(Born February 3, 1809, Hamburg: died November 4, 1847, Leipzig)

In 1832, for a rather large fee, London's Philharmonic Society of Music commissioned Felix Mendelssohn to compose three works: a symphony, an overture, and a "vocal piece." These new pieces were premiered at different times in 1833 and 1834. The first, the Italian Symphony, had a very successful premiere, but not published until after the composer's death. Mendelssohn had already composed the Trumpet Overture in C major Op. posth. 101 in 1826, before he composed his famous Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. He revised the trumpet work for the performance as part of this commission. For the vocal work, Mendelssohn composed a concert aria for soprano, Infelice. He had recently met the well-known soprano Maria Malibran, and he knew of her extramarital affair with the well-known violinist Charles-Auguste de Bériot. Mendelssohn decided to write the work, adding a solo violin to the aria, with both Malibran and Bériot in mind.

He based the concert aria Infelice on texts by the Italian poet and librettist Pierto Mesastasio, (1698-1782), who was an important writer of opera libretti structured following the usual scheme: Recitative, Cavatina, and Cabaletta, with a shirt Cavatina reprise before the work's end. This work displays Mendelssohn's ability to write in operatic and Italiante style.

The plot features a woman who is now mourning her abandonment by her lover, and yet also she fondly remembers times that they had spent pleasantly together. The solo violin (here, the viola) first appears in the Cavatina presenting a beautiful Italianate melody: then, in duet with the vocal soloist, performing together in thirds, and finally, in a cadenza. The persona of the lost love is allegorized in the obbligato violin part. In the Cabaletta, it is less of a presence, but, nevertheless, it is an effective one: the violin weaves graceful countermelodies around the soprano's lines.

The aria had its premiere on May 19, 1834, but unfortunately, without the soloists Mendelssohn had hope for. Instead, Maria Caradori-Allan was the soprano, but she did not have the brilliant technique of Malibran, who Mendelssohn was thinking of when he composed the work. The concertmaster of the orchestra played the violin part instead of Charles-Auguste de Bériot. The well-known romance ebtween the two soloists Mendelssohn had had in mind would have granted the aria an undeniable topical appeal. Mendelssohn's setting of Metastasio's text develops an elaborate and obviously amorous musical relationship between the two soloists, which would have illustrated their real-life relationship.