Carlo Pepoli

He was also acclaimed as a poet, his most well-known work being the libretto for Vincenzo Bellini's final opera, I puritani which was given its premiere in Paris in January 1835.

Born in Bologna to the aristocratic Pepoli family, he was active in the movement opposing Austrian rule of Italy before being imprisoned and forced into exile in France after 1831.

[1] He returned to Italy briefly in 1848, then from 1859 resumed his political activities which continued to within a year of his death which took place in 1881 in his native city at the age of 85.

[1] Smart notes that "once he arrived in Paris he renewed his acquaintance with Gioachino Rossini and took on a few libretto commissions to supplement his main income as a tutor of Italian.

Along with the major operatic work, Smart notes that Pepoli "picked up" additional work including writing the poetry for two sets of song cycles, one each for Rossini (in 1835) and for the Italian composer Saverio Mercadante in 1836: Smart sees "the link between the two collections [as being] revealed first of all by their titles: Rossini’s rather generic Soirées musicales becomes in Mercadante’s hands the more evocative Soirées italiennes".