title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: As Bellini reports, he had problems with Tosi wanting changes to be made to a "cavatina" and a "stretta" in one scene, but he stuck to his own opinion, proving to be correct when he reported the audience's reaction to Florimo: "the public was very happy with the entire opera, particularly with the second act". Overall, the first performance was even greater than it had been in Naples, and the opera was given a total of 21 times. However, critical reaction was not as positive as that of the audience: "The second act is a long bore" stated "L'Eco di Milano", although the "Gazzetta di Genova" was more helpful, noting "the more we listen to the style of the music, the more we appreciate its merit".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini remained in Genoa until 30 April and then returned to Milan, but with no specific opportunity in place. His initial opposition to Comelli-Rubini being allowed to reprise the role of Imogene in "Il pirata" for performances in Naples (as she had done in Vienna—but successfully) was proved to be wrong, since she did sing well there and received general approval. But this issue had caused complications in his relationship with Barbaja, who controlled both theatres, and when he visited Milan in June, he offered Bellini the opportunity to choose between Naples and Milan as the venue for his next opera. For the composer, the decision hung on the availability of singers for each of the houses, especially because Rubini was contracted to sing only in Naples. However, by 16 June, he had decided on the location to be Milan, and then signed a contract to write a new opera for the Carnival season for a fee of one thousands ducati, compared to 150 ducati for his first opera.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: For "La straniera", Bellini received a fee which was sufficient for him to be able to make his living solely by composing music, and this new work became an even greater success than "Il pirata" had been. As for singers, it appears there was some doubt about the tenor, but that Henriette Méric-Lalande, Luigi Lablache (or Tamburini), would be available. In consultation with Romani as to the subject, it was agreed that it would be based on the novel "L'étrangère" ("Il solitario") of 1825 by Charles-Victor Prévot, vicomte d'Arlincourt, and planned for the premiere on the opening night of the season on 26 December.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: However, by 20 September, Bellini told Florimo that he did not think the performance could take place as scheduled due to Romani being ill. In addition, he was concerned about who would sing the tenor role when he had been unable to obtain Rubini's release from his Naples contract. Berardo Calvari (known as Winter) was rejected because audiences had disliked him the previous July when he appeared in both a Pacini and a Donizetti opera at La Scala. Fortunately, having received good reports of the young tenor Domenico Reina, he was able to secure his services, describing him in a letter to Florimo as "one who will want to do himself honour; everyone tells me that his voice is beautiful, and that he has all the acting and spirit one could wish for."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Following Romani's recovery, the delivery of the libretto arrived piecemeal, but Bellini set to work again; progress was slow. By 7 January 1829, with Romani having recovered and set off for Venice to fulfill a contract, the composer was "almost up to the 2nd act". Filippo Cicconetti, in his 1859 biography, gives an account of Bellini's working methods, explaining how he set texts to music always with the words in front of him in order to see how inspired to compose he might become. When it came time to compose the final aria "Or sei pago, ol ciel tremendo", the librettist's words gave him no inspiration at all and, at their next meeting, Romani agreed to re-write the text. Returning within half an hour, the second version left Bellini equally cold—as did a third draft. Finally, when asked what it was that he was seeking, Bellini replied: "I want a thought that will be at one and the same time a prayer, an imprecation, a warning, a delirium ...". A fourth draft was quickly prepared: "Have I entered into your spirit?" asked the librettist—and he was embraced by the young composer.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Rehearsals began in early January with the premiere planned for 14 February 1829; it was an immediate and resounding success with the "Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano" on 16 February declaring it to be a:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: clamorous success..[with] the poet [serving] the composer well, and the composer could not have served the singers better; all competed to render themselves pleasing to the public, and succeeded in such a way as to be applauded greatly.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Three days later, the same publication praised the quality of the music, describing Bellini as "a modern Orpheus" for the beauty of his melodies. Reporting to Romani, who was still in Venice, Bellini gave an account of the success: "the thing went as we never had imagined it. We were in seventh heaven. With [this letter] receive my gratitude more than ever ..." Others wrote equally enthusiastic reports, with abundant praise being given to the singers as well. However, there were detractors who criticised both the opera and its composer: its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys did not please all. 45 years later it was stated that "Bellini's style was abstruse, discontinuous, distorted, and lacking in distinction, that it alternated among the "serio" and the "buffo" and the "semi-serio"..."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: "Zaira" was the opera which came into being following discussions with Barbaja in Milan in June 1828 for a second opera for La Scala. At around the same time, Bellini reported to Florimo that he had been approached by Merelli about writing an inaugural opera for the soon-to-be completed Teatro Ducale (now the Teatro Regio) in Parma which was due to open during the following year on 12 May 1829. Initially, the opera was to be "Carlo di Borgogna", but composer and librettist decided to tackle "a drama so ... hallowed as Voltaire's "Zaïre"", but this proved to be more challenging for Romani than first imagined.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: With this opera, Bellini encountered "the first serious setback of a hitherto brilliant career". Several reasons have been put forward: Lippmann and McGuire note, it was because "Bellini showed too little enthusiasm for the undertaking". Another writer attributes it to Parma's traditional love of and favouritism towards the music of Rossini, while yet another notes that a combination of the composer being constantly seen in cafes around the city (when it was assumed that he should have been composing) and the fact that Romani had included a long explanation of the difficulties of adapting Voltaire in the printed libretto provided to all operagoers. The librettist was critical of his own work: "the style should have been more careful, and that here and there, certain repetitions of phrases and concepts should have been edited out". At the same time, he stated that, with music composed to those verses now in place, "I was not permitted to go back over what already had been done; and poetry and music were finished in less than a month". This short period of time compares to the months which, for example, it took Bellini to write "Il pirata".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In fact, Bellini arrived in Parma on 17 March giving him 56 days before the opening, but he then learned that some of the singers would only arrive 14 days before the date of the premiere, a date that was—in theory— unchangeable. In fact, it had to be changed due to the inability of Lalande to arrive in time for sufficient rehearsal. Both composer and librettist were somewhat dilatory, delaying work as much and as long as possible. Count Sanvitale's request on 17 April, asking "to let me know the reasons why our copyists are kept idle", did not receive much of response to satisfy the theatre's management. Eventually, both men got down to work and finished on time, although the premiere was delayed by four days.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The general impression given by reports in the press was that, overall, the music was weak, although some numbers and the trio were liked. However, for the most part, the singers were applauded, even if the composer received little. The opera received eight performances, followed by some poorly received ones in Florence in 1836, and then it disappeared until 1976.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: After the poor response in Parma to "Zaira", Bellini stayed with Ferdinando and Giuditta Turina's family for a short period in May/June and then returned to Milan by the end of June and discovered that his grandfather, then 85, had died in Catania. No contract for another opera in sight, except for the possibility of working with the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. As is revealed by Herbert Weinstock, there is limited knowledge of what happened to Bellini between June 1833 and February 1834, since no letters to Florimo from that period have survived, and the only sources are those letters sent to others.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Giovanni Pacini, another Catanese composer, was still in Milan in late June after the well-received premiere on 10 June of his opera "Il Talismano" at La Scala, where it went on to receive a total of 16 performances. To Bellini, he appeared to be a rival, and with his recent success, Pacini received offers to compose an opera for both Turin and Venice for the Carnival season. He accepted both offers, but the La Fenice impresario included a proviso that if he were to be unable to fulfill the Venice contract, then it would be transferred to Bellini.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini then became preoccupied with staging a revival of his "Il pirata" during the summer season at the Teatro Canobbiana because La Scala was closed for repairs. "Il Pirata" was staged with the original cast and again was a triumph: it received 24 consecutive performances between 16 July and 23 August 1829, thus outnumbering Pacini's.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: During July and August, the composer Gioachino Rossini visited Milan on his way to Bologna. He saw the "Il Pirata" production and met Bellini; the two men were taken with each other, to the extent that when the younger composer was in Paris a year or two later, he developed a very strong bond with Rossini.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: A firm offer of a contract for a new opera for Venice appeared in the autumn, a contract which also included a provision that "Il pirata" would be given during the Carnival 1830 season. Tearing himself away from dalliances with Mrs. Turina, by mid-December Bellini was in Venice where Giuseppe Persiani's "Constantino in Arles" was in rehearsal with the same singers who were to perform in "Pirata": they were Giuditta Grisi, the tenor Lorenzo Bonfigli, and Giulio Pellegrini.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: With rehearsals for "Pirata" underway in late December, Bellini was given notice by the La Fenice impresario, Alessandro Lanari, that it was doubtful whether Pacini would be present in time to stage an opera and that a contract was to be prepared with the proviso that it would only become effective on 14 January. Accepting the offer 5 January, Bellini stated that he would set Romani's libretto for "Giulietta Capellio", that he required 45 days between receipt of the libretto and the first performance, and that he would accept 325 napoleoni d'oro (about 8,000 lire).


