From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gaetano Donizetti
(born
Bergamo
29 November
1797
; died Bergamo
8 April
1848
) was an
Italian
composer
. He was the most famous composer of
operas
in Italy in the years between the death of
Bellini
(
1835
) and the time when
Verdi
was becoming well-known. Bellini and Donizetti wrote operas in the
bel canto
style: music with beautiful, smooth melodies.
Donizetti’s family were very poor. His talent was discovered by Simon Mayr who was maestro di cappella (music director) at S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. He opened a school which trained boys to sing in the church choir and gave them a good musical education. Donizetti learned a lot from Mayr and was always very grateful to him.
Donizetti’s first operas were performed in
Venice
. A rich lady who realized he was very talented paid so that he did not have to do
military service
. His opera
Zoraida di Granata
was very successful in
Rome
and he was given a contract for an opera for
Naples
. For several years he composed between two and five operas every year. They were not particularly successful. One of the reasons was that the
libretti
he was given (the words he had to set) were not very good.
In
1828
he married. None of their three children lived very long and his wife died in
1837
which made him very sad during his last years. This can be felt in his music.
His opera
Anna Bolena
made him internationally famous. It was performed in
London
and
Paris
. His opera
Maria Stuarda
was based on a
play
by
Schiller
. It was not popular at first. The audience did not like the tragic ending. Today it is recognized as containing some great music, especially in the final scene. After a visit to
Paris
he returned to Naples to produce
Lucia di Lammermoor
which was based on
Scott’s
novel
The Bride of Lammermoor
. There is a French version as well as an Italian version of this opera.
In
1838
he moved to Paris where he had his operas performed in four theatres.
Berlioz
wrote very critical articles about him in a music journal. Donizetti had gone to Paris hoping that he would earn lots of money so that he could then retire, just like Rossini had done. However, his health was not good and he found it harder to concentrate. He managed to composed
Don Pasquale
which is one of the best comic operas every written, but it does have a lot of music that he had written earlier. He was obviously finding it difficult to think of new ideas. Soon he became really ill. He was suffering from
syphilis
. He was put in a
sanatorium
near Paris for 17 months. In
1847
some friends arranged for him to stay with them, but he was very ill by then. He was
paralysed
and almost unable to speak. His friends looked after him until he died.
He was buried in Bergamo. His remains are now in a church there. The house where he was born is a
museum
.