Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, famous for his bel canto era operas, was born into a musical family in Catania, Sicily in 1801. If papers are to be believed, he could sing an aria at 18 months old, and began composing at the age of six.

Donald Macleod introduces some of Bellini's early works, including a song written at the age of 12, an oboe concerto and an extract from his first opera Adelson e Salvini, that so impressed his fellow students and professors it was performed at the conservatory in Naples every Sunday for a year. We hear about his lifelong friend and biographer Francesco Florimo, and an early romance. We will also hear music from Norma, one of Bellini's most successful operas, and his last opera I Puritani. Show less