Gaetano Donizetti – Biography of Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti He was born in Bergamo on November 29, 1797. He received his first musical instruction from an uncle, but the beginning of his training as a composer came in 1806, when he was accepted as a free student at the Lezione Caritatevoli, a school supported by the church of Santa María la Mayor to train musicians and choristers for her services. The director of this school was Simon Mayr, a German who had settled in Bergamo in 1805. Although not very well known today, his music was held in high esteem throughout his life. Mayr’s influence seems to have been decisive. Kept the young Donizetti in school, although his voice did not have the necessary quality, even writing works for student presentations, in which these vocal defects could be disguised.

The first three operas of Donizetti They date from 1816 and 1817 and were not performed during his lifetime. His first opera performed was Enrico di Borgogna, staged in Venice in 1818. From this time until 1844 he produced operas of all kinds at a fantastic rate.

In 1827 he agreed to compose 12 operas for Venice within a period of 3 years. All his works allow the singer ample opportunity for display with brilliant cadences and coloratures. Many of his librettos deal with violent passions that are often preserved for better dramatic effect. However, works like Elixir of Love (1832), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), The daughter of the regiment (1840), and Don pasquale (1843) have earned a place in the repertoire as well as an important historical position for their composer.

Although he is now known primarily for his operas, Donizetti produced a large number of compositions in other genres. In addition to 71 operas, he composed cantatas, sacred works, symphonies, string quartets and quintets, and numerous works for solo piano, voice and piano, and piano and other instruments.

The fame of Donizetti it spread rapidly throughout Italy; he moved to Paris, where he wrote five operas, and to Vienna, where he became the principal director of the court in 1842. His last years, 1844-1848, were spent in quite serious circumstances due to the progressive deterioration of his health, both physical as mental. He died in the city of Bergamo on April 8, 1848.