Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Series

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

2009

20090316

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his time working at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples as house composer. It was a crucial period in his career and during the 20-odd years he spent in the city, his fame spread from the heel of Italy to the Americas.

Including excerpts from two early works - L'ajo nell'imbarazzo and Il Paria; his watershed success Anna Bolena; and two hardy perennials - L'elisir d'amore and Lucia di Lammermoor.

La fama garrula (L'ajo nell'imbarazzo/The Tutor Embarrassed - 1824, Act 2)

Don Gregorio - Enzo Dara

Enrico - Paolo Barbacini

Gilda - Luciana Serra

Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino

Bruno Campanella (conductor)

Warner Fonit 3984 29178-2, Tr 6

Ei Stesso!; Ah! Come Non Seguirti (Il Paria/The Outcast - 1828, Act 2, Sc 3)

Neala - Patrizia Cigna

Idamore - Filippo Pina Castiglioni

Orchestra Pro Arte Marche

Marco Berdondini (conductor)

Bongiovanni GB 2300/1-2, Trs 3-4

Si taciturna e mesta; Deh! non voler costringere; Come, innocente giovane; Non v'ha sguardo cui sia dato (Anna Bolena - 1830, Act 1, Sc 1)

Smeton - Bernadette Manca di Nissa

Anna - Joan Sutherland

Giovanna - Susanne Mentzer

Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera

Richard Bonynge (conductor)

Decca 421 096-2, CD 1 Trs 5-7

Una furtiva lagrima; Eccola. Oh! qual le accresce belta; Prendi, per me sei libero (L'elisir d'amore - 1832, Act 2)

Adina - Mariella Devia

Nemorino - Roberto Alagna

Belcore - Pietro Spagnoli

Dulcamara - Bruno Pratico

Giannetta - Francesca Provvisionato

Tallis Chamber Choir

English Chamber Orchestra

Marcello Viotti (conductor)

Erato 4509-91701-2, CD 2 Trs 11-13

Chi Mifrena In Tal Momento?; T'allontana, Sciagurato... Rispettate In Me Dio...; Sconsigliato! In Queste Porte Chi Ti Guida?; Esci, Fuggi, Il Furor Che Mi Accende (Lucia di Lammermoor - 1835, Act 2, Sc 2)

Edgardo - Giuseppe di Stefano

Enrico - Tito Gobbi

Lucia - Maria Callas

Raimondo - Raffaele Arie

Arturo - Valiano Natali

Alisa - Anna Maria Canali

Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Tullio Serafin (conductor)

EMI 7 69980 2, CD 2 Trs 10-13.

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's Neapolitan years.

2009

20090317

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on the bane of the composer's Italian career - censorship. Lucrezia Borgia alarmed the censors with its five on-stage deaths and unflattering depiction of a pope's daughter. Maria Stuarda offended the King of Naples because it represented royalty in an unflattering light, with two queens on stage, one of them calling the other 'vile bastard'. Poliuto, passed as fit for public consumption by the censors, was nonetheless banned by the king because of its religious subject-matter. The effect was to drive Donizetti to abandon Naples for Paris.

Lucrezia Borgia - 1833 (excerpt from Act 2 Sc 2)

- Maffio muore

Gennaro - Alfredo Kraus

Lucrezia Borgia - Montserrat Caballe

RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra

Jonel Perlea (conductor)

RCA GD86642,

CD 2 track 17

Maria Stuarda - 1834 (excerpts from Act 2)

- Qual loco e questo?

- E' sempre la stessa...

- Deh! L'accogli...Morta al mondo, e morta al trono

- Va, preparati, furente

Elisabetta - Huguette Tourangeau

Leicester - Luciano Pavarotti

Cecil - James Morris

Talbot - Roger Soyer

Maria - Joan Sutherland

Anna - Margreta Elkins

Orchestra e coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Richard Bonynge (conductor)

Decca 425 410-2,

CD 1 tracks 18-21

Poliuto - 1838 (Act 2 Sc 2)

- Celeste un'aura

- Magistrati, guerrieri, popolo

- La sacrilega parola

- Alla morte lo serbate

- Lasciami in pace morire omai

Callistene - Laszlo Polgar

Severo - Juan Pons

Nearco - Paolo Gavanelli

Paolina - Katia Ricciarelli

Poliuto - Jose Carreras

Felice - Harrie Peeters

Vienna Singakademie Chorus

Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Oleg Caetani (conductor)

CBS M2K 44821,

CD 2 tracks 8-12

Poliuto - 1838 (excerpts from Act 3 Sc 2)

- Ah! Fuggi Da Morte

- La grazia nell'alma ti scende

- Alle fiere chi oltraggia gli Dei

- Piu s'indugia?