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The tentative contract deadline was extended until 20 January, but by that date Romani was in Venice, having already re-worked much of his earlier libretto which he had written for Nicola Vaccai's 1825 opera, "Giulietta e Romeo", the source for which was the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola which had been written in 1818. The two men set to work, but with the winter weather in Venice becoming increasingly bad, Bellini fell ill; however, he had to continue to work under great pressure within a now-limited timetable. Eventually, revisions to Romani's libretto were agreed to, a new title was given to the work, and Bellini reviewed his score of "Zaira" to see how some of the music could be set to the new text, but composing the part of Romeo for Grisi. He also took Giulietta’s ""Oh quante volte"" and Nelly’s "romanza" from "Adelson e Salvini". The Giulietta was to be sung by Rosalbina Caradori-Allan.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: At the premiere of "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" on 11 March 1830 success for Bellini returned. Weinstock describes the premiere as "an unclouded and immediate success" but it was only able to be performed eight times before the La Fenice season closed on 21 March. A local newspaper, "I Teatri", reported that "all things considered, this opera by Bellini has aroused as much enthusiasm in Venice as "La straniera" aroused in Milan from the first evening on".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: By this time, Bellini knew that he had achieved a degree of fame: writing on 28 March, he stated that "My style is now heard in the most important theatres in the world ... and with the greatest enthusiasm."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Before leaving Venice, Bellini was offered a contract to produce another new opera for La Fenice for the 1830–31 Carnival season, and—upon his return to Milan after a reunion with Turina—he also found an offer from Genoa for a new opera but proposed for the same time period, an offer he was forced to reject.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Later that year, Bellini prepared a version of "Capuleti" for La Scala which was given on 26 December, lowering Giulietta’s part for the mezzo-soprano Amalia Schütz Oldosi.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Returning to Milan after the "Capuleti" performances, little occurred until the latter part of April when changes began to appear in the management of La Scala. The organisation, "Crivelli and Company" which had managed both that house as well as La Fenice, was negotiating with a triumvirate consisting of Count Pompeo Litta and two businessmen, their immediate concern being the engagement of singers and composers for La Scala. In order to contract with Bellini, he had to be released from his obligation to Venice; this was achieved by Litta buying out the Venice contract. When Bellini laid out his terms for writing for Milan, Litta gave him a very favourable response: "I shall earn almost twice as much as if I had composed for Crivelli [then the Venetian impresario]" he noted in a letter to his uncle.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: However, the group led by Duke Litta failed to come to terms with the Crivelli-Lanari-Barbaja group which continued to manage both La Scala and La Fenice. As a result, in the April–May 1830 period, Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with both the Litta group—which was planning performances in a smaller Milan house, the Teatro Carcano—and with the Crivelli group to obtain a contract for an opera for the autumn of 1831 and another for the 1832 Carnival season. These were to become "Norma" for La Scala and "Beatrice di Tenda" for La Fenice.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini then experienced the re-occurrence of an illness which had emerged in Venice due to pressure of work and the bad weather, but which consistently recurred after each opera and which would eventually cause his death. The gastro-enteric condition—which he describes as "a tremendous inflammatory gastric bilious fever"— resulted in his being cared for by Francesco Pollini and his wife at their home because, as Bellini wrote, "he loves me more than a son".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Having recovered from his illness by the summer, Bellini went to stay near Lake Como. The need to decide on the subject for the following winter's opera became pressing, although it had already been agreed that Giuditta Pasta, who had achieved success in the Teatro Carcano in 1829 and 1830 with in several major operas, would be the principal artist. That she owned a house near Como and would be staying there over the summer was the reason that Romani traveled to meet her and Bellini.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: By 15 July they had decided on an adaptation of Victor Hugo's play, "Hernani", although Weinstock speculates as to how this decision could have come about. The play's political subject matter would have been known to the group and they would certainly know of the strict censorship then in existence in Austrian-controlled Lombardy. In addition, it was uncertain as to whether Pasta was interested in singing a trousers role, that of the protagonist, Ernani. While it seems that all three were in agreement, no further progress was made. Romani, who promised to begin the "Ernani" libretto immediately, went off to write one for what became Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" (which opened the Carcano's season in December 1830). Rather than resting, Bellini immediately set off for Bergamo to stage "La straniera", then went back to the mountains. But, by the end of November, nothing had been achieved in the way of writing either the libretto or the score of "Ernani".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: On 3 January 1831, a letter from Bellini stated: "... I am no longer composing "Ernani" because the subject would have had to undergo some modifications at the hands of the police. ... [Romani] is now writing "La sonnambula, ossia I Due Fidanzati Svizzeri". ... It must go on stage on 20 February at the latest."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Romani's libretto for "La sonnambula" was based on a "ballet-pantomime" by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called "La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur". With its pastoral setting and story, "La sonnambula" was to become another triumphant success during Bellini's five years in Milan.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The title role of Amina (the sleepwalker) with its high tessitura is renowned for its difficulty, requiring a complete command of trills and florid technique. It was written for Pasta who has been described as a "soprano sfogato".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: That music which he was beginning to use for "Ernani" was transferred to "La Sonnambula" is not in doubt, and as Weinstein comments, "he was as ready as most other composers of his era to reuse in a new situation musical passages created for a different, earlier one".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The opera's premiere performance took place on 6 March 1831, a little later than the original date, at the Teatro Carcano. Its success was partly due to the differences between Romani's earlier libretti and this one, as well as "the accumulation of operatic experience which both [Bellini] and Romani had brought to its creation." Press reactions were universally positive, as was that of the Russian composer, Mikhail Glinka, who attended and wrote overwhelmingly enthusiastically:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Pasta and Rubini sang with the most evident enthusiasm to support their favourite conductor ["sic"]; the second act the singers themselves wept and carried the audience along with them.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: After its premiere, the opera was performed in London on 28 July 1831 at the King’s Theatre and in New York on 13 November 1835 at the Park Theatre.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: During Bellini's lifetime another "sfogato", Maria Malibran, was to become a notable exponent of the role.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: With "La sonnambula" successfully behind them, Bellini and Romani began to consider the subject of the opera for which they had been contracted by the Crivelli group for a December 1831 premiere at La Scala and which would mark Giuditta Pasta's debut at that house. By the summer, they had decided upon "Norma, ossia L'Infanticidio" which was based on the play of the same name, "Norma, or The Infanticide" by Alexandre Soumet which was being performed in Paris at around that time and which Pasta would have seen.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: For the roles of Adalgisa and Pollione, La Scala had engaged Giulia Grisi, the sister of Giuditta, and the well-known tenor Domenico Donzelli, who had made a name for himself with Rossini roles, especially that of Otello. He provided Bellini with precise details of his vocal capabilities which were confirmed by a report which Mercadante also provided. By the end of August it appears that Romani had completed a considerable amount of the libretto, enough at least to allow Bellini to begin work, which he certainly did in the first weeks of September as the verses were supplied. He reported in a letter to Pasta on 1 September:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: I hope that you will find this subject to your liking. Romani believes it to be very effective, and precisely because of the all-inclusive character for you, which is that of Norma. He will manipulate the situations so that they will not resemble other subjects at all, and he will retouch, even change, the characters to produce more effect, if need be.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Pasta's vocal and dramatic ranges were extensive: that March, she had created the very different Bellini role of Amina, the Swiss village maiden, in "La sonnambula".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: As the year progressed, several things appeared which began to disturb the composer. Firstly, an outbreak of cholera had occurred in Austria in July, and concern about its spread to Italy was real, to the point that, by late September, Bellini was writing to Florimo: "I am composing the opera without any real zeal because I am almost certain that the cholera will arrive in time to close the theatres; but as soon it threatens to come near, I'll leave Milan."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: About this time he had received an offer to compose for the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and, in return, had imposed some harsh terms, totally objecting to the English soprano Marianna Lewis, "a donna who is below mediocrity: does not know how to sing, is a sausage on stage ..." He continues by stressing the need for a good tenor were he to come to Naples and, in a separate letter to be forwarded by Florimo, tells Principe di Ruffano, then the superintendent of the royal theatres, that he doubts that Barbaja would even agree to the fee already offered to him by La Scala, a total of 2,400 ducati, when he would want 3,000 ducati from Naples for all the additional expenses which he would incur. In a post script, Bellini adds an indignant objection to what he has heard about the proposed casting of "Capuleti" in Naples. It is clear that he regards Barbaja as an enemy.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: "Norma" was completed by about the end of November. Bellini then had to deal with the issue of piracy in regard to vocal reductions for piano of "La sonnambula" as published by Casa Ricordi. These scores were then fully orchestrated and sold to unsuspecting opera houses as full orchestral scores. This illegal action caused Bellini to publish a notice in major Italian newspapers putting such "pirates" on notice, but Weinstock comments that such attempts to control were not likely to succeed until Italian unification provided laws applicable to the country as a whole.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: After rehearsals began on 5 December, Pasta baulked at singing the "Casta diva" in act 1, now one of the most famous arias of the nineteenth century. She felt that it was "ill adapted to her vocal abilities", but Bellini was able to persuade her to keep trying for a week, after which she adapted to it and confessed her earlier error. At the opening night, the opera was received with what Weinstock describes as "chill indifference". To Florimo on the night of the premiere, Bellini wrote "Fiasco! Fiasco! Solemn fiasco!" and proceed to tell him of the indifference of the audience and how it affected him.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In addition, in a letter to his uncle on 28 December, Bellini tries to explain the reasons for the reactions. As other commentators have also noted, some problems were innate to the structure and content of the opera, while others were external to it. Bellini discusses the tiredness of the singers (after rehearing the entire second on the day of the premiere) as well as noting how certain numbers failed to please—and failed to please the composer as well! But then he explains that most of the second act was very effective. It appears from the letter that the second evening's performance was more successful. Among the external reasons, Bellini cites the adverse reaction caused by the attitudes of both the owner of a journal (and his claque) and also of "a very rich woman"—who Weinstock identifies as Contessa Giulia Samoyloff— who was Pacini's mistress. He also notes that on this second evening, the theatre was full.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In all, "Norma" was given 39 performances in its first season at La Scala, and reports from elsewhere, especially those from Bergamo when performances were given there in late 1832, suggested that it was becoming more and more popular. Bellini left Milan for Naples, and then Sicily, on 5 January 1832, but for the first time since 1827, it was a year in which he did not write an opera.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini traveled to Naples, although he may have stopped in Rome to see Giuditta Turina and her brother Gaetano Cantù. However, the sister and brother also went to Naples where Giuditta was finally able to meet Florimo and see the city in which Bellini had triumphed. Within six days, Bellini was in Naples where he remained for six weeks.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: During that time he remained busy, spending some time with Turina (who was ill for part of it), visiting the conservatory and meeting with many of the students and his old teacher, Zingarelli (to whom he had dedicated "Norma"), and attending a performance of "Capuleti" at the San Carlo with Turina and Florimo on 5 February in the presence of King Ferdinand II. The King led the applause for the composer, resulting in his being called to the stage and thus enjoying a very warm welcome from the people of Naples.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Planning to leave Naples by 25 February, he dealt with the invitation from Lanari at La Fenice to compose for that house by stating that he would not work for less than the sum received from the last production, and that he was also in discussions with the San Carlo. Arriving in Messina along with Florimo on the morning of 27 February, Bellini was greeted by several members of his family including his father. They remained in Messina for two days, attending a performance of "Il pirata" at the Teatro della Munizione, where he was greeted with "loud shouts of pleasure, hand-clapping, and words of praise".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini arrived in Catania on 3 March to a civic welcome. He was greeted by the city's authorities and citizens who also feted him at a concert the following evening. This included excerpts from "La sonnambula" and "Il pirata" at the Teatro Communale, now replaced by the Teatro Massimo Bellini which was opened in 1890 and named in Bellini's honour. After a month, Bellini and Florimo left for Palermo where, once again, there was a "royal welcome" and where he made the acquaintance of Filippo Santocanale and his wife. Although weather delayed their departure for Naples, they continued to spend an enjoyable time there, but Bellini was anxious to return to Naples before Easter and to be with Giuditta Turina, who had remained in that city. They reached Naples on 25 April where he was reunited with Turina.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Upon his arrival, Bellini wrote to his new friend Santocanale in Palermo, telling him that he would be accepting a contract from La Fenice so the issue had resurfaced in the form of a contract from Lanari which appeared to have accepted the composer's terms. But he had forgotten how much he had demanded: writing to Giuditta Pasta's husband, Giuseppe, he asked for the letter he had written to him (in which he had revealed the terms offered) to be sent to him to await his arrival in Florence.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: When returning to Naples, the couple reached Rome on 30 April. There is speculation that, when there, Bellini composed a one-act opera, "Il fu ed it sara" ("The Past and the Present") for a private performance (which was supposedly not given until 1832), but little further information—nor any of the music—has been forthcoming. It appears that the couple (along with Giuditta's brother) left for Florence on or around 20 May traveling by private coach and that he attended what he described as "a quite unrecognisable" performance of "La sonnumbula" at the Teatro della Pergola. In the same letter, Bellini informed his publisher that: "I have arranged the contract with Lanari to compose the opera for Venice; there I'll have the divine Pasta, and on the same terms as the contract with La Scala for "Norma"". He continues by stating that, in addition, he will receive one hundred percent of the rental rights of the scores.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Within a few days, Bellini was in Milan, from there writing to his friend Santocanale in Palermo that "I'm ... trying to find a good subject for my new opera for Venice. In August, I shall go to Bergamo for the production of my "Norma" with Pasta." From Bergamo, he wrote to Romani, excited to tell him that:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Our "Norma" is decidedly a great success. If you heard how it's performed in Bergamo, you'd almost think that it was a new work ... [Pasta] even moves me. In fact, I wept [with] the emotions I felt in my soul. I wanted you near me so that I could have these emotions with you, my good advisor and collaborator, because you alone understand me. My glory is intrinsic to yours.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: After the successful production in Bergamo, which was favourably reviewed by the same writer from the "Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano" who was not enthusiastic about the original Milan production, Bellini spent a few days with Turina, and then, by mid-September, had returned to Milan anxious to meet Romani to decide on the subject for the following February's opera for La Fenice for which a contract had become official. In addition, it had been agreed that the new opera would be preceded by performances of "Norma" and that they would open the season.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: "Beatrice di Tenda", with the leading role requiring a strong female character to be written for Pasta, composer and librettist met to consider a subject. Much of the initial work fell upon Romani, who had to look at a number of possible sources, and he became irritated by the task, finally hoping that a shipment of books from Paris would reveal a suitable one. It appears that by 6 October, a subject had been agreed upon: it would be "Cristina regina di Svenzia" from a play by Alexandre Dumas which had appeared in Paris in 1830. However, by one month later, Bellini was writing to Pasta to state that: "The subject has been changed, and we'll write "Beatrice di Tenda" [after the play of the same name by Carlo Tedaldi-Fores.] I had a hard time persuading Romani, but persuade him I did, and with good reasons. Knowing that the subject pleases you, as you told me the evening when you saw the ballet [in September 1832 in Milan when it accompanied a Mercadante opera] ... He is a man of good will, and I want him to show it also in wanting to prepare at least the first act for me swiftly."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini's expectation that Romani's good will would be demonstrated promptly, turned out to be a mistake. The librettist had vastly over-committed himself: by the time that "Cristina" became "Beatrice", he had made commitments to Mercadante for an October opera; also to Carlo Coccia for an opera for La Scala on 14 February 1833; and further, to Luigi Majocchi for a Parma production on 26 February; to Mercadante for La Scala on 10 March; and to Donizetti for Florence on 17 March. Nothing happened in November; Bellini announced that he would arrive in Venice in early December and after 10th, he became preoccupied with rehearsals for "Norma". However, the lack of any verses—for an opera which was supposed to be staged in the second half of February—caused him to have to take action against Romani. This involved a complaint lodged with the governor of Venice who then contacted the governor of Milan, who then had his police contact Romani. The librettist finally arrived in Venice on 1 January 1833. He holed up to write Bellini's libretto, but, at the same time, Donizetti was equally incensed at delays in receiving a libretto from Romani for an opera which was to be "Parisina".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: When "Norma" opened on 26 December, it was a success but only because of Pasta. The Adalgisa of Anna Del Serre and the Pollione of Alberico Curioni were mediocre; Bellini feared for how "Beatrice" would turn out. Writing to Santocanale on 12 January, Bellini was in despair, complaining of the short time to write his opera because "Whose fault is that? that of my usual and original poet, the God of Sloth!" Their relationship quickly began to deteriorate: greetings including "tu" (the informal "you") gave way to "voi" (the formal "you") and they lived in different parts of Venice. However, by 14 February, Bellini was reporting that he had only "another three pieces of the opera to do" and that "I hope to go onstage here on 6 March if I am able to finish the opera and prepare it."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: As it turned out, Bellini was only able to prepare the opera for rehearsals by deleting sections of the libretto as well as some of the music for the finale. To create more time for Bellini to finish, at La Fenice Lanari padded the programme with older works or revivals, but that allowed only eight days for "Beatrice" before the scheduled end of the season. Not surprisingly, the audience greeted the opening night on 16 March with little enthusiasm, especially after Romani's plea for "the reader's full indulgence" appeared in the libretto, but at the following two performances there was a large crowd. For Bellini, his opera "was not unworthy of her sisters".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: There then began what Herbert Weinstock describes in over twelve pages of text, which include the long letters written by both sides in the dispute:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The journalistic storm over "Beatrice di Tenda" was about to evolve into the bitterest, most convoluted, and—at our distance from it—most amusing polemic in the annals of early nineteenth-century Italian opera.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Three days before the premiere, the Venetian daily, the "Gazzetta privilegiata di Venezia", had published a letter purportedly written to its editor by 'A.B.' of Fonzaso, in Weinstein's view most certainly fabricated by Tommaso Locatelli, the musically sophisticated man who edited the paper. In the letter, he complained about the delay in the production of "Beatrice" as the end of the season became closer.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Weinstock assumes that it is Locatelli who replied to "A.B.", asserting that Bellini and Romani were trying to achieve perfection before taking the opera to London. Then a torrent of anti-"Beatrice" letters appeared after the first performance, followed by a pro-Bellini reply, signed "A friend of M. Bellini". This letter removes the blame from Bellini and lays it at the feet of Romani, outlining the timetable for the delivery of the libretto, which was contracted to be due in two parts: one in October and then the second in November. The author states that, except for a limited amount of text, nothing had been received by mid-January and the piece continues by describing the legal proceedings taken by Bellini and the various setbacks which occurred even after Romani arrived in Venice. On 2 April, this provoked a response from Romani himself, presenting his case against Bellini based largely on the composer's inability to decide on a subject, as well as justifying all the work which he did after arriving in Venice, only to find his "melodramma" "touched up in a thousand ways", in order to make it acceptable to "the Milords of the Thames [who] await him", a sarcastic reference to planned trip to London. Another, a more "venomous" version of this letter, was sent to Milan's "L'Eco".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: "Pietro Marinetti" replied from the pro-Bellini camp in the Milan journal, "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" on 11 April. In "Two Words for Signor Felice Romani" [but which takes five pages in print], he states that it is not his intention to defend the composer but "only to vent my displeasure given me and all sensitive people by the very sarcastic manner, full of personal rancor and hauteur, with which Signor Romani has undertaken to assail his antagonist." Not unexpectedly, a further "cannonade" (says Weinstock) appeared from Romani, published this time in "L'Eco" on 12 April 1833 with both an editor's preface, decrying the poor taste displayed by both sides, and a brief final response from Marinetti.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Having been invited to write a new opera for the San Carlo for the 1834–35 Carnival season, but declined because of his Paris commitment, he stated that May 1835 might be possible when he knew who were to be the contracted singers. Florimo immediately began to try to persuade his friend, indicating that Malibran had been engaged for Naples in January 1835. Continuing his letter to Florimo, he states:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: why the Management ... doesn't make a contract with Romani; not just for one libretto, but by the year ... with the understanding that he come to live in Naples; thus he could write the libretto for me as the only poet attached to the theatre, and if they want to negotiate with him, they can commission me to arrange it; I'd like to return good for evil to that wrongheaded and very talented man ...


