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DONIZETTI, GAETANO (1798-1848)
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See also:DONIZETTI, GAETANO (1798-1848) , See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Bergamo in 1798, the son of a See also:government See also:official of limited means. Originally destined for the See also:bar, he showed at an See also:early See also:age a strong See also:taste for See also:art. At first, strangely enough, he mistook See also:architecture for his vocation, and only after an unsuccessful trial in that direction did he discover his real See also:talent. He entered the See also:conservatoire of his native See also:city, where he studied under See also:Simon Mayr, the fertile operatic composer. His second See also:master was Mattei, the See also:head master of the celebrated See also:music school of See also:Bologna, where Donizetti resided for three years. After his return to Bergamo the See also:young composer determined to devote himself to dramatic music, but his See also:father insisted upon his giving lessons with a view to immediate gain. The disputes arising from this cause ultimately led to Donizetti's enlisting in the See also:army. But this desperate step proved beneficial against all expectation. The See also:regiment was quartered at See also:Venice, and here the young composer's first dramatic See also:attempt, an See also:opera called Enrico See also:comte di Borgogna, saw the See also:light in 1818. The success of this See also:work, and of a second opera brought out in the following See also:year, established Donizetti's reputation. He obtained his See also:discharge from the army, and henceforth his operas followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted See also:succession at the See also:rate of three or four a year. Although he had to contend successively with two such dangerous rivals as See also:Rossini and See also:Bellini, he succeeded in taking See also:firm hold of the public, and the brilliant reception accorded to his See also:Anna Bolena at See also:Milan carried his name beyond the limits of his own See also:country. In 1835 Donizetti went for the first See also:time to See also:Paris, where, however, his See also:Marino See also:Faliero failed to hold its own against Bellini's Puritani, then recently produced at the See also:Theatre Italien. The disappointed composer went to See also:Naples, where the enormous success of his See also:Lucia di Lammermoor consoled him for his failure in Paris. For Naples he wrote a number of See also:works, none of which is See also:worth See also:notice. In 1840 the censorship refused to pass his Poliuto, an Italian version of See also:Corneille's Polyeucte, in consequence of which the disgusted composer once more See also:left his country for Paris. Here he produced at the Opera Comique his most popular opera, La Fille du regiment, but again with little success. It was aot till after the work had made the See also:round of the theatres of See also:Germany and See also:Italy that the Parisians reconsidered their unfavourable See also:verdict. A serious opera, See also:Les Martyrs, produced about the same time with the Daughter of the Regiment, was equally unsuccessful, and it was reserved to La Favorita, generally considered as Donizetti's masterpiece, to break the evil spell. His next important work, Linda di Chamounix, was written for See also:Vienna, where it was received most favourably in 1842, and the same success accompanied the See also:production of See also:Don Pasquale after Donizetti's return to Paris in 1843. Soon after this event the first signs of a fatal disease, caused to a See also:great extent by overwork, began to show themselves. The utter failure of Don See also:Sebastian, a large opera produced soon after Don Pasquale, is said to have hastened the See also:catastrophe. A paralytic stroke in 1844 deprived Donizetti of his See also:reason; for four years he lingered on in a See also:state of See also:mental and See also:physical prostration. A visit to his country was proposed as a last resource, but he reached his native See also:place only to See also:die there on the 1st of See also:April 1848. The sum See also:total of his operas amounts to sixty-four. The large number of his works accounts for many of their See also:chief defects. His rapidity of working made all revision impossible. It is said that he once wrote the See also:instrumentation of a whole opera within See also:thirty See also:hours, a time hardly sufficient, one would think, to put the notes on See also:paper. And yet it may be doubted whether more elaboration would have essentially improved his work; for the last See also:act of the Favorita, infinitely See also:superior to the preceding ones, is also said to have been the product of a single See also:night. There is a See also:strange See also:parallelism observable in the lives of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. They had no sooner established their reputations on the Italian See also:stage than they left their own country for Paris, at that time the centre of the musical See also:world. All three settled in See also:France, and all three were anxious to adapt the See also:style of their music to the taste and See also:artistic traditions of their adopted country. The difference which exists between Rossini's Tell and his Semiramide may, although in a less striking degree, be noticed between Donizetti's Fille du regiment and one of his earlier Italian operas. But here the parallel ends. As regards artistic See also:genius Donizetti can by no means be compared with his illustrious countrymen. He has little of Bellini's See also:melancholy sweetness, less of Rossini's sparkle, and is all but devoid of spontaneous dramatic impulse. For these shortcomings he atones by a considerable though by no means extraordinary See also:store of fluent See also:melody, and by his rare skill in See also:writing for the See also:voice. The See also:duet in the last act of the Favorita and the ensemble in Lucia following upon the See also:signing of the See also:contract, are masterpieces of concerted music in the Italian style. These advantages, together with considerable See also:power of humorous delineation, as evinced in Don Pasquale and L'Elisir d'amore, must See also:account for the unimpaired vitality of many of his works on the stage. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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