- Il suon dell'arpe angeliche

Callistene - Nicola Zaccaria

Severo - Ettore Bastianini

Paolina - Maria Callas

Poliuto - Franco Corelli

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Antonio Votto (conductor)

EMI 5 65448 2,

CD 2 tracks 17-21.

Donald Macleod on Donizetti's problems with censorship, which drove him to leave Paris.

2009

20090318

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on how he took Paris by storm.

At Rossini's invitation, Donizetti previously had an opera staged at the Theatre-Italien, but his ambition was to storm that bastion of French culture, the Paris Opera, before retiring. In the event, Donizetti exceeded his goal, with productions running at all four major Parisian opera houses. It led a despairing Berlioz to complain of an 'invasion' of the city by the Italian composer.

Don Pasquale - 1842 (excerpt)

- Ah! un foco insolito

Don Pasquale - Renato Bruson

Munich Radio Orchestra

Roberto Abbado (conductor)

RCA 09026 61924 2,

CD 1 track 6

La fille du regiment - 1839 (excerpts from Act 1)

- Rataplan, rataplan, rataplan

- Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fete!

- Le camarade est amoureux!

Hortensius - Jules Bruyere

Tonio - Luciano Pavarotti

The corporal - Eric Garrett

Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Richard Bonynge (conductor)

Decca 414 520-2,

CD 1 tracks 11-13

La fille du regiment (excerpt from Act 2)

- Le jour naissait dans le bocage

Marie - Joan Sutherland

Sulpice - Spiro Malas

The Marquise - Monica Sinclair

CD 2 track 3

La favorite - 1840 (Act 4)

- Ange si pur

- Finale

Leonor - Vesselina Kasarova

Fernand - Ramon Vargas

Balthazar - Carlo Colombara

Chorus of the Bavarian Radio

Marcello Viotti (conductor)

RCA 74321 66229 2,

CD 2 tracks 14-15

Don Pasquale - 1840 (excerpt from Act 4 - closing number)

- La morale in tuto questo

Norina - Eva Mei

Ernesto - Frank Lopardo

Malatesta - Thomas Allen

CD 2 track 16.

Donald Macleod describes how Donizetti took Paris by storm.

2009

20090319

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his plentiful non-operatic music. Including the song Amor marinaro - the kind of piece the composer claimed to dash off 'while the rice was cooking', an excerpt from the last of his 18 string quartets and part of the Requiem he wrote in memory of his friend and rival Vincenzo Bellini.

Amor marinaro (Soirees d'automne a l'Infrascati, 1837-9)

Dennis O'Neill (tenor)

Ingrid Surgenor (piano)

Naxos 8.557780, Tr 5

Concertino in G for cor anglais and orchestra (1816)

Agnes Girgas (cor anglais)

Camerata Budapest

Laszlo Kovacs (conductor)

Naxos 8.557492, Tr 8

String Quartet No 18 in E minor (1836) (Adagio; Minuetto, presto; Allegro giusto - alla polacca)

The Revolutionary Drawing Room:

Graham Cracknell, Adrian Butterfield (violins)

Peter Collyer (viola)

Angela East (cello)

CPO 999 282-2, Trs 10-12

Requiem (1835) (Dies irae; Tuba mirum; Judex ergo; Rex tremendae)

Cheryl Studer (soprano)

Aldo Baldin (tenor)

Jan Hendrik Rootering, John-Paul Bogart (basses)

Bamberg Symphony Chorus and Orchestra

Miguel Angel Gomez-Martinez (conductor)

Orfeo C 172 881 A, Trs 5-8.

Donald Macleod focuses on Donizetti's non-operatic works, including the Requiem.

2009

05 LAST

20090320

Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his commission to write Linda di Chamonix, a new opera for the Karntnertor theatre in Vienna, as well as his appointment to a prestigious honorary position as court composer to the Austrian emperor Ferdinand I . Donizetti once quipped that this was 12,000 francs 'for doing nothing'.

The programme ends with a complete performance of the final act of Maria di Rohan, also written for Vienna, and considered to be one of the most tautly constructed of Donizetti's romantic melodramas.

