ltalien, Paris. Its success eclipsed that of all his pre vious efforts. He was preparing for another work (Olen death came unexpectedly at Puteaux, near Paris. All Europe mourned for him, and his funeral was an impressive pageant. A monument to Bellini was erected in Catania in 1868, where his remains now rest, and another in Naples in 1836. In 1901 the centenary of his birth was celebrated throughout Italy and in many Euro pean cities. A man of wide culture and deep refinement, of the elegiac and sentimental type of Chopin, he had not the personal sorrows of the Polish master to make his grief morbid. His
melancholy nature came into the world at the most opportune moment: Italy was groaning under foreign masters; Norma was lint a lament over his country's bondage. His Druids and Gallic warriors were thinly disguised Italians of his time. The opera was a great advance on his previous works, which were criticised for the thin orchestration and lack of structural unity, He heeded the critics, and Norma may fairly be called a classic production. \Vagner viewed it as such for its heroic grandeur, tragic power, and pathos, combined with an unequaled flow J1' mel ody and striking orchestration. Norma has been the favorite part of the greatest dramatic song stresses. such as Pasta, Vial-dot-Garcia. Jenny Lind, Bfirde-Ney, and Lilli Lehmann, the famous Wagnerian soprano. Bellini's music is particu larly grateful to the voice, and all famous singers, from Pasta and Viardot, through Schroder-Dev rient and Johanna Wagner, down to Patti, Nils son, and Sembrich, have kept his operas in their repertoires. Consult: Pougin, Ileufinn, so rfe, ses alt errs (Paris, IS68) ; Amore, rincenzio Benign (Catania, 1892-94) ; Florimo, Bellini: ilemorie c lettere (Florence. 1885) ; G. 'I'. Ferris, Great Musical Composers (New York, 1887).