Study Guide
Study Guide Contents
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Beginner's Guide to Opera
- Who's Who At the Opera
- The Lyric Opera House
- BOC Education Programs
- A Bibliography of Selected Readings
- Education Resources
2007-2008 SEASON
2006-2007 SEASON
2005-2006 SEASON
2004-2005 SEASON
2003-2004 SEASON
2002-2003 SEASON
PREVIOUS OPERAS
I Puritani
The Puritans
Background
Upon his arrival in Paris in August 1833, Bellini was overwhelmed with impresarios asking him for new operas. In the end, the only commission he accepted was one from the Théâtre-Italien. I puritani was begun in the spring of 1834. Unlike his earlier shows, Bellini took his time with Puritani, spending 10 months on the score. He consulted with Rossini during the course of composition, and Rossini assisted him with a number of logistical issues with the production, including encouraging the theater to install an organ for the opera.
Throughout the course of composing Puritani, Bellini was frustrated with his librettist. Pepoli was an exiled Italian poet who had provided poems for some of Rossini's songs. Bellini found him to be unfamiliar with the dramatic needs of opera, however. In one letter, he berated Pepoli: "Carve this into your head: music drama must draw tears, inspire terror, and make people die, all through singing."
Bellini was never fully satisfied with what he referred to as Pepoli's "stupid turns of phrase," but the music he managed to create for this show was some of his best, and the premiere was an unqualified success. The cast was considered to be the finest group of singers ever assembled; it included Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini, and Luigi Lablache. At the premiere, the show received so many calls for encores that Bellini went home that night and made a substantial number of edits and cuts to keep the show from running too long as a result.
As he was completing the score of Puritani, Bellini received a request from the San Carlo theater in Naples for a new opera to star Maria Malibran. Bellini proposed instead that he create an alternate version of Puritani to star her. Unfortunately, his score arrived in Naples too late to be fit into the 1835 season, and Malibran died before it could be rescheduled. As a result, the so-called "Naples version" of Puritani was not performed anywhere until 1985.