25 Gaetano Donizetti Cool Interesting Facts - Italian Composer

(Last Updated On: October 6, 2021)

Gaetano Donizetti facts will many interesting parts of his life, achievement, and others. Donizetti, Domenico Gaetano Maria, was an Italian composer best known for his over 70 operas. He was a major composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century, alongside Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, and a possible influence on later composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in the Lombardy city of Bergamo, Gaetano Donizetti interesting facts. He was taken in by Simon Mayr at a young age, who enrolled him with a full scholarship at a school that he had established. He received extensive musical instruction there.

Mayr was crucial in securing a seat for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where he composed his first one-act opera, the farce Il Pigmalione, at the age of 19, which may or may not have been performed during his lifetime, Gaetano Donizetti fun facts.

Following an offer from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, in 1822, the composer moved to Naples and stayed there until the staging of Caterina Cornaro in January 1844 interesting facts about Gaetano Donizetti facts. In total, 51 operas by Donizetti were performed in Naples. Prior to 1830, he was most known for his comedic operas, with his serious works failing to draw large crowds. His first significant triumph was with Zoraida di Granata, an opera seria that premiered in Rome in 1822, Gaetano Donizetti cool facts.

Donizetti had a huge influence on the Italian and worldwide opera industry when Anna Bolena was first performed in 1830, changing the balance of success away from purely comic operas, while his best-known works contained comedies such as L’elisir d’amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1836). (1843) Gaetano Donizetti facts. Lucia di Lammermoor (the first to have a libretto written by Salvadore Cammarano) was performed in Naples in 1835, while Roberto Devereux, one of the most successful Neapolitan operas, was performed in 1837. All of his operas had previously been adapted to Italian libretti.

Gaetano Donizetti interesting facts

1. He wrote 75 operas, 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas, instrumental concertos, sonatas, and other chamber works in total.

2. In 1802, Simone Mayr, a German composer of globally acclaimed operas, was appointed maestro di cappella at Bergamo’s main church.

3. In 1828, Virginia was to marry Donizetti.

4. Donizetti was a prolific composer who is most known for his operatic works, but he also composed music in other genres like church music, string quartets, and symphonic compositions.

5. Virginia, Antonio’s younger sister, was just 13 at the time.

6. In 1805, he created the Lezioni Caritatevoli school in Bergamo with the goal of giving musical training, as well as literary lessons, to choirboys who had reached the end of their vocal cords.

7. Lucia di Lammermoor, La fille du régiment, L’elisir d’amore, and Don Pasquale are among his most well-known operas today.

8. His father Andrea was the custodian of the town pawnshop, and his family was impoverished and had no musical heritage.

9. After the King of Naples forbade the staging of Poliuto on the grounds that such a sacred topic was unsuitable for the stage, Donizetti went to Paris in October 1838, swearing never to deal with the San Carlo again.

10. Until Verdi, Donizetti was the most important composer of Italian opera after Bellini’s death.

11. Andrea Donizetti tried to enlist both of his sons in 1807, but the older, Giuseppe (then 18), was deemed too old. Gaetano (then nine years old) got accepted.

12. Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamo’s Borgo Canale district, just outside the city walls, as the youngest of three boys.

13. His reputation shifted throughout time, but his art has been increasingly popular during the 1940s and 1950s.

14. He applied to and was admitted into the Academia Carrara, a local art school, in 1810, although it is unknown if he attended courses.

15. Anna Bolena, performed at the Teatro Carcano in Milan on December 26, 1830, with Giuditta Pasta in the title character, was Donizetti’s most renowned and first worldwide triumph.

16. Moreover, following the triumph of his Lucia at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris in December 1837, the Paris Opéra approached him.

17. Percy was also played by the renowned tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini.

18. Donizetti was diagnosed with syphilis and suspected bipolar illness in 1843.

19. Donizetti met the Vasselli family during his months in Rome for the production of Zoraida, and Antonio became a close friend.

20. He was nine years younger than Giuseppe Donizetti, who had been Instructor General of Imperial Ottoman Music at Sultan Mahmud II’s (1808–1839) court in 1828.

21. In 1809, however, he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing, according to Donizetti expert William Ashbrook.

22. Soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis and her husband, bass Giuseppe de Begnis, were among them.

23. Francesco, the youngest of the three brothers, lived his whole childhood in Bergamo, with the exception of a brief journey to Paris during his brother’s deterioration. He was only eight months older than him when he died.

24. After prolonging his stay in Bologna as far as he could, Donizetti was obliged to return to Bergamo due to a lack of alternative options.

25. Various minor possibilities presented themselves to him, and he met some of the vocalists who performed during the 1817/18 Carnival season.

25 Gaetano Donizetti Cool Interesting Facts – Italian Composer

Gaetano Donizetti interesting facts

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