Born in Catania, Sicily, Italy, Bellini was a child prodigy from a highly musical family and legend has it he could sing an air of Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months, began studying music theory at two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could play well. His first composition dates from his sixth year. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, it is certain that Bellini grew up in a musical household and that a career as a musician was never in doubt.
Having learned from his grandfather, Bellini left provincial Catania in June 1819 to study at the conservatory in Naples, with a stipend from the municipal government of Catania. By 1822 he was in the class of the director Nicolò Zingarelli, studying the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce a promising student to the public with a dramatic work: the result was Bellini's first opera Adelson e Salvini an opera semiseria that was presented at the Conservatory's theater. Bianca e Gernando met with some success at the Teatro San Carlo, leading to an offer from the impresario Barbaia for an opera at La Scala. Il pirata was a resounding immediate success and began Bellini's faithful and fruitful collaboration with the librettist and poet Felice Romani, and cemented his friendship with his favored tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, who had sung in Bianca e Gernando.
Bellini spent the next years, 1827–33 in Milan, where all doors were open to him. Supported solely by his opera commissions, for La straniera (1828) was even more successful than Il pirata, sparking controversy in the press for its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys, he showed the taste for social life and the dandyism that Heinrich Heine emphasized in his literary portrait of Bellini (Florentinische Nächte, 1837). Opening a new theater in Parma, his Zaira (1829) was a failure at the Teatro Ducale, but Venice welcomed I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which was based on the same Italian sources as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
The next five years were triumphant, cut short by Bellini's premature death.
Bellini died in Puteaux, near Paris of acute inflammation of the intestine, and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, Paris; his remains were removed to the cathedral of Catania in 1876. The Museo Belliniano, Catania, preserves memorabilia and scores.
Bellini is best known for his opera Norma, the title role of which is considered one of the most difficult roles in the soprano repertoire. During the 20th century, only a small number of singers were able to sing it with success: Rosa Ponselle in the early 1920s, and later Joan Sutherland in the 1950s and 1960s. Maria Callas was the famous Norma of the postwar period; she performed it many times and recorded it in the studio twice.
Ah! bello a me ritorna
Vincenzo Bellini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
E contro il mondo intiero
Difesa a te sarò.
Del raggio tuo sereno
E vita nel tuo seno...
Patria e cielo avrò... si!
Sei lento, sì, sei lento,
Ma irato il Dio t'affretta
Che il Tebro condannò!
Ma irato il Dio t'affretta
Che il Tebro condannò!
Del fido amor primiero,
E contro il mondo intiero
Difesa a te sarò.
Del raggio tuo sereno
E vita nel tuo seno...
Patria e cielo avrò... si!
Ma irato, si, il Dio t'affretta
Che il Tebro condannò!
Che il Tebro condannò!
Ah!
Riedi ancora qual eri allora,
Quando, ah, quando
il cor ti diedi allora...
Qual eri allor, ah,
riedi a me!
The lyrics to Vincenzo Bellini's song Ah! bello a me ritorna describes a love that is loyal and devoted to the one they love. The singer states that they will defend their love against the whole world and that their serenity gives them life. The singer also mentions their longing for their homeland and heaven. In the second part of the song, the singer expresses their desire for revenge and the swift justice of God who condemned the Tebro River. The final lines of the song call for the return of a past love, longing for the person they once were and wishing to relive the love that they once shared.
Line by Line Meaning
Del fido amor primiero,
With my faithful first love
E contro il mondo intiero
And against the whole world,
Difesa a te sarò.
I will defend you.
Del raggio tuo sereno
With your serene radiance,
E vita nel tuo seno...
And life in your arms...
Patria e cielo avrò... si!
I will have my homeland and heaven... yes!
Sei lento, sì, sei lento,
You are slow, yes, you are slow,
O giorno di vendetta,
Oh day of vengeance,
Ma irato il Dio t'affretta
But God, angry, hastens you
Che il Tebro condannò!
Because you condemned the Tiber!
Ah!
Ah!
Riedi ancora qual eri allora,
Return as you were then,
Quando, ah, quando
When, ah, when
il cor ti diedi allora...
I gave you my heart then...
Qual eri allor, ah,
As you were then, ah,
riedi a me!
Return to me!
Contributed by Jake B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Vanchy58
Me impresiona muchísimo cuando la gran Montserrat Caballé (r.i.p) llegó a interpretar estas colosales arias de la ópera Norma con su inigualable voz y técnica vocal impactó el mundo de la lírica como pocos la han logrado. Sublime y grandioso!!
ʻIkuā
WOW. that is some TRUE high soprano talent!!! incredible technique and control 😍😍😍
thank you for posting!
Tatjana Baronskaya
Беллини на небесах слушает свои творения с восторгом и благоговением этих
блистательных исполнительниц !
Yanina Enikeeva-Prokopenko
GREAT CABALETTA DI NORMA! BRAVA BEVERLI SILLS! FOREVER!!!💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐🗻
Nolan Go
Thank you so much for this!
Александр Ярков
Браво
Crazy organist
Sills shouldn't have touched this role. It just didn't suit her voice
BaroneVitellioScarpia1
Prefer Ponselle and Callas.
Joel Eigen
@Crazy organist You bet!
Roger Williams
Then go away.