DONIZETTI, GAETANO, (b. Bergamo, Italy, 29 Nov. 1797; d. Bergamo, 8 April 1848)
In all, Donizetti wrote seventy works for the opera stage. Many of these have been rediscovered since the 1950s, championed by singers such as Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé, who have recognised not only his mastery of the bel canto, but his appreciation of the great dramatic possibilities of the soprano voice.
Donizetti's parents opposed his musical career, so he enlisted in the Austrian army. In 1818, however, Enrico di Borgogna was produced, and a second opera, Zoraide di Granata, was so successful in 1822 that it earned him exemption from further military service.
His early successful comedies were influenced by Rossini's Italian operas. Subsequent works show the influence of Rossini's French style and also of Bellini. By the completion of Anna Bolena (1830), he had developed his own, mature style which remained coloured by his admiration for the work of Verdi, who was sixteen years younger than himself.
With Torquato Tasso and Lucrezia Borgia ( both 1833) he developed his flair for Romantic melodrama, of which Lucia di Lammermoor (1835 ) is the best-known example. By this time he had begun to put the needs of the drama before mere display, though he always remained ready to change the content of his works to suit conditions available to their production, and to write to accommodate particular singers.
Donizetti himself considered his later, Romantic tragedies his most important works. Their drama was partly conveyed by his loosening of the old, distinct divisions of recitative and aria, allowing place for arioso sections and choral comments. He also developed the slow cabaletta, which gave his singers opportunities to show off impressive coloraturo moments without leaving himself open to accusations of indulging in trivial fireworks.
