I Puritani is the last work of Vincenzo Bellini: composed in nine months, from April 1834 to January 1835 (a gestation unusually long for that time), was performed for the first time in Paris, Thí©í¢tre Italien, 24 January 1835. During this period, the dramatic structure suffered radical transformations: initially structured in two acts, the work was divided into three acts just before the premiere, but on the eve of the first performance, and immediately after that, the excessive length of the title imposed the cut of three pieces and other minor sections. Simultaneously with the release for Paris, Bellini prepared a version designed for a planned exhibition for Naples at Teatro S. Carlo, whose protagonist had to be Maria Malibran and in which the part of Riccardo had to be supported by a tenor. The exhibition did not take place, as the score came late in Naples: the Neapolitan version was rediscovered and performed only in the eighties of the twentieth century. The new Critical Edition is based on the autograph, on the libretto of the first performance and on four manuscript copies produced in the context of the Thí©í¢tre Italien in the first months of life of the work, three of which contain autograph interventions (these sources are now kept at the Biblioteca Comunale in Palermo, at the Museo Civico Belliniano in Catania, at the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milano and at the Staatsbibliothek zur Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin). This Edition presents for the first time all the music composed by Bellini, it restores the sections deleted before or after the first performance in Paris, and returns the modified sections of the Naples version; it consists of three-score volumes - introduced by a detailed reconstruction of the historical context - and of a ŒñApparatiŒî volume with a description of the Sources and the Critical Commentary to the musical text.
