THE ELIXIR OF LOVE

Biography of Gaetano Donizetti

Donizetti sprang from a family of artisans; his father was a weaver in his hometown of Bergamo, Italy. Donizetti received a solid musical education in Bergamo and in Bologna, and completed his first opera in 1818. The story has it that four years later the composer, having been conscripted into the army, scored such a success with the opera Zoraide di Granata that the military authorities exempted him from further service so he could pursue a full-time compositional career. This is a myth. The truth is that in 1818 a wealthy lady named Marianna Pezzoli Grattaroli bought him out of the draft.

For the first phase of his career, commentators have concluded, the highly prolific composer was virtually an imitator of Rossini and little else. Of course, if one has to be an imitator, there are few imaginable better choices than the most popular, most prolific, and most skilful of opera composers then living. The 32 operas Donizetti produced from 1818 served as an apprenticeship of sorts. Gradually, as in the 1826 Elisabetta, his own compositional personality starts to emerge, to burst forth full-blown in Anna Bolena of 1830 (even though in this opera he does swipe the melody of "Home Sweet Home," probably for purposes of evoking the British setting of the story.)

Great success, especially in the field of comic opera, followed, and in 1837 he was appointed director of the Naples Conservatory. However, personal and artistic disappointment soon followed; while in grief over the death of his wife, he had continuing troubles with the royal censors, who banned his new opera, Poliuto. These problems impelled him to relocate to Paris, where, within two years, he had successfully staged four new operas.

Signs of illness began to appear and for a while he lost the ability to concentrate to the extent of writing major works. A visit back to Italy was unsuccessful (it included another bout with the censor) and he went on to Vienna where he received an appointment as Kapellmeister to the Austrian court. He wrote four more operas including the comic masterpiece Don Pasquale during this period, but his behavior became more erratic. In 1846 he was diagnosed as suffering cerebro-spinal degeneration caused by syphillis, of which he died in 1848.

While certain of his operas, particularly the comic favorites The Elixir of Love, Don Pasquale and La Favorita have never been out of the repertoire, the revival of interest in the bel canto era in our times has shown that Donizetti's huge catalog of operas contains many great scores in both the tragic and comic vein. He also wrote vast amounts of choral, vocal, orchestral, piano, and chamber music, the vast majority of which is but little explored.