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: From that statement of March 1834, it does not appear that animosity still existed on the composer's part. Through an intermediary, Bordesi (or Bordese), a mutual friend of both men, Romani initially expressed interest in re-establishing friendly relations with Bellini. Thus, Bellini wrote back to the intermediary stating: "Tell my dear Romani that I still love him even though he is a cruel man" and he continues by wondering if Romani ever thinks about him where he, Bellini, says "whereas I do nothing but to talk about him to the entire universe". Then he ends with: "Give him a kiss for me". This was followed by a letter to Florimo in late May where Bellini wishes to know if Romani reciprocated his feelings, which—it appears—did happen when he writes to Romani himself (most likely expansion of the initial draft) laying out a series of concerns, but quoting back to him a part of his own letter to Bordese in which Romani states "I have not ceased to love him [Bellini], for I recognise that the blame is not all his".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In conclusion, Bellini suggests "draw[ing] a veil over everything that happened", stating that he cannot come to Milan at this time but, since he was planning to write the opera for Naples for 1836, he could do so in January [1835: presumably after "I puritani"]. He ends by saying that, if he does not hear back from Romani, he will not write to him again. Little is known about Romani's reply, but reply he did, as indicated in Bellini's letter to Florimo in October followed by a very friendly one on 7 October 1834 to the librettist (who had been engaged in Turin) and in which he states: "It seemed impossible to exist without you", closing with "Write for Turin or for wherever, write , for your Bellini".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: After leaving Venice on 26 March, before the barrage of letter-writing began, it is known that Bellini spent some time with Mrs. Turina in Milan and, leaving many of his personal possessions with her, appears to have planned to return there by August since he did not give up his rooms in the contrade dei Re Monasteri.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: With the Pasta and other members of the Italian troupe contracted for London by the impresario of the King's Theatre, Pierre-François Laporte, Bellini and his troupe set off. On the journey it is known that he stopped in Paris and discussed with Dr. Louis Véron, the director of the Paris Opéra, the possibility of writing a French opera, but his intention was to focus on that subject on his return in the coming July.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: As Weinstock notes, when the Italians arrived in London by 27 April, Bellini was a known factor, many of his operas having already been given over the previous few years. His name is listed as an attendee in the "Morning Chronicle" of 29 April at a performance of Rossini's "La Cenerentola", along with those of Maria Malibran, Felix Mendelssohn, Niccolò Paganini, as well as Pasta, Rubini, and other visiting Italian singers. His operas which had been presented in London included "Il pirata" (with Henriette Méric-Lalande in April 1830) followed by "La sonnambula" (with Pasta) and "La straniera" (with Giuditta Grisi).


