Vincenzo Bellini

His full name is Vincenzo Salvatore Carmello Francesco Bellini, and he is known as the quintessential “bel canto” stylist. As the phrase (“beautiful singing” in Italian) indicates, this is a style of opera focused on the vocalists rather than the orchestra, giving those vocalists a lot of opportunity to show off their diction, timbre, and vibrato. Bellini’s works include Norma; Adelson e Salvini; Bianca e Gernando; I Capuleti e I Montecchi; and La sonnambula. The best known of these is Norma, the tragic tale of a Druid priestess of that name and of her love for Pollione, the Roman proconsul. Bellini’s music was very influential, well beyond the confines of the bel canto style itself. Berlioz, Chopin, and Wagner were all admirers. Pyotr Tchaikovsky said that there are Bellini melodies that he could not hear without his eyes welling up. Bellini died at the peak of his powers, of an intestinal ailment.