Bellini’s opera Bianca e Fernando was premiered in Teatro Carlo Felice (Genoa) in 1828. The majority of this opera came from an earlier version from 1826 entitled Bianca e Gernando rather than Bianca e Fernando as using any form of the heir to the throne’s name, Ferdinando, on stage was prohibited. The motifs used in Gallay’s Fantaisie come from Bianca’s Act II finale aria ‘Deh! non ferir, deh! sentimi’. 

Gallay’s Op. 47 consists of three fantasias; No 1 Fantaisie sur les Treize (Halévy), No 2 Fantaisie sur Bianca e Fernando (Bellini), and No 3 Fantaisie sur le Shérif (Halévy). As yet no source materials for the first and third fantasies have been traced and the second is currently only to be found in a version for “cornet à pistons” (cornet) published by Riccordi in Milan (1840). Many of Gallay’s works were advertised as available in versions for cornet, which makes this arrangement highly plausible. As this remaining version is for cornet in G, and as G is a highly unusual key for any of Gallay’s horn works, it seems more likely that the original work would have been for horn in F and thus the work has been transposed.