| Contents |
1797-1821 ; 1822-1826 ; 1827-1830 ; 1831-1834 ; 1835-1837 ; 1838-1840 ; 1841-Autumn 1842 ; Autumn 1842-1843 ; 1844-July 1845 ; August 1845-September 1846 ; September 1846-April 1848 -- Appendices. Personal documents. Genealogical tables. The Donizetti family ; The Vasselli family -- The record of Donizetti's baptism ; The record of Donizetti's marriage ; Declaration of Dr. Giovanni Antonio Lorenzo Fossati, August 4, 1847 ; Declaration of Antonio Dolci to the Bergamo tribunal, August 15, 1847 ; Petition of Giuseppe Donizetti to the Austrian Ambassador at Constantinople, August 16, 1847 ; Declaration of Rosa and Giovannina Rota-Basoni to the Bergamo tribunal, October 10, 1847 ; Report on Donizetti's health, October 11, 1847 ; Report on Donizetti's mental condition, October 14, 1847 ; Declaration of Andrea Donizetti to the Bergamo tribunal, October 15, 1847 ; Autopsy on the cadaver of Donizetti, April 11, 1848 ; Letter to Margherita Tizzoni delle Sedie, from Giovannina Rota-Basoni, April 1848 -- Operatic documents and history. The negotiations among Visconti di Modrone, Mercadante, Romani, and Donizetti / Lucrezia Borgia -- Contract for tis production at La Scala, 1835 / Maria Stuarda -- A brief history of Donizetti's unfinished opera / Le Duc d'Albe -- A Scenario by Donizetti / Gli Innamorati -- Some details of Giuseppe Donizetti's career: with a note on Francesco Donizetti -- A note on present-day values: of some currencies mentioned in this book -- The music. A chronological list of Donizetti's operas, with commentary and performance data ; A list of Donizetti's nonoperatic compositions. |
| Abstract |
This book is the first full-length biography in English of the composer of Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor. It is based on first-hand research in archives and libraries at the scenes of Donizetti's widespread activities. Operatically speaking, Gaetano Donizetti shared the first half of the Italian nineteenth century with Rossini and Bellini. Long active throughout Italy, he later turned his talents to the benefit of audiences in Pairs and Vienna. Attractive, humorous and enormously energetic, he won the affectionate regard of his colleagues and the intense devotion of numerous women, including his beautiful, but unfortunate wife. The story of Donizetti's life is worth telling for the illumination it sheds on operatic history and on the whole world of opera. He bridged the interval between the classical opera, with its rigid division into opera seria and opera buffa, and the romantic, dramatic operas of Verdi's middle period. His personal story of success that turned into final tragedy is an enthralling human document in itself. The reader meets the great, the well-remembered and the fascinatingly obscure in music, literature, politics and society. Among a total of nearly seventy operas which Donizetti composed, Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale and L'Elisir d'Amore have remained in the active repertoires of opera houses everywhere. His works were composed for a dazzling constellation of singers, including Grisi, Malibran, Pasta, Lablache, Mario, Ronconi and Rubini. Born into a poor artisan family in Bergamo, he ended his days laden with decorations and honors, a member of the legion d'honneur and the Academie des Beaux-Arts and an Aulic Councillor to the Emperor of Austria. Appendices include a complete annotated list of Donizetti's operas (with brief histories of their performances) and of his non-operatic compositions. They also offer a mass of other information, including a side glance at Giuseppe Donizetti, the composer's brother, who became musical director of Sultans and died at a pasha at Constantinople. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 405-410) and index. |
| LCCN | 63013703 |
