Many glorious people of letters, historical figures and scholars of ancient times were born in Torricella Peligna. Among them it is worth to mention Vincenzo Tobia Nicola Bellini, the grandfather of the much-known Vincenzo Bellini. The house of the Bellini family is on Corso Umberto I, there, on 12 May 1744, was born the forefather of a family of musicians.

In 1755 Vincenzo entered the Conservatory Sant’Onofrio in Naples and was a student of Nicola Porpora. In 1767 he moved to the Kingdom of Sicily and settled in Catania where he spent the rest of his life composing music for church about the Bible’s prophets. He married Michelina Burzi. The first of their five sons, Rosario, was the father of the more famous Vincenzo. Vincenzo Tobia died in Catania on 8 June 1829.

Music was in the very nature of Bellini family. The sons of Vincenzo Tobia followed their forefather’s steps: the first-born Rosario was in charge of an orchestra and a music teacher for the noble families of Catania. Later, Carmelo thought theory and solfège in the royal charity hospice and Mario was an organist in the Cathedral of that capital city.

However it was Vincenzo Bellini, son of Rosario, who exalted the artistic ability of the Bellini family from Torricella Peligna. He was born in 1801 and has attended piano lessons from his father since his childhood, showing an extraordinary vocation for music and creativity which keeps shining in the opera heavens still today. Vincenzo Bellini’s works, among which Norma, The Puritans, Capulets and Montagues, The Pirate and The Sleepwalker, are based on a romantic sensuality which was completely new for that time, yet perfectly balanced between beautiful aria and intense drama.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]