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.
Squilla Il Bronzo Del Dio!
Vincenzo Bellini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Percosso lo scudo d'Irminsul,
Quali alla terra decreti intima?
Guerra, strage, sterminio.
A noi pur dianzi pace
S'imponea pel tuo labbro!
Stragi, furore e morti.
Il cantico di guerra alzate, o forti.
The lyrics to Vincenzo Bellini's song Squilla Il Bronzo Del Dio! speak of a call to war, asking the deities what decrees they bring to the earth, as the shield of Irminsul is struck. The question is posed to Norma, a high priestess who had previously called for peace from her own people, but now calls for destruction and death. The lyrics speak of the dichotomy of peace and war, with the peaceful message of the past being changed by the anger and violence of the present.
The lyrics also call for the chant of war to be raised up by the strong, signifying a call to arms and the need for the people to fight. The song is a powerful call to arms, with the lyrics being filled with images of violence and destruction. The music is intense, with a strong sense of urgency being conveyed through the fast-paced rhythm and the soaring vocals.
Line by Line Meaning
Norma! Che fu?
Norma! What happened?
Percosso lo scudo d'Irminsul,
Irminsul's shield has been struck,
Quali alla terra decreti intima?
What secret decrees do you reveal to the earth?
Guerra, strage, sterminio.
War, slaughter, extermination.
A noi pur dianzi pace S'imponea pel tuo labbro!
Your lips were imposing peace upon us just before!
Ed ira adesso,
And now anger,
Stragi, furore e morti.
Slaughter, fury, and death.
Il cantico di guerra alzate, o forti.
Raise the chant of war, oh brave ones.
Contributed by Mason V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.