Editing Vincenzo Bellini (section)

=== First Naples compositions ===
Increasingly, Bellini did better and better in his studies: in January 1820 he passed his examinations in theory, and was successful enough to gain an annual scholarship, which meant that his stipend from Catania could be used to help his family.<ref name=WEIN-ED>{{harvnb|Weinstock|1971|pp=14–23}}</ref> In the following January he was equally successful and, to fulfill his obligations to write music for Catania – a condition of his scholarship – he sent a ''Messa di Gloria'' in A Minor for soloists, choir and orchestra, which was performed the following October.

Besides this melodious work, his output from these study years in Naples included two other settings of the Mass: a full Ordinary in E Minor and a second full Ordinary in G Minor, both of which probably date from 1823. There are two settings of the ''[[Salve Regina]]'' (one in A Major for solo soprano and organ, the other in F Minor for choir and orchestra), but these are less accomplished and may date from the first year of study after leaving Catania, 1820. His brief two-movement Oboe Concerto in E-flat from ''circa'' 1823 also survives and has been recorded by no less than the [[Berlin Philharmonic]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4297502|title = Catalogue}}</ref>

Bellini's involvement in Zingarelli's class took place over the 1822/23 school year. By January 1824, after passing examinations in which he did well, he attained the title ''primo maestrino'', requiring him to tutor younger students and allowing him a room of his own in the ''collegio'' and visits to the [[Teatro di San Carlo]] on Thursdays and Sundays,<ref name=WEIN-ED/> where he saw his first opera by Rossini, ''[[Semiramide]]''. While Weinstock gives an account of how he was "clearly captivated by the music of Rossini [and] put Rossini on a pedestal", he relates that, returning from ''Semiramide'' Bellini was unusually quiet and then "suddenly exclaimed to his companions, 'Do you know what I think? After ''Semiramide'', it's futile for us to try and achieve anything!'"{{sfn|Weinstock|1971|p=35}}

But a tougher challenge confronted the young composer: how to win the hand of young Maddalena Fumarolis, whom he had met as a guest in her home and to whom he had become music tutor. As their affair became obvious to her parents, they were forbidden to see each other. Bellini was determined to obtain the parents' permission for them to marry, and some writers regard this as the propelling reason for his writing his first opera.