DONIZETTI, Gaetano
b Bergamo, 29 November 1797
d Bergamo, 8 April 1848, aged fifty

He studied music locally, advancing so quickly that he was sent to the Liceo Filarmonica in Bologna. Returning horn e by the time he was twenty, uncertain what he should do next, he began composing for local amateur societies. In 1818 he received his first operatic commission, and subsequently wrote up to four or five operas a year. Honours were heaped upon him, and he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Austrian Emperor. From 1843 recurrent bouts of fever slowed his work; his condition deteriorated until he finally collapsed into paralysis and insanity, the last stages of a venereal disease. His last two years were spent in a coma.

1830 (33)

Anna Bolena, opera

1832 (35)

L'Elisir d'Amore, opera

1833 (36)

Lucrezia Borgia, opera

1834 (37)

Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, opera

1835 (38)

Lucia di Lammermoor, opera

1840 (43)

La Favorita, opera

La Fille du Régiment, opera

1842 (45)

Linda de Chamounix, opera

1843 (46)

Maria de Rohan, opera

Don Pasquale, opera

Don Sébastien, opera

Donizetti composed more than sixty operas, some in French.