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In addition—and separate from Bellini's troupe at the King's Theatre—Maria Malibran was about to present her London debut in "La sonnambula" at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 1 May in an English version with "an adapted Bellini score". It appears that Bellini had his first meeting with Malibran when attending a performance where, as he states:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: my music was tortured, torn to shreds. ... Only when Malibran was singing did I recognise my [opera] ... but in the "allegro" of the final scene, and precisely at the words 'Ah! m'abbraccia' ... I was the first to shout at the top of my voice: 'Viva, viva, brava, brava,' and to clap my hands as much as I could. [When he was recognised by the audience, who became more and more enthusiastic, he was called to the stage where he embraced Malibran. He continues:] My emotion was at its climax. I thought I was in Paradise.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: As the opera season progressed, Bellini found himself caught up in the social whirl, with invitations coming from all around him. His fame was now secure—"La sonnambula" having established it—and the premiere of "Norma", given on 21 June with Pasta in the title role, was a triumph according to a long letter which Giuseppe Pasta wrote about the experience and his wife's huge success. Additionally, reports in the London press were favourable including the review which appeared in "The Times" of 23 June 1833. It took until late July for "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" to be given its London premiere and his contract was then over, after which he left for Paris by about mid-August.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: When he arrived in Paris in mid-August 1833, Bellini had intended to stay only about three weeks, the main aim being to continue the negotiations with the Opéra which had begun on his way to London a few months earlier. While there was no agreement with Véron at the Opéra, the Théâtre-Italien made him an offer which, Bellini notes, he accepted because "the pay was richer than what I had received in Italy up to then, though only by a little; then because of so magnificent a company; and finally so as to remain in Paris at others' expense."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In fact, Éduard Robert and Carlo Severini of the "Italien" had written to the composer, offering a seat in their theatre during his stay in the city and telling him that Grisi, Unger, and Rubini would be singing "Pirata" in October and "Capuleti" in November. But with no definite arrangements having been made to compose for the Italian house—and Bellini essentially not wishing to proceed with an offer from Turin to stage "Norma"—he settled into a new, small apartment. He wrote to Florimo, telling him about the lodgings and that he had written to Turina not to sell any of his furniture, but to send some of it to him.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Quickly, Bellini entered the fashionable world of the Parisian salon, most importantly that run by the Italian exile Princess Belgiojoso whom he had met in Milan and who "was by far the most overtly political of the salonnières". Her salon became a meeting place for Italian revolutionaries such as Vincenzo Gioberti, Niccolò Tommaseo, and Camillo Cavour, and it was there that he would have most likely made the acquaintance of Count Carlo Pepoli. Others that Bellini would have met included Victor Hugo, George Sand, Alexandre Dumas pėre, and Heinrich Heine. Among the many musical figures were several Italian such as Michele Carafa and the imposing Luigi Cherubini, then in his seventies.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In terms of musical activity—or lack thereof—Bellini pleaded guilty in the letter to Florimo in March 1834: "If you reflect for a moment that a young man in my position, in London and Paris for the first time, cannot help amusing himself immensely, you will excuse me." However, in January 1834, he had signed a contract to write a new opera for the Théâtre-Italien which would be presented at the end of the year. At the same time, he had been invited to write a new opera for the San Carlo in Naples for the 1834–35 Carnival season, but declined given the Paris commitment and stated that it might be possible to do so by May 1835 when he knew who were to be the contracted singers. Florimo immediately began to try to persuade his friend to take up this offer, indicating that Malibran had been engaged for Naples in January 1835.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: On a professional level, Bellini became very concerned around the middle of April 1834, when he learned that Donizetti would be composing for the Théâtre-Italien during the same season, 1834–35. According to Weinstock, quoting letters sent to Florimo in Italy at around that time (and continuing almost up to the premiere of "I puritani"), Bellini perceived this to be a plot orchestrated by Rossini. In a long, rambling letter of 2,500 words to Florino of 11 March 1834, he expresses his frustrations.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: But over a year later and with hindsight—after "Puritani"s great success which came way ahead of that of Donizetti's first work for Paris, "Marin Faliero"—he outlines "the plot which was being hatched against me" and the strategies which he adopted to counter it. These strategies included expanding his contacts with Rossini to secure his growing friendship by continuing to see him on numerous occasions to seek his advice, noting "I have always adored Rossini, and I succeeded, and happily ... [having] tamed Rossini's hatred, I no longer was frightened and finished that work of mine which won me so much honour". In a series of letters to Florimo throughoutthe year, he wrote of Rossini's increasing support, even love: "I hear that he speaks well of me" (4 September 1834); "... if I have Rossini's protection, I'll be situated very well" (4 November); "The most beautiful is that Rossini loves me very, very, very much" (18 November); and "... my very dear Rossini who now loves me as a son" (21 January 1835, following the dress rehearsal).


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: However, during the time during which he was composing "Puritani", Bellini recounted the details of another bout of what he describes as "gastric fever" and which Weinstock describes as "that brief indisposition, which had been recurring almost every year at the onset of warm weather".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Having signed the contract for a new opera, Bellini began to look around for a suitable subject and, in a letter to Florimo of 11 March 1834, he alludes to the opera which was to become "I puritani", noting: "I am about to lose my mind over the plot of the opera for Paris, as it has been impossible to find a suitable subject for my purpose and adaptable to the company".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In the same letter he continues by stating that he was working towards finding a subject with the Italian émigré, Count Pepoli, who came from a prominent Bologna family and who had been active in opposition to Austrian rule of Italy, until forced into exile in France and England. Although Pepoli had yet to write for the opera house, he made acquaintance with Bellini at one of the salons both attended. The process of writing the libretto and working with the composer was a struggle (notes Weinstock), added to by a period of illness which Bellini reports, although—on 11 April—he is able to report in a letter to Ferlito that he was well and that "I have chosen the story for my Paris opera; it is of the times of Cromvello [Cromwell], after he had King Charles I of England beheaded." In his letter, he continues by providing a synopsis, indicating that his favourite singers—Giulia Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache—would be available for the principal roles, and that he would begin to write the music by 15 April if he has received the verses. He also referred to the offer from Naples for April 1836 and noting his financial demands with the questions as to how this might be received.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The chosen source was a play performed in Paris only six months before, "Têtes Rondes et Cavalieres" ("Roundheads and Cavaliers"), written by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which some sources state was based on Walter Scott's novel "Old Mortality", while others state that there is no connection. The composer had prepared the way for his librettist by providing him with a scenario of thirty-nine scenes (thus compressing the original drama into manageable proportions), reducing the number of characters from nine to seven and at the same time, giving them names of a more Italianate, singable quality.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Continuing to work on the yet-unnamed "I Puritani", Bellini moved to Puteaux—"a half an hour by road" from central Paris, as the guest of an English friend, Samuel Levys, "where I hope to complete my opera more carefully".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: At some in the late Spring (specific date unknown) Bellini wrote to Pepoli to remind him that he should bring the first act of the opera with him the following day "so that we can finish discussing the first act, which ... will be interesting, magnificent, and proper poetry for music in spite of you and all your absurd rules ..." At the same time, he lays out one basic rule for the librettist to follow:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Carve into your head in adamantine letters: "The opera must draw tears, terrify people, make them die through singing"


