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Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti
Portrait of Giuseppe Donizetti by cigarillos (1811-1880) Museo del Teatro alla Scala
Portrait of Giuseppe Donizetti by cigarillos (1811-1880)
Museo del Teatro alla Scala
Birth name Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti
Birth 29 November 1797
Bergamo ( Lombardy )
Flag of the Repubblica Cisalpina.svg Cisalpine Republic
Deaths 8 April 1848
Bergamo
( Lombard-Venetian Kingdom )
Flag of Austrian Empire Austrian Empire
Principal Activity Composer
Style Classical music
Places of activity Naples , Paris , Vienna
Years Active 1816 - 1845
Major works

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti is a composer Italian born in Bergamo on 29 November 1797 and died in the same city on 8 April 1848.

Although his prolific composer repertoire includes many genres, including the religious music , pieces for string quartet and orchestral works, he is best known for his operas.

Heir of Rossini 's rival Bellini , a precursor of Verdi , Donizetti with them is part of the principal Italian composers of the nineteenth century whose success "never wavered" .

Summary

Biography

Born into a poor family in Bergamo , the son of an employee, Gaetano Donizetti is dedicated to the musical career despite a father who intends it to the bar. Luckily, there was an important composer in Bergamo from the previous generation: Simon Mayr , choirmaster of the Basilica. Thanks to grants from the Institut de la Misericordia Maggiore Pious, he had established charitable music lessons which Donizetti was admitted in April 1806. It is then aged 8 years. He studied for nine years under the direction of Mayr, who gets in October 1815 , it can be sent to the Lyce Philharmonic Bologna study counterpoint and fugue under the direction of the best teacher of the time, Father Stanislao Mattei also the master of Rossini (seven years older than Donizetti).

While composing, edited by Mattei, religious pieces of a strict style, Donizetti gives Bologna in September 1816 , his first opera, The Pygmalion, which will be shown in 1960. Back in his hometown, he holds a position in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. His career as a composer of operas officially begins on 14 November 1818 with the creation at the Teatro San Luca in Venice of Enrico di Borgogna.

The young composer achieved his first success with his next book, Zoraida di Granata, composed with the help of Mayr and represented 28 January 1822 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. On this occasion, Donizetti demonstrated the extreme rapidity that characterized since it must rewrite much of the score before the first few days following the death of one of the main performers. In Rome he became acquainted with Jacopo Ferretti and Family Vasselli. Ferretti gave him the libretto of an opera bouffe, L'ajo nell'imbarazzo, which is represented with great success at the Teatro Valle on 4 February 1824 and is considered the first small masterpiece of Donizetti in comic genre.

From 1818 to 1828 , Donizetti composed 19 operas, many of which have won a great success: Elvira, Alfredo the Great, Olivo e Pasquale in Alahor Granata, Chiara e Serafino, etc.. But it was at Naples , where he settled after his marriage to Virginia Vasselli in Rome on 1 June 1828 , he received his first real "triumph" with the Esule di Roma (1828). Aided by a creative and unusual work force, it begins to consolidate the success.

On 26 December 1830 , he triumphed at the Teatro Carcano in Milan with Anna Bolena with the first held an all-star cast, including Giuditta Pasta and Giovanni Battista Rubini. The opera does not take long to be taken to Paris , to London , to Madrid , to Dresden and even Havana.

He triumphed again on 12 May 1832 with L'Elisir d'amore , represented at the Teatro della Canobbiana of Milan. These successes earned him being named the 28 June 1834 , choirmaster and teacher of composition at the Real Collegio (conservatory) to Naples and then in 1836 , master of counterpoint at the conservatory.

Gaetano Donizetti in 1830.

In 1835 , at the invitation of Rossini, Donizetti went to Paris where he playing at the Theatre des Italiens Marino Faliero ( March 12 ). In April, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour by King Louis-Philippe. Back in Naples, he won a memorable triumph Teatro San Carlo with Lucia di Lammermoor , his most famous work, composed in just six weeks. The death of his wife, 30 July 1837 , plunged into a deep depression. On October 29 , he nevertheless represent a new masterpiece, Roberto Devereux , always at the San Carlo.

The following year, the prohibition of censorship by Poliuto Neapolitan and despite not having got to be appointed director of the school after the death of Zingarelli convinced him to leave Naples and moved to Paris.

