Composition History
Behind the libretto stand many Italian, ultimately Renaissance sources supplied by Bandello, probably through Belleforest and Pierre Boaistuau, rather than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romani rewrote for Bellini the Giulietta e Romeo he had written originally for Vaccai, which drew on a play Giulietta e Romeo of 1818 by Luigi Scevola, and which had also been set by E. Torriani. The theme was very popular in Italy: there were earlier librettos by Luzzi for Marescalchi (1785, Venice), Foppa for Zingarelli (1796, Milan), and Buonaiuti for P. C. Guglielmi (1810, London). The first Italian libretto explicitly based on Shakespeare’s play was by M. M. Marcello, for Marchetti’s Romeo e Giulietta (1865, Trieste).
In Venice to prepare the local première of Il pirata with Giuditta Grisi as Imogene, Bellini wrote I Capuleti in a month and a half (starting about 20 January) after the Teatro La Fenice had been let down by Giovanni Pacini. He wrote the part of Romeo for Grisi (whose presence, together with a relatively weak male company, may have conditioned the choice of subject); it rarely descends below c'. Giulietta was sung by Maria Caradori-Allan, Tebaldo by Lorenzo Bonfigli and Lorenzo by Ranieri Pocchini Cavalieri. Bellini had intended the part of Lorenzo for a bass, but in Act 1 of the autograph score he transposed it for tenor, and in Act 2 the part is written in the tenor clef throughout. Although these changes were possibly for Senigallia (summer 1830), Cavalieri, the singer at the première, appears to have been a tenor. (Published scores and most performances assign the role to a bass.)
Bellini thoroughly reworked ten melodies from his unsuccessful Zaira into I Capuleti e i Montecchi: he explained that "Zaira, hissed at Parma, was avenged by I Capuleti". Giulietta’s "Oh quante volte" in Act 1 uses Nelly’s romanza "Dopo l’oscuro nembo" from Adelson e Salvini (1825, Naples). Bellini prepared a version for La Scala (26 December 1830), lowering Giulietta’s part for the mezzo-soprano Amalia Schütz-Oldosi.
Read more about this topic: I Capuleti E I Montecchi
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