they would certainly know of the strict censorship then in existence in Austrian-controlled Lombardy. In addition, it was uncertain as to whether Pasta was interested in singing a trousers role, that of the protagonist, Ernani. While it seems that all three were in agreement, no further progress was made. Romani, who promised to begin the Ernani libretto immediately, went off to write one for what became Donizetti's Anna Bolena (which opened the Carcano's season in December 1830). Rather than resting, Bellini immediately set off for Bergamo to stage La straniera, then went back to the mountains. But, by the end of November, nothing had been achieved in the way of writing either the libretto or the score of Ernani. On 3 January 1831, a letter from Bellini stated: "... I am no longer composing Ernani because the subject would have had to undergo some modifications at the hands of the police. ... [Romani] is now writing La sonnambula, ossia I Due Fidanzati Svizzeri. ... It must go on stage on 20 February at the latest." La sonnambula replaces Ernani Romani's libretto for La sonnambula was based on a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur. With its pastoral setting and story, La sonnambula was to become another triumphant success during Bellini's five years in Milan. The title role of Amina (the sleepwalker) with its high tessitura is renowned for its difficulty, requiring a complete command of trills and florid technique. It was written for Pasta who has been described as a soprano sfogato. That music which he was beginning to use for Ernani was transferred to La Sonnambula is not in doubt, and as Weinstein comments, "he was as ready as most other composers of his era to reuse in a new situation musical passages created for a different, earlier one". The opera's premiere performance took place on 6 March 1831, a little later than the original date, at the Teatro Carcano. Its success was partly due to the differences between Romani's earlier libretti and this one, as well as "the accumulation of operatic experience which both [Bellini] and Romani had brought to its creation." Press reactions were universally positive, as was that of the Russian composer, Mikhail Glinka, who attended and wrote overwhelmingly enthusiastically: Pasta and Rubini sang with the most evident enthusiasm to support their favourite conductor [sic]; the second