Working with Eugene Scribe , he created a series of operas, some of which have become classics of world opera repertoire:

From 1842 to 1846 , Donizetti constantly traveling, mostly between Paris, the major Italian cities (Naples, Rome, Bologna, Milan, Venice) and Vienna where he became Kapellmeister of the court in 1842. There he began to feel the suffering from syphilis , which will force it to stop working by 1845. As a result of nerve damage from the disease, he forfeits the floor, unable to walk and dark gradually into madness, he who had stopped to put it in the theater. Assisted by his nephew Andrea, he returned to Paris where he was interned in 1846 at the insane asylum of Ivry-sur-Seine before being transferred in 1847 in a nursing home in her hometown, Bergamo, where he died in 1848.

Donizetti had a brother much older than himself, Giuseppe Donizetti was born in 1788 , long military music director of the Sultan to Constantinople , where he died in 1856. He better know Western music in the Ottoman Empire and popularized his marches, songs and piano pieces.

Work

Gaetano Donizetti in 1835.

In thirty-year career, Donizetti was the author of 71 operas, 13 symphonies, 18 quartets, quintets 3, 28 cantatas, 115 other religious compositions, besides a large number of other pieces of chamber music, oratorio and "spare room", making it one of the most prolific composers of the nineteenth century.

Operas

1816-1819

  • It Pigmalion (composed in 1816 created October 13, 1960 at the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo)
  • Enrico di Borgogna (created November 14, 1818 at the Teatro San Luca in Venice )
  • Una follia (established December 17, 1818 at the Teatro San Luca in Venice) - lost partition -

1820-1824

1825-1829

  • Alahor in Granata (created January 7, 1826 at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo )
  • Don Gregorio (revised ajo nell'imbarazzo created June 11, 1826 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples)
  • Elvida (created July 6, 1826 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples)
  • Gabriella di Vergy (composed in 1826 and revised in 1838 but not shown; created in a completely revised version posthumously under the title Gabriella November 29, 1869 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples)
  • Olivo e Pasquale (created January 7, 1827 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, then in a revised 1 September 1827 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples)
  • Otto mesi in due ore , ossia Gli esiliati in Siberia (created May 13, 1827 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, then in a revised version in 1833 in Livorno )
  • It borgomastro di Saardam (created August 19, 1827 at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples)
  • The convenienza teatrali (created November 21, 1827 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples)
  • The Esule di Roma , ossia It proscritto (established on 1 January 1828 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples)
  • The eremitaggio of Liwerpool (revised Emilia di Liverpool , created March 8, 1828 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples)
  • Alina, regina di Golconda (created May 12, 1828 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa , then in a revised version October 10, 1829 at the Teatro Valle in Rome)
  • Gianni di Calais (established August 2, 1828 at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples)
  • It pariah (created January 12, 1829 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples)
  • It Giovedi grasso , ossia Il Nuovo Pourceaugnac (created February 26, 1829 at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples)
  • Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth (created July 6, 1829 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples)

1830-1834

Flyleaf of the score of L'Elisir d'amore

1835-1839

1840-1845

  • The Rinegata (censored version of Lucrezia Borgia created October 31, 1840 at the Theatre Italien , Paris)
  • La Favorita (revised Angel of Nisida created December 2, 1840 at the Paris Opera)
  • Adelia (created February 11, 1841 at the Teatro Apollo in Rome)
  • Rita Mari or beat (composed in 1841, posthumously created May 7, 1860 at the Opera-Comique)
  • Maria Padilla (established December 26, 1841 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan)
  • Linda di Chamounix (created May 19, 1842 at Krntnertortheater to Vienna , then in a revised version November 17, 1842 at the Theatre Italien in Paris)
  • Leonora di Guzman (censored version Italian La Favorita created in Padua in 1842, then in a revised version under the title Elda ossia La favorita 16 August 1843 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan)
  • Don Pasquale (created January 3, 1843 at the Theatre Italien in Paris)
  • Maria di Rohan (created June 5, 1843 at Krntnertortheater in Vienna)
  • Don Sebastian, King of Portugal (created November 13, 1843 at the Paris Opera , then in a revised version February 6, 1845 at Krntnertortheater in Vienna)
  • Caterina Cornaro , ossia La Regina di Cipro (created January 18, 1844 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, then in a revised version in February 1845 in Parma)

Tributes

Sources


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