Vincenzo Bellini

Sicilian-born Vincenzo Bellini has become known as the foremost composer of the bel canto style of composition. Reigning from a musically prodigious family, his lyrical and melodic lines populate the dozen or so melodramas and operas completed by Bellini during his lifetime throughout the early 1800s. His special capacity for such flowing lyricism led him to be remembered as "the Swan of Catania" (Catania is his hometown in Sicily) - a slightly effeminate nickname that Bellini probably resented.