Il pirata

Opera by Vincenzo Bellini
the cyclist known as "Il pirata"

Il pirata (The Pirate) is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, which was based on a three act mélodrame from 1826: Bertram, ou le Pirate (Bertram, or The Pirate) by Charles Nodier and Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor. This play was itself based upon a French translation of the five act verse tragedy Bertram, or The Castle of St. Aldobrand by Charles Maturin which appeared in London in 1816. The original play has been compared with Bellini's opera and the influence of Il pirata on Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor has been noted. Also, Bellini's recycling of his own music in this opera has been analyzed, as well as his utilizing "a more self consciously innovative compositional style" and participating more in work on the libretto, as compared with prior efforts where he was more deferential to the librettists chosen by the Naples opera management and the corresponding texts. In addition, 19th century commentary refers to the musical influence of Il pirata on the early Richard Wagner opera Das Liebesverbot.

Bellini spent 1827 to 1833 mostly in Milan, never holding any official position within an opera company and living solely from the income produced from his compositions, for which he was able to ask higher than usual fees. Upon his arrival, he met Antonio Villa of La Scala and composer Saverio Mercadante whose new opera, Il Montanaro was in rehearsal. The latter introduced him to Francesco and Marianna Pollini (an older couple, the husband a retired professor of piano, the wife a better than amateur musician) who immediately took the young man under their wing. In addition, Bellini was introduced to the librettist Felice Romani, who proposed the subject of the composer's first project, Il pirata, to which the young man willingly agreed, especially after he realised that the story "provided several passionate and dramatic situations [and] that such Romantic characters were then an innovation on the operatic stage." From that time forward, there began a strong professional relationship with Romani; he became Bellini's primary creative partner, providing the librettos for six of Bellini's operas which followed, the result being that "no other Italian opera composer of the time showed such an attachment to a single librettist". Although Romani was known to treat composers poorly, he evidently had great respect for Bellini, even acceding to his requests for revisions. For his part, Bellini admired "the sonorous and elegance of the poet's verses" But it seems that Bellini's exhortations bore fruit, based on his own account of the audience's reactions to the first performance, as well as the reaction of Milan's Gazzetta privilegiata of 2 December which noted that this opera "introduced us to Rubini's dual personality as a singer and actor". The reviewer continued to declare that this duality had never been expressed in other operas in which he had performed.

The premiere, given on 27 October 1827, was "an immediate and then an increasing, success. By Sunday, December 2, when the season ended, it had been sung to fifteen full houses". and the newspaper reviews which followed all agreed with the composer's own assessment. After its Milanese debut, the opera received very successful performances in Vienna in February 1828 and also in Naples three months later. Both productions starred Rubini, Tamburini, and—in the role of Imogene—Rubini's wife, Adelaide Comelli Rubini, about whom Bellini had initial misgivings, although it appears that she acquitted herself very well. By this time, Bellini had begun to achieve international fame. It was back in Milan in the summer of 1829 for 24 performances. Throughout 1830, the opera was given in Venice (January), Vicenza (summer), Bologna (October), and Trieste in December, then Messina in 1831. When Bellini was in Sicily in February 1832, it was also given in Messina, and thereafter spread rapidly around Italy. Il pirata was given outside Italy for the first time in February 1828. Herbert Weinstock notes that in many of its presentations throughout Europe and North America, it was the first Bellini opera to be heard.

Weinstock recounts that the opera was given on 1 January 1935 in Rome to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. At the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania it was staged in November 1951 under Tullio Serafin as well at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in January 1958, a production which was given a few months later at La Scala and which "became the most notable of modern revivals of Il pirata headed by Maria Meneghini Callas and Franco Corelli." A planned revival and HD broadcast of the Met's production scheduled for the spring of 2021, intended to star Javier Camarena and Diana Damrau, was cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic. In 2018, the soprano Sonya Yoncheva revived the piece as Imogene at the Teatro alla Scala in the first performances after the legendary 1958 performances starring Maria Callas in the same part, reprising it at the Teatro Real of Madrid in 2019. The work was performed in Naples for the first time since 1834 at the Teatro di San Carlo in January, 2021, with Sondra Radvanovsky as Imogene. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, there was no audience in the theater for this concert performance. The orchestra and chorus were more widely spaced than usual and some performers wore masks. The performance was video recorded and streamed.

Other composers have written variations on Ma Non Fia Sempre Odiata, the aria in the final scene. In 1837 Clara Schumann wrote Variations de concert sur la cavatine du Pirate de Bellini for solo piano. Pietro Pettoletti wrote Variations sur la Cavatine favorite de l'opéra 'Le Pirata' de Bellini op. 26 for solo guitar.