Existing comment:
Vincenzo Bellini. "Ah! Don't Mingle, One Human Feeling" from La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker). New York: William Hall and Son, 1850.
Bel Canto Opera after Rossini
When Gioachino Rossini retired from operatic composition in 1829 at age thirty-seven, he was widely recognized as the greatest Italian composer of his time. His slightly younger contemporaries Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti soon became much-admired masters of the florid melodies that characterize the bel canto style. Their most enduring scores date from the 1830s and early 1840s. This period coincides with developments in the production of lithographic sheet music cover art, and by mid-century depictions of operatic action, such as these examples, were for the first time readily available to the music-loving public. |