Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (/bəˈliːni/; Italian: [vinˈtʃɛntso salvaˈtoːre karˈmɛːlo franˈtʃesko belˈliːni] ^ⓘ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the bel canto era, he was admired not only by the public but also by many composers who were influenced by his work. His songs balanced florid embellishment with a deceptively simple approach to lyric setting.

Born to a musical family in Sicily, he distinguished himself early and earned a scholarship to study under several noted musicians at Naples' Real Collegio di Musica. There he absorbed elements of the Neapolitan School's style and was inspired by performances of Donizetti's and Rossini's operas, among others, in more modern idioms. He wrote his first opera, Adelson e Salvini (1825), for the conservatory, and his next, Bianca e Fernando (1826), on a Teatro di San Carlo-affiliated commission for promising students. He also became close friends with his peer and first biographer, Francesco Florimo.

Bellini then went to Milan to compose for La Scala, where the success of Il pirata (1827) established his short but significant career. He wrote many celebrated operas, ascending to triumphal heights with I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830, La Fenice), La sonnambula (1831, Teatro Carcano), and more gradually Norma (1831, La Scala). He travelled abroad and wrote I puritani after a visit to London. Its successful premiere (1835, Théâtre-Italien) capped an illustrious international career. Bellini died at the age of 33 in Puteaux, France.

Verdi praised Bellini's expansive melodies as unequaled, while Wagner, who was rarely complimentary, was captivated by Bellini's expressive integration of music and text. Liszt and Chopin were also admirers, though Berlioz was less enthusiastic. Most musicologists now assess Bellini positively, though some question the quality of his work. Many of his operas, including Pirata, Capuleti, Sonnambula, Norma, and Puritani are regularly performed at major opera houses throughout the world.

Born in Catania, at the time part of the Kingdom of Sicily, the eldest of seven children in the family, he became a child prodigy within a highly musical family. His grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia Nicola Bellini [it], had studied at the conservatory in Naples and, in Catania from 1767 forward, had been an organist and teacher, as had Vincenzo's father, Rosario.

An anonymous twelve-page hand-written history, held in Catania's Museo Civico Belliniano, states that he could sing an aria by Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months, that he began studying music theory at two years of age and the piano at three. By the age of five, he could apparently play "marvelously". The document states that Bellini's first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old and "at seven he was taught Latin, modern languages, rhetoric, and philosophy". Bellini's biographer Herbert Weinstock regards some of these accounts as no more than myths, not being supported from other, more reliable sources. Additionally, he makes the point in regard to Bellini's apparent knowledge of languages and philosophy: "Bellini never became a well-educated man".

Another biographer, Stelios Galatopoulos, discusses the information presented in the précis and accepts some of the evidence for early compositions but expresses skepticism regarding the young Bellini's child prodigy status. He mentions that Bellini never became a "proficient" piano player and, when he later went to the music conservatory in Naples at an age well past that required for admission and took an examination in which his compositions were assessed, he was placed in the beginners' class.

After 1816, Bellini began living with his grandfather, from whom he received his first music lessons. Soon after, the young composer began to write compositions. Among them were the nine Versetti da cantarsi il Venerdi Santo, eight of which were based on texts by Metastasio.