Arrete... (Dom Sebastien - 1843, Act 4)

Dom Juan de Sylva, Grand Inquisitor - Alastair Miles

Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Mark Elder (conductor)

Opera Rara ORC33, CD 3 Tr 5

Linda di Chamounix - 1841-2 (Sinfonia to Act 1)

Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli

Tullio Serafin (conductor)

Philips 442 093-2, CD 1 Tr 1

Ah, cosi santo affetto; Avvi un Dio; Bella e di sol vestita; So per prova il tuo bel core; Scena e terzetto finale (Maria di Rohan - 1843, Act 3)

Enrico - Paolo Coni

Maria - Mariana Nicolesco

Riccardo - Giuseppe Morino

De Fiesque - Giacomo Colafelice

Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia Opera

Massimo de Bernart (conductor)

Brilliant Classics 92462, CD 2 Trs 4-8.

Donald Macleod looks at Donizetti's appointment as court composer to the Austrian emperor.

2014

Basement Beginnings

20140915

Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life.

Donizetti was raised in a cramped basement flat, the son of a poor family in rural Italy, but his talent was spotted early. He would later become the most successful Italian composer of his generation. As a teenager Donizetti wrote a precocious early version of Pygmalion, and dedicated a piano piece to a generous benefactor who bought him out of his military service. His breakthrough came with an opera set in Moorish Spain, Zoraida di Granata.

Donald Macleod charts Donizetti's early life, including his writing of Pygmalion.

2014

Maestro Excitement

20140916

Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life.

Gaetano Donizetti had made his mark on Italian opera at the age of only 24 with the triumphant premiere of his opera Zoraida di Granata in Rome. The next phase of his career would see him consolidate his success in Naples, and reach new heights with the first of what would later be called the 'Three Queens' operas about the Tudors and the Stuarts. Featuring recordings by Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Renee Fleming.

Donald Macleod explains how Donizetti consolidated his success in Naples.

2014

Censorship City

20140917

Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life.

As a successful composer, Donizetti was exasperated by the pettiness and incompetence of Naples' opera houses, and deeply frustrated by the attitude of the city's strict censors. When his leading lady defied them by swearing on stage, Donizetti's career hung in the balance. Featuring recordings by Anna Netrebko, Beverly Sills and Thomas Hampson.

How Donizetti was exasperated by the pettiness and incompetence of Naples's opera houses.

2014

Sadness And Success

20140918

Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life.

By the late 1830s Donizetti had tired completely of Naples, exasperated by the censors' meddling and impresarios' incompetence. He was also devastated by grief, having lost his wife and newborn child. Deciding to settle in Paris, he delighted audiences at the Theatre-Italien with his operas La Fille du Regiment and La Favorite.

Donald Macleod focuses on Donizetti's life in the late 1830s.

2014

05 LAST

When The Music Stopped

20140919

Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life.

By the 1840s Donizetti enjoyed success in Paris, and had been appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Austrian Emperor. He was the most performed opera composer in Italy, and Don Pasquale and Linda di Chamounix received ecstatic receptions. However tragegy was to strike: shortly after the premiere of his grand opera Dom S退bastien, roi de Portugal, Donizetti suffered a devastating physical and mental collapse.

Donald Macleod discusses the devastating physical and mental collapse Donizetti suffered.

