rank of a mere purveyor to
the manufacturers of barrel-organs.

Different as was the talent of Bellini (1802-1835) from that of
Donizetti, his fate has been the same. After holding the ear of Europe
for many years, he has fallen at the present time completely into the
background, and outside the frontiers of Italy his works are rarely
heard. Bellini had no pretensions to dramatic power. His genius was
purely elegiac in tone, and he relied entirely for the effect which he
intended to produce upon the luscious beauty of his melodies, into
which, it must be admitted, the great singers of his time contrived to
infuse a surprising amount of dramatic force.

The story of 'La Sonnambula' is rather foolish, but it suited Bellini's
idyllic style, and the work is perhaps the happiest example of his
_naif_ charm. Amina, a rustic damsel, betrothed to Elvino, is a
confirmed somnambulist, and her nocturnal peregrinations have given the
village in which she dwells the reputation of being haunted by a
spectre. One night, Amina, while walking in her sleep, enters the
chamber in the inn where Rodolfo, the young lord of the village, happens
to be located. There she is discovered by Lisa, the landlady, to the
scandal of the neighbourhood and the shame of her lover Elvino, who
casts her from him and at once makes over his affections to the
landlady. Amina's sorrow and despair make her more restless than ever,
and the following night she is seen walking out of a window of the mill
in which she lives, and crossing the stream by a frail bridge which
totters beneath her weight. Providence guards her steps, and she reaches
solid earth in safety, where Elvino is waiting to receive her, fully
convinced of her innocence. Bellini's music is quite the reverse of
dramatic, but the melodies throughout 'La Sonnambula' are graceful and
tender, and in the closing scene he rises to real pathos.

In 'Norma' Bellini had the advantage of treating a libretto of great
power and beauty, the work of the poet Romani, a tragedy which, both in
sentiment and diction, contrasts very strongly with the ungrammatical
balderdash which composers are so often called upon to set to music.
Norma, the high priestess of the Druids, forgetting her faith and the
traditions of her race, has secretly wedded Pollio, a Roman general, and
borne him two children. In spite of the sacrifices which she has made
for his sake, he proves faithless, and seduces Adalgisa, one of the
virgin