Life of Donizetti

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 34, 6 March 1931, Page 2

Life of Donizetti

A SCOTSMAN named Izett, wandering afield in search of fortune, discovered it in Italy, where he took to himself the prefix of "Don," thus acquiring for his. children the name "Donizetti." Such was the ancestry, according to report, of Gaetano Donizetti, composer of "Lucia de Lammermoor," and some sixty-two other operas. Donizetti was born at Bergamo, November 25, 1797, and he died there April 8, 1848, muck taking place in the intervening h@tcentury. His father inténded he shauld become a teacher, and to avoid thig he enlisted in the army, where, if history serves, he spent most of this time writing music-which art. he had studied in Naples and Bologna. His first opera, "Wnrico di Borgogna," was produced in Venice, 1818, while he was qtartered there, and two others followed. But his "Nosse in Villa," Room, 1822, won military exemption with honours, for he was carried through the streets in triumph ard crowned at the citadel. From that time on he devoted himself to music; more particularly to opera. He was a prolific and a rapid worker. In 1836, while he was in Naples, a certain theatre was in immit nent risk of bankruptcy,.and the prima °*: donna came to him for, help.. He had no libretto, but one’ was. gotten somehow, and in niné days, -it is said, "the libretto was written, the» music com(Concluded on page 29.):

The Life of Donizetti

(Concluded from page 2.) posed, the parts learned, the opera performed, and the theatre saved." — He is also said to have composed the whole of the last act of "La Fille du Regiment" (Act IV), except the aria, "Angi Si Pur," and the slow part of the duet, in three or four hours. Not only could "Donizetti boast great musieal ability, but also considerable literary skill. He is known to have designed and written the last acts of both "La Favorita" and "Lucia di Lammermoor." , Donizetti’s musical. career, which began, so far as reputation was concerned, with "Anna Bolena," produced at Milan, 1830, and which later gave the world such masterpieces as "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Daughter of the Regiment," "Tinda di Chamounix,’ "La Favourita," "Lucrezia Borgia," and "Wlixir D’Amore," ended somewhat sadly. ‘ During his last years Donizetti was subject to fits of melancholia. In 1845 he had a stroke of paralysis, and in 1847 he returned to Bergamo in time to die. He was buried some little distance outside the town, and lay in peace until September 12, 1875, when his body was disinterred and given the belated distinction of burial in the ehurch of Santa Maria Maggiore, where a monument by Vincenzo Vela does honour to his memory. He has not been forgotten, however, elsewhere. For his works live.