NPR World of Opera
La sonnambula, by Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini was only 33 years old when he died in 1835, and he had already become an operatic superstar. Still, if his operas are any indication, he wasn't exactly a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, despite his quick success. In general, the operas that made him famous were decidedly serious stuff. They all seemed to bank on betrayal, heartbreak and backstabbing -- both literal and figurative. There's also a lot of graphic death: throat-slitting, poison, immolation - you name it. Bellini's first big hit was The Pirate, featuring tragic love, blackmail, and murder. His next one was The Stranger, where we see a despondent lover stab himself to death -- in the middle of his own wedding! Then there's Norma, Bellini's most famous opera. In that one the title character is burned alive for loving the wrong man. Bellini's final opera is called I Puritani, a piece about the Puritans of early America. They were an intrepid bunch, to be sure, but hardly a barrel of laughs.

So, when you start reading the story of Bellini's La Sonnambula you might think there's trouble ahead. See, there's a young woman, about to married, who gets caught in the wrong man's bed. So you might assume she's goingo suffer some horrible fate at the hands of her fiance. But you'd be wrong. See, when Bellini wrote this one, he was trying to get around some picky censors - a sort of Italian "ratings council" - who had just nixed his latest project. He'd been working on a setting of Ernani, based on Victor Hugo's bloody story of death and betrayal. When that one got canned just a couple of months before opening night, Bellini turned to a story so innocent that even its bad behavior is easily explained, and more easily excused. The young lady's reason for bedding down in the wrong man's room? She'd been sleepwalking - could happen to anybody!

Is this opera as silly and simpleminded as it sounds? Well, maybe. But the innocence of its sentiment is the perfect complement to the inspired purity of Bellini's melodic style - all of which you'll hear right from the start when you tune it in this week on WORLD OF OPERA, with Steve Curwood. The performance, from Carnegie Hall, is by Opera Orchestra of New York, with conductor Eve Queler and a splendid performance by Ruth Ann Swenson in the title role.

For more on the mysteries of sonnambulism, join Lou Santacroce for NPR's AT THE OPERA, 30 minutes before curtain time.

LINKS:

Libretto of the Opera, in Italian
Opera Orchestra of New York
Carnegie Hall
More on La sonnambula
NPR's At the Opera

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