Vincenzo Bellini
Synopsis
It was on today\u2019s date in 1835 that Romantic opera composer Vincenzo Bellini died at a country home near Paris. He was only 34 but had achieved great fame in his brief lifetime.\xa0
The long, elegant melodic lines Bellini spun out in his operas were much admired and proved to be a major influence on the solo piano works of his contemporary, Frederic Chopin.
Bellini\u2019s first success was Il Pirata or The Pirate from 1827, and just three years later, he could truthfully report: \xa0\u201cMy style is now heard in the most important theatres in the world \u2026and with the greatest enthusiasm.\u201d He settled in Paris, where his final opera, I Puritani di Scozia or The Puritans of Scotland premiered early in 1835.
If Bellini\u2019s life had followed the Romantic story-lines of his operas, he would have been a dispossessed outcast who dies for love. In fact, Bellini was financially successful, moved in the highest social circles, and \u2014 rather than dying for love \u2014 was planning to marry for money at the time he succumbed to chronic gastroenteritis.\xa0
At his requiem mass, four leading composers of his day, Paer, Cherubini, Carafa and Rossini, each held a corner of the coffin shroud.\xa0
Music Played in Today's Program
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835): Sinfonia from Il Pirata; German Opera Orchestra, Berlin; Marcello Viotti, conductor; Berlin Classics 11152