Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania, Sicily, on November 3, 1801. Born to a musical family, he received music instruction in childhood, and while still very young started composing. He then attended the San Sebastiano Conservatory in Naples; during his stay there he completed a symphony, two masses, and a cantata among other works. He made his bow as opera composer with Adelson e Salvini, introduced at the Conservatory in 1825. He continued writing operas after that, and having them produced in major Italian opera houses with varying degrees of success. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, given in Venice in 1830, was a triumph. Then came the two operas by which Bellini is today most often represented in the repertory: La Sonnambula and Norma, both produced in 1831. In 1833 he came to Paris where he completed his last opera, I Puritani, given in Paris in 1835. He was at the height of his fame and creative powers when he died in Puteaux, near Paris, on September 23, 1835, at the age of thirty-four, a victim of intestinal fever.
Bellini was the genius of opera song. His fresh, pure lyricism—perfect in design and elegant in style—elevates his greatest operas to a place of significance. His masterwork is Norma, introduced at La Scala in Milan on December 26, 1831, where it was at first a failure. The libretto by Felice Romani was based on a tragedy by L. A. Soumet. In Gaul, during the Roman occupation, in or about 50 B.C., Norma, high priestess of the Druids, violates her vows by secretly marrying the Roman proconsul, Pollione, and bearing him two sons. Pollione then falls in love with Adalgisa, virgin of the Temple of Esus. Unaware that Pollione is married, Adalgisa confides to Norma she is in love with him. With Pollione’s infidelity now apparent, he is brought before Norma for judgment. She offers him the choice of death or the renunciation of Adalgisa. When Pollione accepts death, Norma confesses to her people that, having desecrated her vows, she, too, must die. Moved by this confession, Pollione volunteers to die at her side in the funeral pyre.
The overture is famous. Loud dramatic chords in full orchestra are succeeded by a soft lento passage. A strong melody is then presented by flutes and violins against an incisive rhythm. There follows a graceful, sprightly and strongly accented tune in the strings. Both melodies are then amplified, dramatized, and repeated; particular emphasis is placed on the delicate, accented tune. The overture then proceeds to an energetic conclusion.
One vocal episode from Norma is also extremely popular and is often heard in orchestral transcriptions. It is Norma’s aria, “Casta diva,” surely one of the noblest soprano arias in all Italian operatic literature. It comes in the first act and represents Norma’s prayer for peace, and her grief that the hatred of her people for the Roman invaders must also result in their hatred for her husband, Pollione, the Roman proconsul.