LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Donizetti: Gaetano Donizetti
built 642 days ago
Gaetano Donizetti, b. Nov. 29, 1797, d. Apr. 8, 1848, was one of the great masters of 19th-century Italian opera. He pursued his musical studies in Bergamo under Johann Simon Mayr and in Bologna under Padre Stanislao Mattei and completed his first opera, Il Pigmalione, in 1816. In 1822 he enjoyed a tremendous success with the production of Zoraide di Granata in Rome. His first enduring opera... was Anna Bolena, which had its premier in Milan (1830). For a short time he was a professor at (then director of) the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Maiella in Milan. Widely traveled, he made successful visits to Paris, Vienna, and several other cities.
Source:
With nearly 70 operas to his credit, Gaetano Donizetti was the leading Italian composer in the decade between Vincenzo Bellini's death and the rise of Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in the northern Italian city of Bergamo to an impoverished family. After showing some musical talent he was enrolled in the town's Lezioni Caritatevoli and had the good fortune to study with Giovanni Simone Mayr, maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore. Donizetti arrived at a time when Mayr was writing his greatest operas, and his impression on the younger composer was pronounced. Throughout his life Donizetti regarded him as a second father, though he would outlive his master by only three years.
Source:
From the archives of Radiotelevisione Italiana comes this performance of Gaetano Donizetti's triumphant comic opera, the story of old Don Pasquale, who (quite foolishly) is in a hurry to marry. This 1955 production stars Italo Tajo in the title role; Sesto Bruscantini, Cesare Valletti and Alda Noni ... star. Alberto Erede conducts. 105 min. Standard; Soundtrack: Italian; Subtitles: English, French, Italian. In Italian with English subtitles.
Source:
Opera greats Kathleen Battle and Luciano Pavarotti star in this 1991 performance of Gaetano Donizetti's playful love story "L'Elisir D'Amore," filmed at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a traditional production of the delightfully comedic opera featuring Battle as Adina, Pavarotti as Nemorino, Juan Pons as Belcore and Enzo Dara as Dulcamara.
Source:
Gaetano Donizetti was born November 29, 1797 in Bergamo, Italy. He, Bellini and Rossini were the three great masters of the opera style known as bel canto. Bel canto operas had set numbers of separate arias and ensembles that featured particularly florid vocal writing designed to show off the human voice to maximum effect. These works demanded great virtuosity from the singers and served as star vehicles for leading operatic performers. Donizetti dominated the Italian opera scene during the years between Bellini's death and Verdi's rise to fame after Nabucco.
Source:
Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo, a small town in northern Italy, on November 29, 1797. He began his early musical education under several teachers, including the famous opera composer Simon Mayr; and later, in Bologna, under the renowned teacher Padre Mattei. Donizetti's father insisted that his son return to Bergamo and support himself by giving music lessons, but Gaetano disliked the life of a music teacher and decided to enlist in the army.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Gaetano Donizetti