Episodes

Series	Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Comments
2009	01		20090316	Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his time working at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples as house composer. It was a crucial period in his career and during the 20-odd years he spent in the city, his fame spread from the heel of Italy to the Americas. Including excerpts from two early works - L'ajo nell'imbarazzo and Il Paria; his watershed success Anna Bolena; and two hardy perennials - L'elisir d'amore and Lucia di Lammermoor. La fama garrula (L'ajo nell'imbarazzo/The Tutor Embarrassed - 1824, Act 2) Don Gregorio - Enzo Dara Enrico - Paolo Barbacini Gilda - Luciana Serra Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino Bruno Campanella (conductor) Warner Fonit 3984 29178-2, Tr 6 Ei Stesso!; Ah! Come Non Seguirti (Il Paria/The Outcast - 1828, Act 2, Sc 3) Neala - Patrizia Cigna Idamore - Filippo Pina Castiglioni Orchestra Pro Arte Marche Marco Berdondini (conductor) Bongiovanni GB 2300/1-2, Trs 3-4 Si taciturna e mesta; Deh! non voler costringere; Come, innocente giovane; Non v'ha sguardo cui sia dato (Anna Bolena - 1830, Act 1, Sc 1) Smeton - Bernadette Manca di Nissa Anna - Joan Sutherland Giovanna - Susanne Mentzer Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera Richard Bonynge (conductor) Decca 421 096-2, CD 1 Trs 5-7 Una furtiva lagrima; Eccola. Oh! qual le accresce belta; Prendi, per me sei libero (L'elisir d'amore - 1832, Act 2) Adina - Mariella Devia Nemorino - Roberto Alagna Belcore - Pietro Spagnoli Dulcamara - Bruno Pratico Giannetta - Francesca Provvisionato Tallis Chamber Choir English Chamber Orchestra Marcello Viotti (conductor) Erato 4509-91701-2, CD 2 Trs 11-13 Chi Mifrena In Tal Momento?; T'allontana, Sciagurato... Rispettate In Me Dio...; Sconsigliato! In Queste Porte Chi Ti Guida?; Esci, Fuggi, Il Furor Che Mi Accende (Lucia di Lammermoor - 1835, Act 2, Sc 2) Edgardo - Giuseppe di Stefano Enrico - Tito Gobbi Lucia - Maria Callas Raimondo - Raffaele Arie Arturo - Valiano Natali Alisa - Anna Maria Canali Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Tullio Serafin (conductor) EMI 7 69980 2, CD 2 Trs 10-13. Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's Neapolitan years.
2009	02		20090317	Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on the bane of the composer's Italian career - censorship. Lucrezia Borgia alarmed the censors with its five on-stage deaths and unflattering depiction of a pope's daughter. Maria Stuarda offended the King of Naples because it represented royalty in an unflattering light, with two queens on stage, one of them calling the other 'vile bastard'. Poliuto, passed as fit for public consumption by the censors, was nonetheless banned by the king because of its religious subject-matter. The effect was to drive Donizetti to abandon Naples for Paris. Lucrezia Borgia - 1833 (excerpt from Act 2 Sc 2) - Maffio muore Gennaro - Alfredo Kraus Lucrezia Borgia - Montserrat Caballe RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra Jonel Perlea (conductor) RCA GD86642, CD 2 track 17 Maria Stuarda - 1834 (excerpts from Act 2) - Qual loco e questo? - E' sempre la stessa... - Deh! L'accogli...Morta al mondo, e morta al trono - Va, preparati, furente Elisabetta - Huguette Tourangeau Leicester - Luciano Pavarotti Cecil - James Morris Talbot - Roger Soyer Maria - Joan Sutherland Anna - Margreta Elkins Orchestra e coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna Richard Bonynge (conductor) Decca 425 410-2, CD 1 tracks 18-21 Poliuto - 1838 (Act 2 Sc 2) - Celeste un'aura - Magistrati, guerrieri, popolo - La sacrilega parola - Alla morte lo serbate - Lasciami in pace morire omai Callistene - Laszlo Polgar Severo - Juan Pons Nearco - Paolo Gavanelli Paolina - Katia Ricciarelli Poliuto - Jose Carreras Felice - Harrie Peeters Vienna Singakademie Chorus Vienna Symphony Orchestra Oleg Caetani (conductor) CBS M2K 44821, CD 2 tracks 8-12 Poliuto - 1838 (excerpts from Act 3 Sc 2) - Ah! Fuggi Da Morte - La grazia nell'alma ti scende - Alle fiere chi oltraggia gli Dei - Piu s'indugia? - Il suon dell'arpe angeliche Callistene - Nicola Zaccaria Severo - Ettore Bastianini Paolina - Maria Callas Poliuto - Franco Corelli Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milan Antonio Votto (conductor) EMI 5 65448 2, CD 2 tracks 17-21. Donald Macleod on Donizetti's problems with censorship, which drove him to leave Paris.
