for the 1834–35 Carnival season, but declined given the Paris commitment and stated that it might be possible to do so by May 1835 when he knew who were to be the contracted singers. Florimo immediately began to try to persuade his friend to take up this offer, indicating that Malibran had been engaged for Naples in January 1835. On a professional level, Bellini became very concerned around the middle of April 1834, when he learned that Donizetti would be composing for the Théâtre-Italien during the same season, 1834–35. According to Weinstock, quoting letters sent to Florimo in Italy at around that time (and continuing almost up to the premiere of I puritani), Bellini perceived this to be a plot orchestrated by Rossini. In a long, rambling letter of 2,500 words to Florino of 11 March 1834, he expresses his frustrations. But over a year later and with hindsight—after Puritanis great success which came way ahead of that of Donizetti's first work for Paris, Marin Faliero—he outlines "the plot which was being hatched against me" and the strategies which he adopted to counter it. These strategies included expanding his contacts with Rossini to secure his growing friendship by continuing to see him on numerous occasions to seek his advice, noting "I have always adored Rossini, and I succeeded, and happily ... [having] tamed Rossini's hatred, I no longer was frightened and finished that work of mine which won me so much honour". In a series of letters to Florimo throughoutthe year, he wrote of Rossini's increasing support, even love: "I hear that he speaks well of me" (4 September 1834); "... if I have Rossini's protection, I'll be situated very well" (4 November); "The most beautiful is that Rossini loves me very, very, very much" (18 November); and "... my very dear Rossini who now loves me as a son" (21 January 1835, following the dress rehearsal). However, during the time during which he was composing Puritani, Bellini recounted the details of another bout of what he describes as "gastric fever" and which Weinstock describes as "that brief indisposition, which had been recurring almost every year at the onset of warm weather". I puritani: January 1834 to January 1835 Having signed the contract for a new opera, Bellini began to look around for a suitable subject and, in a letter to Florimo of 11 March 1834, he alludes to the