LA SONNAMBULA

Vincenzo Bellini was 26 years old when he quickly established himself as a starring composer in Milan, and he got into the highest social circles. It was not only thanks to his unquestionable compositional skills but also thanks to the fact that he was able to orientate himself brightly in the theater running – he based important connections, and he acquired the leading people in their fields for a cooperation. It was already for his first opera given in Milan Pirat (premiered at the Teatro alla Scalla in 1827) when he gained the top librettist of his time, Felice Romani (also the author of the libretto of Donizetti's Love Potion), who then took part in almost all following Bellini´s operas . For the season of 1830-31 in Milan, they originally planned that they would set into music a romantic tragedy by Victor Hugo Hernani. Some time at the turn of November and December 1830, when Bellini was already drafting the opera, they, nevertheless, left the theme. According to Bellini, the reason was the fear of censorship (the premiere of the play in Paris in 1830 provoked a scandal). There are some people who declare that the ambitious composer was afraid of the comparison with Donizetti's Anne Boleyn, which was to start the same season in the Teatro Carcano in Milan (that premiere of December 26, 1830 had really a great acceptance), and to which he wanted to define himself also by the theme. Either way, two months before the planned premiere, Bellini with Romani chose a different theme: a touching story about a poor orphaned girl suffering from somnambulism. Just in the somnambulic state, Amina finds herself in the bedroom of an unrecognized noble Earl Rudolph, which doesn´t remains hidden, and her fiance Elvino accuses her of infidelity. Nevertheless, the romantic story set into a pastoral environment of the Swiss Alps finally reaches a happy end over some peripetia. There was not much time for creating the opera, and when moreover Romani was becoming delayed with the libretto, the premiere had to be moved from February even to March1831. It is said that even so the second act was created during only two weeks. A sentimental comedy (Opera semiseria) in two acts, which was named La sonnambula - Sleepwalker, is sometimes described as an excellent concert for an excellent soprano and tenor. The opera is filled with impressive coloratura arias, and it puts extraordinary demands on the soloists, including "killing" heights. Bellini excellently exercised his talent for beautiful melodies here, as well as a great sense of orchestration. A remarkably large role was also given to the choir. The premiere on 6th March 1831 meant another triumph for then already very famous Bellini, which was one of the biggest of his life.