Vincenzo Bellini - Palermo, Sicily, Italy - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The busts of great composers were carved for the Teatro Massimo by the Italian sculptor, Giusto Liva. The bronze bust of Vincenzo Bellini depicts the composer from the neck up the upper chest being suggested bur not sculpted. The bust rests on a 6' high by 2' square marble base. Bellini is looking slightly up and to his left. The top of the base has a rectangular dado with the inscription BELLINI in engraved red letters.

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was born on November 3, 1801 in Catanina, Sicily, into a family a musical family. Both his father and grandfather were both career musicians. He began composing before receiving any formal music education.

In 1819, Bellini entered the Royal College of Music of San Sebastiano, now the Naples Conservatory, He showed such great promise that he was granted free tuition by 1820 and became a teacher, a primo maestrino, in 1824. His first opera, Adelson e Salvini, was performed by the conservatory's students in February 1825.

Bellini wrote operas characterized by long, flowing melodic lines. This gave him the nickname "the Swan of Catania." Il pirata premiered in Milan, in October 1827. In 1830 he wrote I Capuleti e i Montecchi which is based on Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In 1831 he wrote his two most famous operas La sonnambula and Norma. His last opera I puritani premiered on January 24, 1835.

Bellini died at the height of his career of a chronic intestinal ailment on September 23, 1835 at age 33.