Gaetano Donizetti (d. 1848), born in 1797 at Bergamo, a weaver's son, showed artistic aptitudes from the start and received a good education, including training in music from Mayr at Bergamo and Mattei at Bologna. To avoid becoming either a lawyer or a teacher, as his father urged, he tried the army, and while stationed at Venice produced his first three operas (1818-20), with only fair success. But Zoraide di Granata (1822, Rome) gained him honor and a release from soldiering. All his early works were plainly in imitation of Rossini. Up to the end of 1830 he brought out 31 operas—20 at Naples and the rest at Venice, Rome, Palermo, Milan, Mantua and Genoa.
A better period opened with Anna Bolena (1830, Milan), and during the next 14 years appeared over 30 more, of which the most noted were, in the lighter vein, L'elisir d'amore (1832, Milan), La fille du régiment (1840, Paris) and the sparkling Don Pasquale (1843, Paris), and, on the serious side, Lucrezia Borgia (1833, Milan), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835, Naples), La favorite (1840, Paris) and Linda di Chamounix (1842, Vienna). Though from 1835 holding official posts at the Naples conservatory, Donizetti moved from place to place, living much at Paris. The strain of incessant production brought on serious brain-trouble, culminating in 1845 in the paralysis from which he died.
Beside his 65 operas, he wrote a large number of songs and canzonets, many string-quartets of some value, masses and other sacred works, etc.
Vincenzo Bellini (d. 1835) was born in 1801 at Catania, the son of an organist, who was his first teacher. At 18 a patron sent him to Naples to study with Tritto and Zingarelli, and there he lingered for many years (till 1827), making studies of both German and Italian composers, especially Pergolesi, and writing ambitious trial-works, including a symphony and a first opera (1825). The manager Barbaja noted his talent and called for works at both Naples and Milan, of which Il pirata (1827, Milan) was enormously successful, owing largely to the skill of the tenor Rubini. At intervals followed I Capuletti ed i Montecchi (1830, Venice), La sonnambula (1831, Milan), Norma (1831, Milan) and I Puritani (1835, Paris), with some less striking works, 10 in all. After 1827 the able librettist of all except the last was Felice Romani (d. 1865). A few months after the first giving of I Puritani (1835) persistent labor brought on a fatal illness, adding another name to the list of short-lived composers. The funeral was a notable tribute of respect and affection from the composers and singers of Paris.
177. The French Opéra Comique.—At the opening of the century the French taste for dramatic music found its greatest satisfaction in forms like the 'vaudeville' (a song-play with much spoken dialogue) and the 'opéra comique' (derived from the Italian opera buffa and distinguished also by some admixture of dialogue). But the Parisian stage at this epoch was also a favorite arena for the more sustained and ambitious opera seria, though usually by composers of foreign origin or training. In the competition between the lighter and the heavier types
