Overture (I Capuleti e i Montecchi)

Bellini accepted the commission from La Fenice in January 1830 and delivered the score in roughly six weeks, carrying over several numbers from his unsuccessful Zaira of the previous year. Felice Romani reworked a libretto he had already written for Nicola Vaccai, drawing on Italian retellings of the Romeo story rather than on Shakespeare. Romeo was written for a soprano, and the two women's voices in the tomb scene produce a sound no spoken staging can. The first performance took place on 11 March 1830.