I am over the moon! Saturday evening was the first performance of I Puritani: it was such a huge success that I myself am still amazed by it … The joyful, the sad, the robust in the pieces: everything was met with applause, and what applause, what applause.

This is from a letter which Bellini wrote to his trusted friend Florimo immediately after the triumph of the first performance of I Puritani at the Théâtre de la comédie italienne, Paris, in January 1835. It was impossible to envisage, as tables were turned after the flop of Beatrice di Tenda at La Fenice in Venice, that only a few months later the composer would die at the age of just thirty-four, in Puteaux. This is therefore the last opera by a genius who died prematurely. Like every final creation, it is full of meaning and beauty, and perhaps also nostalgia for that which might have been had death not stilled Bellini’s genius. I Puritani is certainly a swan song but, apart from that, it is an exquisitely crafted opera, the extreme, sublime example of Belcanto lyricism. It is a prodigious torrent of music in full flow which, hard to believe, originated from a nine-month incubation period, unusually long for the times, especially when compared with those of Rossini e Donizetti. As a consequence, it is polished music which brings to life a dramaturgical narrative that is exquisitely romantic and gives dignity to the somewhat confused lines by Carlo Pepoli, who had taken the place of the more authoritative and trusted poet, Felice Romani, for this final masterpiece.
I conducted this opera for the first time almost twenty years ago in Las Palmas, and again more recently in Budapest and at the Opéra National de Paris. On 10th December, I’m conducting it in a concert performance for a special occasion which is an honour for me. It will be my first time at the helm of the Dresdner Philharmonie and the MDR Rundfunkchor: thanks to a stellar cast featuring Lisette Oropesa, Lawrence Brownlee, Anthony Clark Evans, Riccardo Zanellato and Martin-Jan Nijhof, the concert will also be available on CD.