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: By late June, there had been considerable progress and, in a letter copied into one written to Florimo on 25 July, Bellini writes in reply to Alesandro Lanari, now the director of the Royal Theatres of Naples. Because Lanari had written to him on 10 April 1834 regarding an opera for Naples, Bellini tells him that the first act of "Puritani" is finished and that he expects to complete the opera by September, in order that he may then have time to write for Naples. In this letter to Lanari, the composer lays down some very strict terms, some of which received counter-offers in August, but none of which were accepted by the composer. Finally, Bellini stated that he did not want "to negotiate with anybody until I see what success my opera will have". This included a proposal from the Opéra-Comique for a new opera for them.)


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: By September he was writing to Florimo of being able to "polish and re-polish" in the three remaining months before rehearsals and he expresses happiness with Pepoli's verses ("a very beautiful trio for the two basses and "La Grisi"")and by around mid-December he had submitted the score for Rossini's approval, with rehearsals planned for late December/early January. The dress rehearsal on 20 January 1835 was attended by many people—"All of high society, all the great artists, and everyone most distinguished in Paris were in the theatre, enthusiastic."—and the premiere, postponed by two days, took place on 24 January 1835. Bellini's ecstatic letter to Florimo which followed recounts the enthusiastic reception of many of the numbers throughout the performance, most especially the second act "stretta" so that, by its end:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The French had all gone mad; there were such noise and such shouts that they themselves were astonished at being so carried away. ... In a word, my dear Florimo, it was an unheard of thing, and since Saturday, Paris has spoken of it in amazement. ... I showed myself to the audience, which shouted as if insane. ... How satisfied I am! [He concludes by noting the success of the singers]: "Lablache sang like a god, Grisi like a little angel, Rubini and Tamburini the same."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In the immediate aftermath of "I puritani"s success, Bellini was awarded two honours: the first by King Louis-Philippe, naming him as "chevalier" of the Légion d'honneur; the second by King Ferdinand II in Naples, awarding him the cross of the "Order of Francesco I". Bellini then dedicated "I puritiani" "To the Queen of the French", Queen Marie-Emélie. But from a personal point of view, Bellini expressed his sadness at not having seen Florimo for so long, and there flowed a succession of invitations, then demands that Florimo come to Paris to visit him, but from February to July, Florimo ignored the offers and finally, in a letter to him, Bellini stated: "I'll no longer ask for reasons, and I'll see you when I see you." After that, he attempted to persuade his uncle, Vincenzo Ferlito, to visit, but without success.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: During the final preparations in 1834 for the staging of "Puritani" and up to its delay into 1835, Bellini had concluded an agreement with Naples to present three operas there—including the re-writing of parts of the music for Malibran—beginning in the following January. All that went by the wayside when the revised score failed to arrive on time, and performances were abandoned and the contract scrapped. Thus, during March, Bellini did nothing, but did attend the final performance of "Puritani" on 31st. On 1 April, he wrote a very lengthy letter to Ferlito laying out the entire history of his life in Paris to date, as well as reviving the old jealousies about Donizetti and Rossini's so-called "enmity" toward him. He ended by mentioning that "my future plans are to be able to arrange a contract with the French Grand Opéra and remain in Paris, making it my home for the present." Additionally, he discusses the prospect of marriage to a young woman who "is not rich, but she has an uncle and aunt who are: if they will give her 200,000 francs, I'll marry her", but remarks that he is in no hurry.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Throughout May, accounts came to him from London of the success of "I puritani" and the failure of a revival of "Norma" (due to the poor performances by both the Adalgisa and Pollione), although later reports of Giulietta Grisi's Norma—in contrast to those of Pasta—were not good either, and Bellini was pleased that it was not Grisi who gave the opera in Paris. Over the summer, Bellini's general mood was reported to be "dark": discussion with the Opéra could not proceed until a new director was appointed; "he writes long letters, crowded with projects, ideas, reveries that the hand seems to have trouble restraining"; and, as Weintock concludes, all of these things seem to "inescapably suggest a man deeply disturbed physically, psychologically, or both".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: At one of the literary gatherings which Bellini attended earlier in the year, Bellini met the writer Heinrich Heine. Both men then attended a dinner that summer, at which the writer is reported to have remarked:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: You are a genius, Bellini, but you will pay for your great gift with a premature death. All the great geniuses died very young, like Raphael and like Mozart.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The rather superstitious Bellini was horrified. Also, Heine's literary portrait of Bellini, which became part of his unfinished novel "Florentinische Nächte" ("Florentine Nights") published in 1837, emphasized the less-appealing aspects of the composer's personality, summing up a description of him as "a sigh in dancing pumps".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In his last-known letter to Filippo Santocanale Bellini wrote on 16 August, followed by one to Florimo on 2 September. In the latter, he mentions that "for three days I've been slightly disturbed by a diarrhea, but I am better now, and think that it is over."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: It was clear from Bellini's reaction to Heine's remarks that he did not like Heine. Attempting to reconcile the two men, Madame Joubert, who had attended the summer event, invited both to dinner, along with her friend the Princess Belgiojoso. Bellini failed to appear, instead he sent a note stating that he was too ill. Weinstock reports that the princess sent Doctor Luigi Montallegri to Puteaux. Over a few days, he reported to Carlo Severini of the Théatre-Italien with four notes, the first (on 20 September) stated "no appreciable improvement". On the following day, Montallegri reported a slight improvement, and on 22nd, the doctor stated that he "hopes to declare him out of danger tomorrow". However, the fourth note—on 22 September—is far more pessimistic; it reported that it was the thirteenth day of the illness and that Bellini had "passed a very restless night". And then, during the daytime of the 23rd, Montallegri indicated that there had been what Weinstock describes as "a terrifying convulsion" and that death was close. It appears that Bellini died at around 5 pm on 23 September 1835.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Immediately taking charge of arrangements, Rossini began to plan Bellini's funeral and entombment, as well as caring for his estate. He ordered that a post-mortem be performed, following an order which came directly from the King. The distinguished Court-appointed Doctor Dalmas performed the autopsy and reported his findings on the cause of death:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: It is evident that Bellini succumbed to an acute inflammation of the colon, compounded by an abscess in the liver. The inflammation of the intestine had produced violent symptoms of dysentery during life.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Rossini then created a committee of Parisian musicians in order to find support for a subscription to build a monument to the dead composer, as well as supporting a funeral mass to be celebrated on 2 October in the chapel of the Hôtel des Invalides.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: On 27 September and 3 October, Rossini wrote to Santocanale in Palermo providing very detailed accounts of all that he had done immediately following Bellini's death as well as what had taken place on 2 October. Initially, Rossini regarded burial in Père Lachaise Cemetery as a short-term arrangement, not knowing where the final resting place would turn out to be. Despite attempts over many years to have Bellini's remains transferred to Catania, that did not take place until 1876, when the casket containing his remains was taken to the cathedral in Catania and reburied. His elaborate now empty tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery remains and is neighbouring that of Rossini's whose bones were also eventually transferred back to Italy.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Of the many tributes which poured forth following Bellini's death, one stands out. It was written by Felice Romani and published in Turin on 1 October 1835. In it, he stated:


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: ... Perhaps no composers other than ours, know as well as Bellini the necessity for a close union of music with poetry, dramatic truth, the language of emotions, the proof of expression. ... I sweated for fifteen years to find a Bellini! A single day took him from me!


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Today, the Museo Belliniano, housed in the Palazzo Gravina-Cruyllas in Catania—Bellini's birthplace—preserves memorabilia and manuscripts. He was commemorated on the front of (before Italy switched to the Euro) with the back showing a scene from the opera "Norma".


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: When planning the subject of his next opera after La Scala's "Il pirata", Bellini had been invited to write an opera for Parma's inauguration of the new Teatro Ducale in early 1829. In the initial contract, Bellini was given power over who was to write the libretto and, after meeting the composer and "prima donna", the Parman librettist Luigi Torrigiani's work had been rejected. The aspiring librettist laid a complaint against Bellini in a report to Parma's Grand Chamberlain in December 1828 (which was ignored). In it, the aggrieved librettist sums up Bellini's tastes in Romantic drama: "[he] likes Romanticism and exaggeration. He declares that Classicism is cold and boring. ... He is entranced by unnatural meetings in forests, among graves, tombs and the like ..."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In writing the libretto for "Zaira", Romani expressed his position in relation to Voltaire's tragedy by noting in the preface to the libretto: ""Zaira" therefore is not covered with the ample cloak of Tragedy but wrapped in the tight form of Melodrama."


