Bellini and His Operas

Join Dr Joseph Talia OAM, opera singer, artistic director, teacher and scholar, in a musical journey across four centuries, enhancing our appreciation of the qualities that make Italian opera one of the most loved artistic forms of all time, as well as one of the most successful cultural exports of il Bel Paese. The romantic bel canto period was characterised by changes in vocal technique which resulted in superior expressivity and emphasised darker timbres over clear ones. For our eighth and final lecture we will examine Bellini’s rustic La Sonnambula and romantic I Capuleti e i Montecchi along with his dramatic operas Norma and I Puritani. We will end by examining the impact that bel canto composers had on Verdi and Puccini, as well as the development of the great Verismo melodramas.