Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini came from Catania, in Sicily, where his father and grandfather were both working musicians. Opera was the family trade and he mastered it quickly: by his mid-twenties his works were being staged at La Scala in Milan, and he spent his short career writing for the leading singers of the day. He died near Paris at thirty-three, at the height of his fame.

What set him apart was melody. His long, slowly unfolding vocal lines seem to float free of the accompaniment, and composers as different as Chopin and Verdi studied them closely. Singers still treat his roles as a summit of the Italian style built on beauty and control of the voice.

Start with Norma, whose prayer Casta diva may be the most famous slow aria in Italian opera, then La sonnambula, his gentle story of a sleepwalking village girl.