Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/144

DON on the invitation of Cardinal Corsini, to accompany him to Paris, whence he was recalled to Florence by the death of his brother. He was next attached to the service of Cardinal Barberini, with whom he went a second time to Paris. By this patron's recommendation he was appointed secretary to the College of Cardinals at Rome, but resigned the office when the death of two more of his brothers necessitated his presence in his native city. There he was appointed to a public lectureship by the grand duke, Ferdinand II., and was elected a member of the Academy of Florence, and that of La Crusca. Throughout his life he was especially interested in music, and his immense erudition enabled him to make very elaborate researches into the character and condition of this art among the ancients. He wrote very voluminously on his favourite subject of investigation, arguing that the ancient musical system was superior to the modern. He wrote extensively also on the state of music in his own time, and in the century before him; and he is an invaluable authority for the history of the art at this period. Several of his works were printed during his life, but he left a far greater number in manuscript. These were collected for publication by Gori, who, however, died before the edition was issued, and it was brought out by Passeri in 1773 at Florence. Doni invented a kind of lute which he called the Lyra Barberina in compliment to his patron. It was so constructed as to induce the arrangement of the notes according to their order in the Greek modes. A description of this, and of its analogy with ancient instruments, is one of the most curious of his tracts. He constructed also a transposing harpsichord.—G. A. M.  DONIZETTI,, a musician, was born at Bergamo, 25th September, 1798, where he died on 8th April, 1848. His f ather was opulent, and he designed Gætano for the profession of jurisprudence. His natural impulse, however, was to an artistic career, and drawing, for which he had considerable talent, and which he desired to exercise in the capacity of an architect, was his first object. When he relinquished the wish of his childhood, and entered upon the study of music, he was placed under the instruction of Simone Mayer, who promptly perceived the germ of remarkable power in his young pupil, and accordingly took the greatest interest in his task of tuition. It was against the counsel of this master, that Donizetti was sent to Bologna in 1815, to take a course of lessons of Padre Mattei. Mayer feared a bad effect upon his scholar's genius from the severe style of the ancient Roman school, for which Mattei was famous; but his erring though well-meant advice was disregarded. While at Bologna, Donizetti had also another teacher, Pilotti, under whom probably he practised singing and the pianoforte. At this period he composed some masses, and a large number of smaller pieces for the church, several quartets for string instruments, and some overtures for the orchestra. The father of Donizetti, in conceding his own views to Gætano's artistic predilection, had chosen music for his son's profession, under the idea that the grave character of a composer for the church, bore some analogy with the dignity of the forensic calling to which he had destined him; and it was on this account that he insisted on sending him to study with Mattei. He was greatly enraged, therefore, when the young musician, following the natural bent of his genius, applied himself to dramatic composition. Rendered desperate by the parental anger, Donizetti entered the army; but he was quickly disgusted with the habits and the duties of military life. While in garrison at Venice, he found leisure from the restraint his uncongenial vocation imposed upon him, to write his first opera, "Enrico di Borgogna," which was produced in Venice in 1818; and its great success enabled him to obtain his discharge from his regiment. His fortunate debut as a dramatic composer gained him also an engagement to write a second opera for the same city, "Il Falegname di Livonia," which appeared in 1819. This was followed in 1820 by "Le Nozze in Villa" at Mantua, but the year after he did not come before the public. His brief repose was succeeded by the production of four operas in 1822, "Zoraïde di Granata" at Rome; "La Zingara" and "La Lettera Anonima" at Naples;" and "Chiara e Serafina" at Milan. The same remarkable fecundity was evinced in 1823, when he brought out "Il Fortunato Inganno" and "Aristea" at Naples; and "Una Follia" and "Alfredo il Grande" at Venice. In 1824 Donizetti gave "L'Ajo nell Imbarrazzo" at Rome, and "Emilia" at Naples. His name is not in the theatrical annals of 1825; but in 1826 he visited Sicily, and produced "Alahor in Granata," and "Il Castello degli Invalidi" at Palermo; and, returning to Naples, he there brought out "Elvida." A more lasting success than that of any of his earlier operas was attained by "Oliva e Pasquale," at Rome, and "Il Borgomæstro di Saardam" at Naples, both in 1827; in which year, also, he gave "Le Convenienze Téatrali" and "Otto Mesi in due Ore," at the latter city. There, likewise in 1828, he produced the still popular "Esule di Roma;" and after visiting Genoa, to direct the rehearsals of "La Regina di Golconda," he returned thither to give "Gianni di Calais" and "Giove di Grasso." He had about this period an engagement for some years to Barbaja, the impresario of Naples, to furnish him with two serious and two comic operas every year; in 1829, not only did he fulfil this extensive contract, but he composed also three other operas for the same city. "Il Paria," "Il Castello di Kenilworth," "Il Diluvio Universale," "I Pazzi per progresso," "Francesca di Foix," "Imelda di Lambertazzi," and "La Romanziera," were all fruits of this wonderfully prolific year, an amount of production in so short a period that is scarcely paralleled in the history of the human mind. "Anna Bolena," the work that introduced Donizetti in this country, was first given at Milan in 1830, with Pastor and Rubini in the principal characters; and it was brought out in London in June, 1831, with the same powerful representatives. The success of this opera here at once stumped its composer's reputation, and prepared the public to welcome the many that followed it, including some of those that had been earlier produced. In 1830 "Fausta" was also written, and was first performed at Naples. "Ugo, conte di Parigi," the vivacious, melodious, and characteristic "Elisir d'Amore" (that has entirely eclipsed Le Philtre of Auber, to a translation of the libretto of which this opera is set), and "Sancia di Castiglia," were all produced at Milan in 1832; the preceding year having evoked no composition from the fertile author. In 1833 Donizetti married a lady to whom he was passionately attached, the daughter of a lawyer of Rome. Three very popular operas were brought out in the year of his nuptials, "Il Furioso," at Rome; "Parisina," at Florence; and "Torquato Tasso," at Rome. In 1834 "Lucrezia Borgia" was produced at Milan, with Mad. Meric Lalande as the heroine. This admirable work was not given in London until June, 1839, when Grisi and Mario sustained the characters with which they have become almost identified, by the rare excellence of their personation. The opera was not originally successful, and its first performance here, too, was not received with that favour which has since distinguished the work; but it is now a composition more frequently played than any other of Donizetti, and it is the one by which, as a whole, his genius is perhaps best exemplified. "Rosamonda," given at Florence, and "Maria Stuarda" at Naples, were also productions of 1834. About this time Donizetti was appointed professor of counterpoint in the conservatorio at Naples, an office for which he was better qualified than any Italian musician of his own age, but one which must have been to a great extent honorary, since his long and frequent absences from the city disabled him from any regular discharge of its duties. "Gemma di Vergy" was given at Milan in 1835. Then, for the first time leaving his own country, the composer went to Paris in order to produce "Marino Faliero" at the Italian theatre there; and he returned to Naples, to bring out the immensely popular "Lucia di Lammermoor," which was introduced in London in 1838, with Persiani, Rubini, and Tamburini, in its chief characters. It was in 1835 that Donizetti experienced the severe calamity of the loss of his wife by cholera; she had borne him two children, who both died in infancy; and we may in some degree ascribe to his sufferings from this total family bereavement, the licentiousness of life, which, more even than his excessive labours, induced the mental disease that prematurely closed his career. It would seem that he sought oblivion from his sorrow in the toils of his art. In 1836 he brought out "Belisario" at Venice; he then went to Naples to fulfil another engagement, where, finding one of the small theatres in a bankrupt state, he wrote "Il Campanello," a one act opera, for the benefit of the poor singers, translating the libretto from a French vaudeville for himself, and completing the entire composition, words, and music, directing its rehearsal, and witnessing its first performance, all in the marvellously brief period of a single week. "Betly" of which also he translated the libretto (it being the same subject as Le Chalet of Adam), and "L'Assedio di Calais," were likewise given in the same 