VINCENZO BELLINI: THE HIGH NOTE OF BEL CANTO

Bel canto style was a prominent characteristic of opera from the Romantic era. Ushered in by Gioacchino Rossini’s opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) in 1816, opera in the Romantic era focused more on the expression of emotions and storytelling—often complex plots— through vocal prowess. It was a reinvention of the traditional musical structures thus far expected of singers in classical opera.

• It means “beautiful singing” in Italian and showcases the expressive potential of the human voice. • It is characterized by long, smooth, and melodic vocal lines.

• It requires very precise vocal technique involving control of the intensity of vocal tone, as well as agility, fl uidity, and clear articulation of notes, words, and transitions between registers.

• Each singer personalizes their performance of a bel canto aria showing off their unique talent with ornamentation—improvisational vocal fi reworks of extra fast-moving notes. What IS bel canto?

Bellini may have popularized bel canto vocal fi reworks, but ornamentation is still very popular today far beyond operatic singing. Listen to this well-known diva show her stuff.

Vincenzo Bellini was born in 1801, in Catania, Sicily. He was highly infl uenced by his musically talented family, so that he was already an exceptional musician by the young age of fi ve. Bellini was sent to the Conservatory in Naples, Italy. For his graduation in 1825, Bellini debuted his fi rst opera: a semi-serious opera entitled Adelson e Salvini, set in his hometown. Bellini had a particular affi nity for the soprano voice. He described the arias he wrote as not just a simple melody within an opera, but rather an illustration of the beauty and ability of the human voice. His aptitude for composing for the voice, makes Bellini one of the premier bel canto composers.

Catania, Sicily as of 2013.

Gioacchino Rossini, along with Gaetano Donizetti, were Bellini’s Italian contemporaries and make great contributions to bel canto opera, however the three had strong artistic differences and often did not get along. Unlike his contemporaries, Bellini did not write comic operas, favoring Opera semiseria instead. He also did not care for Rossini’s excessive added ornamentations. Bellini preferred the cabaletta aria structure, rather than the bravura aria structure that Donizetti and Rossini preferred. A cabaletta was less interruptive to the dramatic action and offered more characterization to the audience unlike a bravura, purely a demonstration of vocal capabilities.

Opera semiseria mixes comedy and pathos. It is characterized by frequent pastoral settings, an innocent female character, as well as a role for a basso buffo. This bass role is traditionally a very comedic one, but takes on a more sinister tone in this genre. Opera semiseria musically described wide range of emotions, and laid the foundation for the verisimo style to come.

Norma’s aria “Casta Diva,” is a beautiful example of one of Bellini’s cabaletta arias. He supposedly wrote eight versions of the piece before being pleased with it. The fluid vocal lines were more akin to piano compositions by non-Italian colleagues (Liszt and Chopin). Bellini gave less attention to the parts for chorus and orchestra and depended on his melodic vocal lines to carry the emotional weight of the opera. At the same time, he drew inspiration from Handel and Mozart’s compositions—clarity in form and a close union of text and music.

Bellini received many accolades while studying at the conservatory that launched him into an immediate career. Following the premiere of his second opera, Bianca e Gernando (1826), he was commissioned by La Scala in Milan to write a third with Felice Romani—a very established and popular librettist. Their first collaboration, Il Pirata, was extremely well received and the pair went on to work together on all but Bellini’s final opera. Bellini also composed several orchestral and chamber works, but is renowned for his ten operas, namely, La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker), which opened in 1831, and, of course, Norma, that same year.

Bianca e Gernado was originally titled Bianca e Fernando, based on an 1820 play of the same title. However, since Prince Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the largest kingdom in Southern Italy, no version of his name could be used on stage. The opera finally premiered six years later after all the revisions were made and approved by the king. Royal Delays

Vincenzo Bellini died at the early age of 33, after composing ten operas, and only a few months after his final opera, Il Puritani, premiered at Paris’ Theatre Italien in 1835. Bellini and his contemporaries greatly influenced the next great Italian composer: Giuseppe Verdi. Premiering his first opera only four years after Bellini’s death, Verdi built upon the tradition of bel canto, infused it with Italian Patriotism, and grew the genre bringing opera into a verismo style.

“Bellini is poor, it is true, in harmony and orchestration, but rich in feeling and in an individual melancholy that was all his own. Even in his less familiar operas, there are long, long, long melodies such as no one ever wrote before his day.”

– Giuseppe Verdi

Vincenzo Bellini, c. 1830.