Biography
Vincenzo Bellini (Italian: Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini, November 3, 1801 - September 23, 1835) was an Italian composer from Sicily, a pioneer of Italian melodrama and romanticism, known mainly for his operas, the most famous was "Norma".
He was born on November 3, 1801 in Catania, Sicily into a musical family, his father played the harmonium in the church and was his first teacher. From the age of 3 he started learning piano, at 6 he was taught composition, at 12 he had created complete compositions.
There were no notable music schools in Catania and he was sent to Naples where he excelled at the city's conservatory, soon becoming a music teacher and conductor in 1824, at the age of 23. Before he turned 30 he had composed 6 operas, including "The Pirate" that made him famous throughout Europe and his masterpiece, Norma in 1931. Bellini lived in 1833 for a short time in London and then went to Paris where he wrote "I puritani" (1835), the last of his 9 operas.
In the same year he fell seriously ill and died in Pitot, France on September 23, 1835. There is a version that he died of malaria and a rumor that he was poisoned because of his love affair with a married woman.