Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 2, 2025
Both these were written for and introduced before the Neapolitan public. In these works he reached his highest development, and by them he is best known to fame. The opera-story of "La Sonnambula," by Romani, an accomplished writer and scholar, is one of the most artistic and effective ever put into the hands of a composer.
The Carnival was now drawing near its end; and the city had been promised that before the time of cakes and ale should be over, and that of sackcloth and ashes should begin, the divine prima donna should appear in one more new part. And, after much deliberation and debate, it had been decided that this should be Bellini's masterpiece, La Sonnambula.
A queen of song who profoundly impressed her age was Giuditta Pasta, born near Milan in 1798, of Hebrew parentage. For her Bellini wrote "La Sonnambula" and "Norma," Donizetti his "Anna Bolena," Pacini his "Niobe," and she was the star of Rossini's leading operas of the time.
During this season she performed in "La Sonnambula," "Il Barbiere," and other operas of the florid Italian school, charming the public by her lyric comedy, as she had inspired them by her tragic impersonations. Cruvelli had always been remarkable for impulsive and eccentric ways, and no engagement ever operated as a check on these caprices.
"So I should have imagined," said Jane. Her maiden delicacy was just a shade affrighted at the turn the talk was taking. "When I was playing he would sit there by the hour and never say a word. My banner piece was really a fantasia on 'Sonnambula' a new thing here; I was the first one in town to have it. There were thirteen pages, and there was always a rush to see who should turn them.
There's a march in Verdi's Attila and I Lombardi, I declare I'm in military step when I hear them, as in the old days, after leaving the Opera. Fredi takes little Mab Mountney to her first Opera to-night. Enough to make us old ones envious! You remember your first Opera, Fenellan? Sonnambula, with me.
He told me, some time ago, that he was a delegate to the Medical Convention." "I believe it is rather uncertain; but probably he will not return before October." "Indeed! That is a long time for a physician to absent himself." Just then an organ-grinder paused on the pavement beneath the window and began a beautiful air from "Sonnambula."
How much like heaven it will be when, at the close of a solemn service, we are favored with snatches from Verdi's "Trovatore," Meyerbeer's "Huguenots" and Bellini's "Sonnambula," from such artists as Mademoiselle Squintelle, Prima Donna Soprano, from Grand Opera House, Paris. Signor Bombastani, Basso Buffo, from Royal Italian Opera.
She was to sing it on one night only the last Sunday of the Carnival; and the attraction on that night was proportionably great. The Sonnambula, then in the first blush of its immense popularity, had never yet been heard in Ravenna. It was one of the favourite parts of the Diva; and all the city was on the tiptoe of expectation. It was a matter of course that all the "society" would be there.
"It's from the 'Sonnambula' 'Ah! perche non posso odiarti. I don't know the opera, but it appears the tenor is telling the heroine that he shall always love her though she may forsake him. You've heard me sing it to the English words, 'I love thee still."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking