| I Capuleti e i Montecchi | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Vincenzo Bellini | |
 Giuditta Grisi and Amalia Schutz at La Scala, December 1830 | |
| Librettist | Felice Romani |
| Language | Italian |
| Based on | Luigi Scevola's play Giulietta e Romeo |
| Premiere | 11 March 1830 Teatro La Fenice, Venice |
I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (tragedia lirica) in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo and based on the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola written in 1818, thus an Italian source rather than taken directly from William Shakespeare.
Bellini was persuaded to write the opera for the 1830 Carnival season at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with only a month and a half available for composition. He succeeded by appropriating a large amount of music previously written for his unsuccessful opera Zaira.
The first performance of I Capuleti e i Montecchi took place on 11 March 1830.[1][2]
- ^ Performance history from Operatoday
- ^ Synopsis from operajaponica Archived 22 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine