28 Facts About Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas.

In 1830, when Anna Bolena was first performed, Donizetti made a major impact on the Italian and international opera scene shifting the balance of success away from primarily comedic operas, although even after that date, his best-known works included comedies such as L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale .

Donizetti found himself increasingly chafing against the censorship limitations in Italy .

Youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamo's Borgo Canale quarter, located just outside the city walls.

Donizetti's family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea being the caretaker of the town pawnshop.

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Donizetti founded the Lezioni Caritatevoli school in Bergamo in 1805 for the purpose of providing musical training, including classes in literature, beyond what choirboys ordinarily received up until the time that their voices broke.

In 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe, was considered too old.

Performance included a waltz which Donizetti played and for which he received credit in the libretto.

Donizetti was able to do so when Paolo Zancla, the impresario of the Teatro San Luca in Venice accepted it.

Donizetti, the result was a further commission and, using another of Merelli's librettos, this became the one-act, Una follia which was presented a month later.

Donizetti spent the early months of 1819 working on some sacred and instrumental music, but little else came of his efforts until the latter part of the year when he wrote Il falegname di Livonia from a libretto by Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini.

One of the later performances became the occasion for Donizetti to meet the then-21-year-old music student, Vincenzo Bellini, an event recounted by Francesco Florimo some sixty years later.

In 1830, Donizetti scored his most acclaimed and his first international success with Anna Bolena, given at the Teatro Carcano in Milan on 26 December 1830 with Giuditta Pasta in the title role.

Donizetti returned from Paris to oversee the staging of Lucia di Lammermoor on 26 September 1835.

Not only were conditions ripe for Donizetti to achieve greater fame as a composer, but there was an interest across the continent of Europe in the history and culture of Scotland.

Donizetti was offered commissions by both La Fenice in Venice—a house he had not visited for about seventeen years and to which he returned to present Belisario on 4 February 1836.

In October 1838, Donizetti moved to Paris vowing never to have dealings with the San Carlo again after the King of Naples banned the production of Poliuto on the grounds that such a sacred subject was inappropriate for the stage.

Donizetti returned once more to Milan where he stayed with the accommodating Giuseppina Appiano Stringeli with whom he had a pleasant time.

When Donizetti went to Bologna for the Stabat Mater, Rossini attended the third performance, and the two men—each former students of the Bologna Conservatory—met for the first time, with Rossini declaring that Donizetti was "the only maestro in Italy capable of conducting my Stabat as I would have it".

Donizetti left Vienna on 1 July 1842 after the Spring Italian season, travelling to Milan, Bergamo, and then on to Naples in August, a city he had not visited since 1838.

Donizetti wrote that he would work on translations of Maria Padilla and Linda di Chamounix and "God knows what else I'll do".

Donizetti was increasingly becoming aware of the limitations which his poor health is imposing upon him.

On 30 December 1843, Donizetti was back in Vienna, having delayed leaving until the 20th because of illness.

Culmination of the crisis in Donizetti's health came in August 1845 when he was diagnosed with cerebro-spinal syphilis and severe mental illness.

Donizetti was able to go on to convince the Paris Prefect, by threats of family action and general public concern, that the composer should be moved to an apartment in Paris.

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Donizetti was settled comfortably in a large chair, speaking very rarely or only in occasional monosyllables, and mostly remaining detached from everyone around him.

Donizetti's reputation fluctuated, but since the 1940s and 1950s his work has been increasingly performed.

Donizetti's best known operas today are Lucia di Lammermoor, La fille du regiment, L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale.