The Bellini Legend

A legend about composer Vincenzo Bellini would’ve made a fine plot for one of his operas.

The story begins about 1820 when Bellini was a student at the Conservatory of Music in Naples. He and a beautiful singing student named Maddalena fell hopelessly in love.

Once Bellini’s first opera had been produced successfully he gathered up his courage and asked for permission to marry Maddalena. Her parents not only refused the request. They ordered Bellini never to visit the house again. The distraught lovers vowed to be true to each other forever.

“Before I’ve written ten operas, your parents will gladly give me permission to marry you, “Bellini declared.

[“It takes a long time to write ten operas,” the disheartened Maddalena said.

“Only a few years. We’re young. We can wait,” Bellini told her.]

“Then let’s pledge to be united after your tenth opera–dead or alive,” Maddalena replied.

Bellini made the pledge. His second and third operas made Bellini the talk of Italy. By the time he wrote his seventh, La Somnambula, he was known throughout Europe. Bellini received a letter from Maddalena saying that her father had consented to their marriage.

Was it success or the distraction of a nearby soprano that had cooled Bellini’s ardor for Maddalena? He wrote her a polite reply saying that as soon as he finished his opera Norma he would return to Naples so they could talk about their marriage.

He never returned. And Maddalena, soon to die of a broken heart, wrote a letter reminding him of their vow to be united after his tenth opera, in life or death.

Her death and that final letter threw Bellini into a state of melancholy from which he never recovered. Many in Italy believed him to be haunted by poor Maddalena, who had taken the form of a white dove that fluttered through his bedroom every night. One element of the legend is known to be true. On September 23^rd, 1835, shortly after Bellini finished his tenth opera, I Puritani he died at the age of 33.