Editing Vincenzo Bellini (section)

===Giuditta Turina===
[[File:Giuditta Turina-by Luigi Bianchi-c1828.jpg|thumb|Giuditta Turina]]
The one significant relationship which Bellini had after 1828 was the five-year relationship with Giuditta Turina, a young married woman with whom he began a passionate affair when both were in Genoa in April 1828 for the production of ''Bianca e Fernando''. Their relationship lasted until Bellini went to Paris. Bellini's letters to his friend Florimo indicate his satisfaction with the nature of the liaison, particularly because it kept him from having to marry—and thus becoming distracted from his work.

However, in May 1833 while he was in London, a significant change in Bellini's relationship with Giuditta followed from the discovery by her husband of a compromising letter from Bellini.{{sfn|Weinstock|1971|pp=153–154}} The result was that he decided to seek a legal separation and have her removed from his house. For Bellini, it meant the possibility of taking on responsibility for her, and he had no interest in doing that, having cooled in his feelings for her.<ref>Giuditta Turina to Florimo, 4 August 1834, referencing a September 1833 letter to her from Bellini where he stated that his career is "avant tout".</ref> When he wrote to Florimo from Paris the following year, he clearly stated that "I constantly am being threatened from Milan with Giuditta's coming to Paris", at which point he says he'll leave that city if that were to happen. Then he continues: "I no longer want to be put in the position of renewing a relationship that made me suffer great troubles".<ref>Bellini to Florimo, 11 March 1834, in {{harvnb|Weinstock|1971|p=154}}</ref> When Turina announced that she was leaving her husband, Bellini left her, saying "with so many commitments, such a relationship would be fatal to me," expressing his fear of romantic attachments getting in the way of his musical career.<ref name="auto"/> Ultimately, he resisted any long-term emotional commitment, and never married.

However, Turina maintained contact with Florimo throughout her life, although [nothing] was heard from her after his death until she wrote a sad-but-friendly letter to Florimo.<ref>Turina to Florimo, no date, in {{harvnb|Galatopoulos|2002|p=304}}</ref> Florimo eventually returned the friendship and, as Galatopoulos notes, "the death of Bellini was a mutual loss and Florimo needed Giuditta as much as she needed him"<ref name=GAL305>{{harvnb|Galatopoulos|2002|p=305}}</ref> so that the two corresponded for years and Florimo visited her in Milan "at least once, in 1858".<ref name=GAL305/> She died on 1 December 1871.