I Capuleti e I Montecchi
ERO,v.3. Capuleti is sometimes seen with two t’s, and the conjunction may be either
“e” or “ed.”
- Collins, Michael. “The Literary Background of Bellini’sI Capuleti ed I Mon-
tecchi.” JAMS35-3 (Fall 1982): 532–538.
Conjectures, convincingly, that the librettist Romani was not adapting Shake-
speare at all but drawing on quite different versions of the romance. Useful
bibliographical notes.
Norma
ASO29 (1980), COH (1998), ERO,v.4.
- Lippmann, Friedrich. “Lo stile belliniano in Norma.” In Opera and Libretto I
(#220), 211–224.
Technical aspects of the music: psychology and form, drama, melody, rhythm,
harmony, and dynamics.
See also Brauner (#514).
Il pirata
ERO,v.1.
- Willier, Stephen. “Madness, the Gothic, and Bellini’s Il pirata.” OQ 6-4 (Sum-
mer 1989): 7–23.
Ponders the obsession with mad scenes in early-19th-century opera and how
the phenomenon related to the English gothic novel. Willier finds “extraordi-
nary tensions and upheavals” in the era that may have led to such exotic enter-
tainments. A gothic play, Bertram,was the source for Il pirata;it had a
heroine’s mad/death scene. Notes the similarity to Lucia. With 27 backnotes
identifying relevant literature on gothic and madness on stage.
I puritani di Scozia
ASO96 (1987).
- Petrobelli, Pierluigi. “Bellini e Paisiello: Altri documenti sulla nascita dei Puri-
tani.” In Il melodramma italiano dell’ottocento: Studi e ricerche per Massimo
Mila, 351–364 (Turin: Einaudi, 1977. ML1733.4 .M5).
Argues that Bellini kept Paisiello’s works before him as a frame of reference
while he planned I puritani. Discusses the early sketches. - Spina, Giuseppe. “Scott-Ancelot-Pepoli-Bellini: Genesi del libretto de I puri-
tani.” NRMI23 (1989): 79–97.
Walter Scott’s The Puritans of Scotlandis but dimly connected to the libretto:
names of the characters are the same, and locations of the action, but little else.
Other Scott works are found to have connections as well, but the most direct
116 Opera