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Bellini was a notorious womanizer as evidenced in his letters to Francesco Florimo. However, three people had a prominent place in his life: Francesco Florimo, Maddelena Fumaroli and Giuditta Turina.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: One of the closest people in Bellini's life was Francesco Florimo, whom he met as a fellow student at the Naples Conservatory. Throughout Bellini's lifetime, the two shared a close correspondence. During the 1820 revolution, Bellini and Florimo joined a secret society, the Carboneria. Their closeness is evident in their letters. For example, on 12 January 1828 Bellini wrote that theirs were "hearts made only to be friends to the last breath." Bellini wrote in 1825 that "Your existence is necessary to mine". Further, on 11 February 1835, Bellini wrote: " my excellent, my honest, my angelic friend! The more we know the world, the more we shall see how rare is our friendship." Based on these letters, some have speculated about Bellini's sexuality, but Weinstock (1971) believes such interpretations are anachronistic. Rosselli (1996) expands on this point: contrary to how they may seem to modern readers, the expressions of close friendship in these letters were commonplace in Mediterranean societies and the world of early 1800s Italian opera rather than a reflection of sexual attachment. Once Bellini left Naples for Milan, the two men seldom saw one another; their last meeting was in Naples in late 1832, when Bellini was there with Giuditta Turina, before the pair departed for Milan via Florence. Florimo's published recollections—written fifty years after the events they recall—may be flawed. In later years, Bellini declared that Florimo "was the only friend in whom [I] could find comfort". Interpretation of Florimo's collection of letters is complicated however by evidence that he often altered or completely fabricated some of his correspondences with Bellini to create an idealized image of the composer. Florimo was also known to have destroyed some compromising letters involving Bellini's affairs with married women, including some in which Bellini wrote in detail about his affair with Giuditta Turina. After Bellini's death Florimo became his literary executor.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: Although the frustrating affair with Maddalena Fumaroli which, as noted above, came to nothing during these early years, the success achieved by "Bianca e Gernado" gave Bellini fresh hope that her parents would finally relent, and a new appeal was made through a friend. This was utterly rejected by Maddalena's father, who returned all the letters which she had received along with a letter from him stating that "my daughter will never marry a poor piano player ("suonatore di cembalo")". However, when Florimo gave him the news, he said that he was going to try again and win, but the next move was to come later from the Fumaroli family.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: At some time before March 1828, after the major success of "Il pirata" and just as Bellini was about to leave Milan for his production of "Bianca e Ferdinando" in Genoa, he received a notification from his go-between with the Fumaroli family that they had withdrawn their rejection of his proposal. But by then—with the efforts to build his career and with time and distance between him and Maddalena—his feelings had changed and, using Florimo to communicate to the family, he rejected the offer, expressing the feeling that he would be unable to support her financially. Even Maddalena's own pleas in three letters which followed failed to change his mind.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The one significant relationship which Bellini had after 1828 was the five-year relationship with Giuditta Turina, a young married woman with whom he began a passionate affair when both were in Genoa in April 1828 for the production of "Bianca e Fernando". Their relationship lasted until Bellini went to Paris. Bellini’s letters to his friend Florimo indicate his satisfaction with the nature of the liaison, particularly because it kept him from having to marry—and thus becoming distracted from his work.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: However, in May 1833 while he was in London, a significant change in Bellini's relationship with Giuditta followed from the discovery by her husband of a compromising letter from Bellini. The result was that he decided to seek a legal separation and have her removed from his house. For Bellini, it meant the possibility of taking on responsibility for her, and he had no interest in doing that, having cooled in his feelings for her. When he wrote to Florimo from Paris the following year, he clearly stated that "I constantly am being threatened from Milan with Giuditta's coming to Paris", at which point he says he'll leave that city if that were to happen. Then he continues: "I no longer want to be put in the position of renewing a relationship that made me suffer great troubles". When Turina announced that she was leaving her husband, Bellini left her, saying "with so many commitments, such a relationship would be fatal to me," expressing his fear of romantic attachments getting in the way of his musical career. Ultimately, he resisted any long-term emotional commitment, and never married.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: However, Turina maintained contact with Florimo throughout her life, although [nothing] was heard from her after his death until she wrote a sad-but-friendly letter to Florimo. Florimo eventually returned the friendship and, as Galatopoulos notes, "the death of Bellini was a mutual loss and Florimo needed Giuditta as much as she needed him" so that the two corresponded for years and Florimo visited her in Milan "at least once, in 1858". She died on 1 December 1871.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: In 1999, the Italian music publisher Casa Ricordi, in collaboration with the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, embarked on a project to publish critical editions of the complete works of Bellini.


title: Vincenzo Bellini

text: The following fifteen songs were published as a collection, "Composizioni da Camera", by Casa Ricordi in 1935 on the centenary of Bellini's death.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: A certificate of deposit (CD) is a time deposit, a financial product commonly sold by banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions in the United States. CDs differ from savings accounts in that the CD has a specific, fixed term (often one, three, or six months, or one to five years) and usually, a fixed interest rate. The bank expects the CD to be held until maturity, at which time they can be withdrawn and interest paid.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Like savings accounts, CDs are insured "money in the bank" (in the US up to $250,000) and thus, up to the local insured deposit limit, virtually risk free. In the US, CDs are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for banks and by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for credit unions.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: In exchange for the customer depositing the money for an agreed term, institutions usually offer higher interest rates than they do on accounts that customers can withdraw from on demand—though this may not be the case in an inverted yield curve situation. Fixed rates are common, but some institutions offer CDs with various forms of variable rates. For example, in mid-2004, interest rates were expected to rise—and many banks and credit unions began to offer CDs with a "bump-up" feature. These allow for a single readjustment of the interest rate, at a time of the consumer's choosing, during the term of the CD. Sometimes, financial institutions introduce CDs indexed to the stock market, bond market, or other indices.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: CDs typically require a minimum deposit, and may offer higher rates for larger deposits. The best rates are generally offered on "Jumbo CDs" with minimum deposits of $100,000. Jumbo CDs are commonly bought by large institutional investors, such as banks and pension funds, that are interested in low-risk and stable investment options. Jumbo CDs are also known as negotiable certificates of deposits and come in bearer form. These work like conventional certificate of deposits that lock in the principal amount for a set timeframe and are payable upon maturity.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The consumer who opens a CD may receive a paper certificate, but it is now common for a CD to consist simply of a book entry and an item shown in the consumer's periodic bank statements. That is, there is often no "certificate" as such. Consumers who want a hard copy that verifies their CD purchase may request a paper statement from the bank, or print out their own from the financial institution's online banking service.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Withdrawals before maturity are usually subject to a substantial penalty. For a five-year CD, this is often the loss of up to twelve months' interest. These penalties ensure that it is generally not in a holder's best interest to withdraw the money before maturity—unless the holder has another investment with significantly higher return or has a serious need for the money.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Commonly, institutions mail a notice to the CD holder shortly before the CD matures requesting directions. The notice usually offers the choice of withdrawing the principal and accumulated interest or "rolling it over" (depositing it into a new CD). Generally, a "window" is allowed after maturity where the CD holder can cash in the CD without penalty. In the absence of such directions, it is common for the institution to roll over the CD automatically, once again tying up the money for a period of time (though the CD holder may be able to specify at the time the CD is opened not to roll over the CD).


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The Truth in Savings Regulation DD requires that insured CDs state, at time of account opening, the penalty for early withdrawal. It is generally accepted that these penalties cannot be revised by the depository prior to maturity. However, there have been cases in which a credit union modified its early withdrawal penalty and made it retroactive on existing accounts. The second occurrence happened when Main Street Bank of Texas closed a group of CDs early without full payment of interest. The bank claimed the disclosures allowed them to do so.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The penalty for early withdrawal deters depositors from taking advantage of subsequent better investment opportunities during the term of the CD. In rising interest rate environments, the penalty may be insufficient to discourage depositors from redeeming their deposit and reinvesting the proceeds after paying the applicable early withdrawal penalty. Added interest from the new higher yielding CD may more than offset the cost of the early withdrawal penalty.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: While longer investment terms yield higher interest rates, longer terms also may result in a loss of opportunity to lock in higher interest rates in a rising-rate economy. A common mitigation strategy for this opportunity cost is the "CD ladder" strategy. In the ladder strategies, the investor distributes the deposits over a period of several years with the goal of having all one's money deposited at the longest term (and therefore the higher rate) but in a way that part of it matures annually. In this way, the depositor reaps the benefits of the longest-term rates while retaining the option to re-invest or withdraw the money in shorter-term intervals.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: For example, an investor beginning a three-year ladder strategy starts by depositing equal amounts of money each into a 3-year CD, 2-year CD, and 1-year CD. From that point on, a CD reaches maturity every year, at which time the investor can re-invest at a 3-year term. After two years of this cycle, the investor has all money deposited at a three-year rate, yet have one-third of the deposits mature every year (which the investor can then reinvest, augment, or withdraw).


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The responsibility for maintaining the ladder falls on the depositor, not the financial institution. Because the ladder does not depend on the financial institution, depositors are free to distribute a ladder strategy across more than one bank. This can be advantageous, as smaller banks may not offer the longer terms of some larger banks. Although laddering is most common with CDs, investors may use this strategy on any time deposit account with similar terms.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Step-Up Callable CDs are a form of CD where the interest rate increases multiple times prior to maturity of the CD. These CDs are often issued with maturities up to 15 years, with a step-up in interest happening at year 5 and year 10.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Typically, the beginning interest rate is higher than what is available on shorter-maturity CDs, and the rate increases with each step-up period.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: These CDs have a “call” feature which allows the issuer to return the deposit to the investor after a specified period of time, which is usually at least a year. When the CD is called, the investor is given back their deposit and they will no longer receive any future interest payments.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Because of the call feature, interest rate risk is borne by the investor, rather than the issuer. This transfer of risk allows Step-Up Callable CDs to offer a higher interest rate than currently available from non-callable CDs. If prevailing interest rates decline, the issuer will call the CD and re-issue debt at a lower interest rate. If the CD is called before maturity, the investor is faced with reinvestment risk. If prevailing interest rates increase, the issuer will allow the CD to go to maturity.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The amount of insurance coverage varies, depending on how accounts for an individual or family are structured at the institution. The level of insurance is governed by complex FDIC and NCUA rules, available in FDIC and NCUA booklets or online. The standard insurance coverage is currently $250,000 per owner or depositor for single accounts or $250,000 per co-owner for joint accounts.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Some institutions use a private insurance company instead of, or in addition to, the federally backed FDIC or NCUA deposit insurance. Institutions often stop using private supplemental insurance when they find that few customers have a high enough balance level to justify the additional cost. The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service program lets investors keep up to $50 million invested in CDs managed through one bank with full FDIC insurance. However rates will likely not be the highest available.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The federally required "Truth in Savings" booklet, or other disclosure document that gives the terms of the CD, must be made available before the purchase. Employees of the institution are generally not familiar with this information; only the written document carries legal weight. If the original issuing institution has merged with another institution, or if the CD is closed early by the purchaser, or there is some other issue, the purchaser will need to refer to the terms and conditions document to ensure that the withdrawal is processed following the original terms of the contract.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: There may be some correlation between CD interest rates and inflation. For example, in one situation interest rates might be 15% and inflation 15%, and in another situation interest rates might be 2% and inflation may be 2%. Of course, these factors cancel out, so the real interest rate, which indicates the maintenance or otherwise of value, is both zero in these two examples.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: However the real rates of return offered by CDs, as with other fixed interest instruments, can vary a lot. For example, during a credit crunch banks are in dire need of funds, and CD interest rate increases may not track inflation.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: The above does not include taxes. When taxes are considered, the higher-rate situation above is worse, with a lower (more negative) real return, although the before-tax real rates of return are identical. The after-inflation, after-tax return is what is important.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Author Ric Edelman writes: "You don't make any money in bank accounts (in real economic terms), simply because you're not supposed to." On the other hand, he says, bank accounts and CDs are fine for holding cash for a short amount of time.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Even to the extent that CD rates are correlated with inflation, this can only be the "expected" inflation at the time the CD is bought. The actual inflation will be lower or higher. Locking in the interest rate for a long term may be bad (if inflation goes up) or good (if inflation goes down). For example, in the 1970s, inflation increased higher than it had been, and this was not fully reflected in interest rates. This is particularly important for longer-term notes, where the interest rate is locked in for some time. This gave rise to amusing nicknames for CDs. A little later, the opposite happened, and inflation declined.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: In general, and in common with other fixed interest investments, the economic value of a CD rises when market interest rates fall, and vice versa.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: Some banks pay lower than average rates, while others pay higher rates. In the United States, depositors can take advantage of the best FDIC-insured rates without increasing their risk.


title: Certificate of deposit

text: As with other types of investment, investors should be suspicious of a CD offering an unusually high rate of return. For example Allen Stanford used fraudulent CDs with high rates to lure people into his Ponzi scheme.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: James Victor Chesnutt (November 12, 1964 – December 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, "Little", was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of "", a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt released 17 albums during his career, including two produced by Michael Stipe, and a 1996 release on Capitol Records, "About to Choke". His musical style has been described by Bryan Carroll of AllMusic as a "skewed, refracted version of Americana that is haunting, funny, poignant, and occasionally mystical, usually all at once".


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Injuries from a 1983 car accident left him partially paralyzed; he used a wheelchair and had limited use of his hands.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: An adoptee, Chesnutt was raised in Zebulon, Georgia, where he first started writing songs at the age of five. When he was 13, Chesnutt declared that he was an atheist, a position that he maintained for the rest of his life.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: At 18, while drinking and driving, a car accident left him partially paralyzed; in a December 1, 2009 interview with Terry Gross on her NPR show "Fresh Air", he said he was "a quadriplegic from [his] neck down", and although he had feeling and some movement in his body, he could not walk "functionally" and that, although he realized shortly afterward that he could still play guitar, he could only play simple chords. After his recovery he left Zebulon and moved to Nashville, Tennessee; the poetry he read there (by Stevie Smith, Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, W. H. Auden, Stephen Crane and Emily Dickinson) served to inspire and influence him.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: La-Di-Das with future member of the Dashboard Saviors Todd McBride. After leaving that group, he began performing solo on a regular basis at the 40 Watt Club; it was there that he was spotted by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. Stipe went on to produce Chesnutt's first two albums, "Little" (1990) and "West of Rome" (1991).


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In 1993, Chesnutt was the subject of filmmaker Peter Sillen's independently produced documentary, "Speed Racer: Welcome to the World of Vic Chesnutt", which was shown on PBS. Chesnutt also had a small role as "Terence" in the 1996 Billy Bob Thornton movie "Sling Blade", which he later described self-mockingly as a poor performance.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In 1996, Chesnutt was exposed to a wider audience with the release of the charity record "", the proceeds from which went to the Sweet Relief Fund. The album consisted of Chesnutt covers by famous musicians including R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Madonna with her brother-in-law Joe Henry, Garbage, The Smashing Pumpkins (with Red Red Meat), Cracker, Soul Asylum, and Live.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: For the 2007 edition of the Vienna International Film Festival (Viennale), New York filmmaker Jem Cohen was commissioned to close the festival, which he did with his program titled, "Evening's Civil Twilight in Empires of Tin." An impressionistic narrative was constructed through live readings from the texts of Joseph Roth and a live musical score performed by Vic Chesnutt, members from Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Guy Piciotto (Fugazi), and The Quavers. The music includes improvisations, interpretations of Johann Strauss I's "Radetzky March", and renditions of a number of Vic Chesnutt songs. The result was a string of film vignettes bound by the poetry of Roth's writing and by the sounds and songs of the live musicians. A DVD of the program was released in 2009.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt collaborated with Bob Mould to record a version of Gram Parsons' song, "Hickory Wind", which appeared on the 1993 compilation, "".


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: He recorded with many other groups and artists. He made two albums with fellow Athens group Widespread Panic, under the name of brute. Chesnutt wrote "Aunt Avis" and co-wrote "Blight" and "Protein-Drink/Sewing-Machine", which are often performed live by Widespread Panic. "Aunt Avis" appeared on WSP's album "Bombs & Butterflies", and Chesnutt made a guest appearance as well. The 1997 video for "Aunt Avis" was directed by Billy Bob Thornton and featured Chesnutt.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: After getting to know engineer Scott Stuckey during the recording of West of Rome, Stuckey and Chesnutt became close friends and would go on to collaborate on various projects including producing two more albums together, co-writing "Weed to the Rescue" for the Hempilation album, as well as working on numerous videos including "Ladle" for Capitol Records. At the time of his death, Chesnutt and Stuckey were working on a documentary about Chesnutt's music. The film, tentatively titled "Degenerate", was scheduled to be released in 2012.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt's 1998 album "The Salesman and Bernadette" was recorded with alt-country group Lambchop as the backing band. The album "Merriment" was a collaborative effort between Chesnutt and Kelly and Nikki Keneipp, with Chesnutt writing and singing the songs, and the Keneipps playing the music.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt was featured singing on the title track of Elf Power's 2004 release, "Walking with the Beggar Boys".


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: The 2005 album "Ghetto Bells" featured famed guitarist Bill Frisell, whom Chesnutt met in 2004 at the Century of Song concert series at the German festival Ruhrtriennale. "Ghetto Bells" also featured lyricist and composer Van Dyke Parks on accordion and keyboards. Chesnutt's wife, Tina, would frequently play bass on his albums, including "Ghetto Bells". His niece, and fellow songwriter, Liz Durrett also appeared on the album.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In the winter of 2006, he recorded "North Star Deserter" at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was released on September 11, 2007, by Constellation Records. The record included contributions from Constellation artists Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, as well as Fugazi's Guy Picciotto. The album was produced by documentary filmmaker Jem Cohen.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In 2008, Athens, Georgia based Elephant 6 collective recording artists Elf Power collaborated with Chesnutt on the album "Dark Developments", released as Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power, and the Amorphous Strums. The "amorphous strums" refers to Curtiss Pernice and Sam Mixon, who also played on the album.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In 2009, Chesnutt worked with many of the same contributors to the album "North Star Deserter" to release the album "At the Cut" in September. As with "North Star Deserter", the album was recorded in Montreal and released on Constellation Records. Later in 2009, Chesnutt recorded the album titled "Skitter on Take-off" with Jonathan Richman which was inspired by the two albums recorded in Montreal and was released on Vapor.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: In 2009, he sang on the track "Grim Augury" from the album "Dark Night of the Soul" by Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley, Sparklehorse, and director David Lynch. Mark Linkous had previously attempted to collaborate with Chesnutt on the Sparklehorse album "Good Morning Spider;" however, Chesnutt was unable to feature in person on the album. Instead, a recorded voice message he left Linkous apologising for his inability to show was used on the song "Sunshine".


