The second act opens in Florestan’s dungeon.  The prisoner sings an intensely mournful aria ("In des Lebens Fruehlingstagen"), which has a rapturous finale ("Und spuer’ Ich nicht linde"), as he sees his wife in a vision.  Rocco and Fidelio enter and begin digging the grave, to the accompaniment of sepulchral music.  She discovers that Florestan has sunk back exhausted, and as she restores him recognizes her husband.  Don Pizarro enters, and after ordering Fidelio away, who meanwhile conceals herself, attempts to stab Florestan.  Fidelio, who has been closely watching him, springs forward with a shriek, and interposes herself between him and her husband.  He once more advances to carry out his purpose, when Fidelio draws a pistol and defies him.  As she does so, the sound of a trumpet is heard outside announcing the arrival of Don Fernando.  Don Pizarro rushes out in despair, and Florestan and Leonora, no longer Fidelio, join in a duet ("O Namenlose Freude”) which is the very ecstasy of happiness.  In the last scene Don Fernando sets the prisoners free in the name of the king, and among them Florestan.  Pizarro is revealed in his true character, and is led away to punishment.  The happy pair are reunited, and Marcellina, to Jacquino’s delight, consents to marry him.  The act closes with a general song of jubilee.  As a drama and as an opera “Fidelio” stands almost alone in its perfect purity, in the moral grandeur of its subject, and in the resplendent ideality of its music.

BELLINI.

Vincenzo Bellini was born Nov. 3, 1802, at Catania, Sicily, and came of musical parentage.  By the generosity of a patron he was sent to Naples, and studied at the Conservatory under Zingarelli.  His first opera was “Adelson e Salvino,” and its remarkable merit secured him a commission from the manager, Barbaja, for an opera for San Carlo.  The result was his first important work, “Bianca e Fernando,” written in 1826.  Its success was moderate; but he was so encouraged that he at once went to Milan and wrote “Il Pirata,” the tenor part for Rubini.  Its success was extraordinary, and the managers of La Scala commissioned him for another work.  In 1828 “La Straniera” appeared, quickly followed by “Zaira” (1829), which failed at Parma, and “I Capuletti ed i Montecchi,” a version of “Romeo and Juliet,” which made a great success at Venice in 1830.  A year later he composed “La Sonnambula,” unquestionably his best work, for La Scala, and it speedily made the tour of Europe, and gained for him an extended reputation.  A year after its appearance he astonished the musical world with “Norma,” written, like “Sonnambula,” for Mme. Pasta.  These are his greatest works.  “Norma” was followed by “Beatrice di Tenda,” and this by “I Puritani,” his last opera, written in Paris for the four great artists, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache.  Bellini died Sept. 23, 1835, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, preserving his musical enthusiasm to the very last.  He was a close follower of Rossini, and studied his music diligently, and though without a very profound knowledge of harmony or orchestration, succeeded in producing at least three works, “Norma,” “Sonnambula,” and “I Puritani,” which were the delight of the opera-goers of his day, and still freshly hold the stage.