Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini was an Italian composer celebrated for his long, sweeping, emotionally sublime vocal melodies. Born in Catania, Sicily, Bellini emerged as the leading figure of pure bel canto, admired by contemporaries from Chopin (who modeled his nocturnal piano phrasing on Bellini's vocal lines) to Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner.

Bellini's Norma (1831), featuring the transcendent soprano aria 'Casta diva', is regarded as the ultimate pinnacle of bel canto tragedy. His other masterpieces, La sonnambula and I puritani, demonstrated an unsurpassed sensitivity to dramatic poetry and the expressive human voice. Bellini died tragically young at the age of 33 in Paris.