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.