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It is an irony that the three great composers of Italian bel canto operas each had such relatively brief careers -- Rossini due to his early retirement and Donizetti and Bellini due to premature death. Bellini was a Sicilian, from Catania, where his father and grandfather had both heen organists at the cathedral. He was taught by his grandfather and then entered the Naples conservatory at the age of 18, completing two Masses while studying there. That conservatory had a custom of introducing a promising graduating student to the public by having him compose a dramatic work, then staging it. Bellini was chosen in 1825. The resulting opera, Adelson e Salvani was staged with an all-male cast. It was so successful that a leading impressario immediately engaged Bellini to write an opera for him (Bianca e Gernando). Bellini was a slower worker than either Donizetti or Rossini. His fame rests on the best of just ten operas that he managed to write in his short life in a composing career of ...