and extended musical science than Donizetti, he could express what came
within his range with a simple vigor, grasp, and beauty, which make
him a truly dramatic composer. In addition to this, a matter which many
great composers ignore, Bellini had extraordinary skill in writing music
for the voice, not that which merely gave opportunity for executive
trickery and embellishment, but the genuine accents of passion, pathos,
and tenderness, in forms best adapted to be easily and effectively
delivered.

He had no flexibility, no command over mirthful inspiration, such as
we hear in Mozart, Rossini, or even Donizetti. But his monotone is in
sublile rapport with the graver aspects of nature and life. Chorley sums
up this characteristic of Bellini in the following words:

"In spite of the inexperience with which the instrumental score is
filled up, the opening scene of 'Norma' in the dim druidical wood
bears the true character of ancient sylvan antiquity. There is daybreak
again--a fresh tone of reveille--in the prelude to 'I Puritani.' If
Bellini's genius was not versatile in its means of expression, if it had
not gathered all the appliances by which science fertilizes Nature, it
beyond all doubt included appreciation of truth, no less than instinct
for beauty."




VERDI.


I.