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt's first four albums were released on the independent Texas Hotel label. He then recorded "About to Choke" (1996) for Capitol Records. "The Salesman and Bernadette" (1998) was on PolyGram; "Merriment" (2000) was on the Backburner Records label; spinART was the label for the self-performed and recorded "Left to His Own Devices" (2001). Chesnutt then found a home at the New West Records label, which released two of his albums. In 2004, New West also re-released the early Texas Hotel recordings, including expanded liner notes and extra tracks. in 2010: About to Choke was re-released on 180 gram vinyl on the Four Men with Beards label and is being distributed by City Hall Records.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt provided a powerful performance of the 1972 Bobby Russell-penned classic song, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" on Pravda Records' 1994 "Star Power" CD featuring various artists.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt sang another, much older, classic song, "Home on the Range", based on the poem, "The Western Home", written in 1872 by Dr. Brewster M. Higley, on another CD featuring various artists entitled, "Rudy's Rockin' Kiddie Caravan", produced by Turner Network Television. Proceeds from the sale of the CD went to support the National Center for Family Literacy.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt was also a supporter of medical marijuana, which he said helped with his medical problems. He contributed the track, "Weed to the Rescue", to the 1998 "Hempilation II" charity album, with proceeds going to NORML, an American organization dedicated to marijuana legalization.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt wrote and provided vocals on the song, "Aunt Avis" on Widespread Panic's 1997 album, "Bombs & Butterflies" (a solo demo of Chesnutt performing the song was included as a bonus track on the 2004 re-release of his 1993 album, "Drunk").


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt frequently performed Daniel Johnston's song, "Like a Monkey in a Zoo", during live performances. Chesnutt recorded a version of the song that was released on the 2004 compilation CD, "".


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: He also appeared as a guest musician on Cowboy Junkies' 2007 album and accompanying DVD "Trinity Revisited", a 20th anniversary remake of the Junkies' classic album "The Trinity Session". In 2011 Cowboy Junkies released "Demons", an album of eleven Chesnutt covers.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt recorded a solo acoustic version of the song, "Little Man", for the CD "", which was released under the Shout! Factory label in 2009.


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Chesnutt died on Christmas Day 2009 from an overdose of muscle relaxants that had left him in a coma in an Athens hospital. He was 45 years old. In his final interview, which aired on National Public Radio 24 days before his death, Chesnutt said that he had "attempted suicide three or four times [before]. It didn't take."


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: According to him in the same interview, being "uninsurable" due to his quadriplegia, he was $50,000 in debt for his medical bills, and had been putting off a surgery for a year ("And, I mean, I could die only because I cannot afford to go in there again. I don't want to die, especially just because of I don't have enough money to go in the hospital.").


title: Vic Chesnutt

text: Kristin Hersh wrote a book titled "Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt", which was published by University of Texas Press and released on October 1, 2015.


title: Malebolge

text: In Dante Alighieri's "Inferno", part of the "Divine Comedy", Malebolge () is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means "evil ditches". Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten concentric circular trenches or ditches. Each trench is called a "bolgia" (Italian for "pouch" or "ditch"). Long causeway bridges run from the outer circumference of Malebolge to its center, pictured as spokes on a wheel. At the center of Malebolge is the ninth and final circle of hell.


title: Malebolge

text: In Dante’s version of hell, categories of sin are punished in different circles, with the depth of the circle (and placement within that circle) symbolic of the amount of punishment to be inflicted. Sinners placed in the upper circles of hell are given relatively minor punishments, while sinners in the depths of hell endure far greater torments. As the eighth of nine circles, Malebolge is one of the worst places in hell to be. In it, sinners guilty of "simple" fraud are punished (that is, fraud that is committed without particularly malicious intent, whereas malicious or "compound" fraud—fraud which goes against the bonds of love, blood and honor, or the bond of hospitality—would be punished in the ninth circle). Sinners of this category include counterfeiters, hypocrites, grafters, seducers, sorcerers and simoniacs.


title: Malebolge

text: Dante and his guide, Virgil, make their way into Malebolge by riding on the back of the monster Geryon, the personification of fraud, who possesses the face of an honest man 'good of cheer,' but the tail of a scorpion, who flies them down through the yawning chasm that separates the eighth circle from the seventh circle, where the violent are punished. Dante and Virgil plan on crossing Malebolge by way of the system of bridges, but find their path disturbed by many broken ledges and collapsed bridges that were destroyed during the Harrowing of Hell. They must then cross some of the bolgias on foot and even rely on demons to guide them. Eventually, they make it to the inner ledge where, after a brief look at the giants, the babbling Nimrod to the hostile Ephialtes and heavily chained Briareus, Virgil convinces the giant Antaeus to lower them down to the ninth circle's frozen lake, Cocytus.


title: Malebolge

text: Thirteen demons known as the Malebranche, "Evil Claws", guard the fifth bolgia of the Malebolge. Their leader is Malacoda ("evil tail"), while the others are Scarmiglione ("ruffle-haired"), Barbariccia ("curly beard"), Alichino (derived from Arlecchino, the harlequin), Calcabrina ("one who walks on the frost"), Cagnazzo ("bad dog"), Libicocco ("love notch" ), Draghignazzo (maybe from "drago", "dragon", and "sghignazzo", "guffaw"), Ciriatto (possibly "little pork"), Graffiacane ("scratch dog"), Farfarello ("butterfly"), Rubicante (possibly "red" or "rabid"), and a thirteenth Malebranche who was never named in the text. They try to trick Virgil and Dante by telling them of a path which does not really exist.


title: Malebolge

text: Panderers and seducers are punished here. They are forced to march, single file around the circumference of their circle, constantly lashed by horned demons.


title: Malebolge

text: Sinners guilty of excessive flattery are punished in this bolgia, immersed forever in a river of human excrement, similar to what their flatteries were. Thaïs the hetaira is found there.


title: Malebolge

text: Simoniacs are punished here. They are turned upside down in large baptismal fonts cut into the rock, with their feet set ablaze by oily fires. The heat of the flames burns according to the guilt of the sinner. Popes condemned to Bolgia Three all go into the same font, the earlier ones pushed down by the later arrivals. Pope Nicholas III is found here, and informs Dante that Pope Boniface VIII will follow.


title: Malebolge

text: Astrologers, seers, sorcerers and others who attempted to pervert God’s laws to divine the future are punished here. Their heads have been twisted around to face backwards, and thus they are forced to walk backwards around the circumference of their circle for all eternity. They also are blinded by their tears; therefore they cannot walk in straight paths. The seers Tiresias and his daughter, Manto, reside in this bolgia.


title: Malebolge

text: Grafters (speculators, extortionists, blackmailers and unscrupulous businessmen: sinners who used their positions in life to gain personal wealth or other advantages for themselves) are punished by being thrown into a river of boiling pitch and tar. In addition, should any of the grafters try to escape the pitch, a horde of demons known as Malebranche, armed with grappling hooks and barbs, stand guard over them, ready to tear them to pieces.


title: Malebolge

text: Hypocrites are punished in this circle. They are forced to wear heavy lead robes as they walk around the circumference of their circle. The robes are golden and resemble a monk’s cowl but are lined with heavy lead, symbolically representing hypocrisy. Also, Caiaphas, the Pharisee who insisted on the execution of Jesus, and all of the Sanhedrin are crucified in this circle, staked to the ground so that the ranks of the lead-weighted hypocrites march across him.


title: Malebolge

text: This bolgia houses the souls of fraudulent thieves. In "Inferno" 24, the thieves are trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of being bitten and bound by serpents, dragons and other vengeful reptiles. Thieves are bitten by snakes, turning their bodies into ash before spontaneously regenerating their bodies again for further torment. Others are bitten by snakes and are transformed into snakes that, in turn, minister the punishment onto other souls. Here, the souls turn against each other, reflecting how theft breaks the intrinsic bonds of trust and community that holds society together. In "Inferno" 25, the pilgrim witnesses a group of Florentine nobles violently latch onto each other, transmuting their bodies into a monstrous hybrid. These transformations reference tales from the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, such Salmacis and her fusion with Hermaphroditus. Just as the thieves robbed others of their property, this punishment robs the fraudulent thieves of their most inalienable properties: their bodies and identity.


title: Malebolge

text: In this bolgia, the pilgrim also meets Vanni Fucci, a thief who lived in Pistoia. Vanni Fucci delivers a prophecy about Dante's fate in Florence before throwing an obscene gesture towards God and is punished by the centaur Cacus.


title: Malebolge

text: The eighth bolgia is dedicated to the counselors of fraud—individuals who provided fraudulent advice or used fraud to bring about the downfall of others. Here, the souls are burned in brilliant flames.


title: Malebolge

text: In "Inferno" 26, the pilgrim meets Ulysses and Diomedes, in the form of twin flames, who are placed in this bolgia for using the Trojan Horse as a trap to besiege Troy and for deceiving Achilles to war. Ulysses tells an altered version of his last voyage: instead of returning to Ithaca, Ulysses and his crew shipwrecked in front of Mount Purgatory in a quest for knowledge. Ulysses' last voyage draws many parallels to the pilgrim's journey in the "Divine Comedy". Both embark on a journey for the pursuit of greater understanding. In Ulysses' case, his pursuit for knowledge was misguided, which ultimately led to his spiritual shipwreck. Unlike Ulysses, the pilgrim's journey is ordained by divine powers. Thus, the pilgrim's journey into the self will not end in disaster.


title: Malebolge

text: In "Inferno" 27, the pilgrim encounters Guido da Montefeltro, who was placed in this bolgia for providing fraudulent advice that lead in exchange for a promise of salvation from Pope Boniface VIII. He first asks the pilgrim about the current state of affairs in Florence before narrating what led to his downfall and eventual placement in hell.