Swan of Catania: Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini (3 November 1801 to 23 September 1835)

He had guts, and his guts killed him in the end.  But Bellini’s major works survive and flourish.  Wagner greatly admired his work, and he ought to know.

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker)

At the premiere in Milan, 6/3/1831, there was “not a dry eye in the house.”

Norma 

Not many composers would think to set an opera among a bunch of Druids.  Yet it works, with beautiful bel canto.