Leyla Gencer as Antonina in Gaetano Donizetti's Belisario at La Fenice in Venice, 1969.

Bel canto–era composer Gioachino Rossini

Hand-written note by contralto Marietta Alboni about the decay of bel canto in the late 19th century. The French text reads: "The art of singing is going, and it will only revert with the sole real music of the future: that of Rossini. Paris, 8 February 1881." (signature)

Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), a leading Paris-based teacher of bel canto sopranos