Born in Romano di Lombardia, Rubini began as a violinist at twelve years of age at the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo. His first appearance as singer was 1814 in Pavia in Le lagrime d'una vedova by Pietro Generali. After ten years in Naples, 1815-31, during which he also scored spectacular successes in Paris, 1825-26, in Rossini operas, he moved permanently to Paris, performing in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Otello, and La donna del lago and dividing his time between Paris (autumn and winter) and London (spring). His special relation with Vincenzo Bellini began with Bianca e Gernando (1826) and continued until I puritani (1835), when he was one of the long-remembered "Puritani quartet" of Giulia Grisi, Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache, for whose voices the opera was written. The four