ABSTRACT
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini are the three composers most associated with what is called the bel canto era. Bel canto means, literally, beautiful singing. This means more than just producing a nice vocal tone, however. It involves the coloring of words, the embellishing of vocal lines, and a purity of vocal production peculiar to that age and to these composers. The three are linked so closely because, although there are great stylistic differences between each of them, they were all born within ten years of one another.
