After producing in succession _La Straniera_ (Milan, 1828), _Zaira_ (Parma, 1829), Bellini brought out at Venice his operatic version of _Romeo and Juliet_, under the title of _I Capuletti ed i Montecchi_ which owed such success as it obtained to the singing of Mdle. Pasta, as _Il Pirata_ had been indebted for the favour with which it was received to the singing of Rubini. The years 1829, 1830, 1831, and 1832 are especially memorable in the history of Italian opera; for in the first of these Rossini's _William Tell_, in the second Donizetti's _Anna Bolena_, in the third Bellini's _Sonnambula_, and in the fourth Bellini's _Norma_, was produced. The Italian school of operatic music was certainly at that time supreme in Europe; and Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini continued for many years to hold sway at theatres where they have now to share their dominion with the composers of France and Germany--with Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, and Bizet, with Meyerbeer and with Wagner. _La Sonnambula_, as the work of a new composer, was a good deal sneered at on the occasion of its first production in London. But its endless flow of melodies--many of which, being full of true emotion, are so far thoroughly dramatic--could not fail to ensure its success, with the public at large; and this success, now of half a century's duration, has scarcely diminished since the part of _Amina_ was first undertaken by Pasta, and that of _Elvino_ by Rubini. Our old friend, Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, true type of the praiser of times gone by, having been scared by Rossini, was not likely to be calmed down by Bellini. Of _Norma_ he tells us that the scene of the opera was laid "in Wales," and that it "was not liked." It is difficult to understand the mood of one, having ears to hear, who, whatever he might think of _Norma_ as a specimen of the highest kind of tragic opera, could fail to "like it." Rossini, together with a mass of opera-goers in all countries, was of those who not only "liked" but greatly admired _Norma_; and he gave the composer the benefit of his counsels when the still young Bellini (he was even now only thirty years of age) undertook to write an opera for the Italian Theatre of Paris, with Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache in the principal parts. The effect of Rossini's advice may be seen in the greater degree of attention paid by Bellini to the orchestration of _I Puritani_ and to the concerted music. It would have been well if some one had recommended Bellini not to set to work upon so poor a libretto as that of _I Puritani_ derived from Ancelot's poor novel, _Les Puritains d'Ecosse_. Rubini's air, "Ah te, o cara," the polacca for Grisi, the duet in three movements for Tamburini and Lablache,--as to which Rossini, writing an account of the opera to a friend at Milan, remarked that some echo of the final outburst for the two voices, with its brazen accompaniments, must surely have reached him,--and the beautiful tenor solo of the closing concerted piece: these