Donizetti, (Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) 1797-1848
Italian composer

Born in Bergamo, he studied music there and in Bologna. His first opera, Enrico di Borgogna, was successfully produced at Venice (1818), but his first internationally famous work was Anna Bolena, produced at Milan in 1830. L'Elisir d'amore (1832, 'The Elixir of Love') and Lucrezia Borgia (1833) also achieved lasting popularity, as did Lucia di Lammermoor (1835). In Paris (1840), he staged La Fille du r�giment ('The Daughter of the Regiment') and La Favorita ('The Favourite'), the last act of which was written in three to four hours. The comic opera Don Pasquale (1843) was his last success, soon after which he became paralysed and then insane.

Bibliography: Herbert Weinstock, Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (1963)