 The opera was Bellini's penultimate work, coming between "Norma" (1831) and "I puritani" (1835) and it was the only one of his operas to be published in full score in his lifetime.With the leading role requiring a strong female character to be written for Pasta, composer and librettist met to consider a subject.Much of the initial work fell upon Romani, who had to look at a number of possible sources, but by 6 October, a subject had been agreed upon