2009	03		20090318	Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on how he took Paris by storm. At Rossini's invitation, Donizetti previously had an opera staged at the Theatre-Italien, but his ambition was to storm that bastion of French culture, the Paris Opera, before retiring. In the event, Donizetti exceeded his goal, with productions running at all four major Parisian opera houses. It led a despairing Berlioz to complain of an 'invasion' of the city by the Italian composer. Don Pasquale - 1842 (excerpt) - Ah! un foco insolito Don Pasquale - Renato Bruson Munich Radio Orchestra Roberto Abbado (conductor) RCA 09026 61924 2, CD 1 track 6 La fille du regiment - 1839 (excerpts from Act 1) - Rataplan, rataplan, rataplan - Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fete! - Le camarade est amoureux! Hortensius - Jules Bruyere Tonio - Luciano Pavarotti The corporal - Eric Garrett Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Richard Bonynge (conductor) Decca 414 520-2, CD 1 tracks 11-13 La fille du regiment (excerpt from Act 2) - Le jour naissait dans le bocage Marie - Joan Sutherland Sulpice - Spiro Malas The Marquise - Monica Sinclair CD 2 track 3 La favorite - 1840 (Act 4) - Ange si pur - Finale Leonor - Vesselina Kasarova Fernand - Ramon Vargas Balthazar - Carlo Colombara Chorus of the Bavarian Radio Marcello Viotti (conductor) RCA 74321 66229 2, CD 2 tracks 14-15 Don Pasquale - 1840 (excerpt from Act 4 - closing number) - La morale in tuto questo Norina - Eva Mei Ernesto - Frank Lopardo Malatesta - Thomas Allen CD 2 track 16. Donald Macleod describes how Donizetti took Paris by storm.
2009	04		20090319	Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his plentiful non-operatic music. Including the song Amor marinaro - the kind of piece the composer claimed to dash off 'while the rice was cooking', an excerpt from the last of his 18 string quartets and part of the Requiem he wrote in memory of his friend and rival Vincenzo Bellini. Amor marinaro (Soirees d'automne a l'Infrascati, 1837-9) Dennis O'Neill (tenor) Ingrid Surgenor (piano) Naxos 8.557780, Tr 5 Concertino in G for cor anglais and orchestra (1816) Agnes Girgas (cor anglais) Camerata Budapest Laszlo Kovacs (conductor) Naxos 8.557492, Tr 8 String Quartet No 18 in E minor (1836) (Adagio; Minuetto, presto; Allegro giusto - alla polacca) The Revolutionary Drawing Room: Graham Cracknell, Adrian Butterfield (violins) Peter Collyer (viola) Angela East (cello) CPO 999 282-2, Trs 10-12 Requiem (1835) (Dies irae; Tuba mirum; Judex ergo; Rex tremendae) Cheryl Studer (soprano) Aldo Baldin (tenor) Jan Hendrik Rootering, John-Paul Bogart (basses) Bamberg Symphony Chorus and Orchestra Miguel Angel Gomez-Martinez (conductor) Orfeo C 172 881 A, Trs 5-8. Donald Macleod focuses on Donizetti's non-operatic works, including the Requiem.
2009	05 LAST		20090320	Donald Macleod explores Donizetti's life and work, focusing on his commission to write Linda di Chamonix, a new opera for the Karntnertor theatre in Vienna, as well as his appointment to a prestigious honorary position as court composer to the Austrian emperor Ferdinand I . Donizetti once quipped that this was 12,000 francs 'for doing nothing'. The programme ends with a complete performance of the final act of Maria di Rohan, also written for Vienna, and considered to be one of the most tautly constructed of Donizetti's romantic melodramas. Arrete... (Dom Sebastien - 1843, Act 4) Dom Juan de Sylva, Grand Inquisitor - Alastair Miles Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Mark Elder (conductor) Opera Rara ORC33, CD 3 Tr 5 Linda di Chamounix - 1841-2 (Sinfonia to Act 1) Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli Tullio Serafin (conductor) Philips 442 093-2, CD 1 Tr 1 Ah, cosi santo affetto; Avvi un Dio; Bella e di sol vestita; So per prova il tuo bel core; Scena e terzetto finale (Maria di Rohan - 1843, Act 3) Enrico - Paolo Coni Maria - Mariana Nicolesco Riccardo - Giuseppe Morino De Fiesque - Giacomo Colafelice Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia Opera Massimo de Bernart (conductor) Brilliant Classics 92462, CD 2 Trs 4-8. Donald Macleod looks at Donizetti's appointment as court composer to the Austrian emperor.
2014	01	Basement Beginnings	20140915	Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life. Donizetti was raised in a cramped basement flat, the son of a poor family in rural Italy, but his talent was spotted early. He would later become the most successful Italian composer of his generation. As a teenager Donizetti wrote a precocious early version of Pygmalion, and dedicated a piano piece to a generous benefactor who bought him out of his military service. His breakthrough came with an opera set in Moorish Spain, Zoraida di Granata. Donald Macleod charts Donizetti's early life, including his writing of Pygmalion.
2014	02	Maestro Excitement	20140916	Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life. Gaetano Donizetti had made his mark on Italian opera at the age of only 24 with the triumphant premiere of his opera Zoraida di Granata in Rome. The next phase of his career would see him consolidate his success in Naples, and reach new heights with the first of what would later be called the 'Three Queens' operas about the Tudors and the Stuarts. Featuring recordings by Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Renee Fleming. Donald Macleod explains how Donizetti consolidated his success in Naples.
2014	03	Censorship City	20140917	Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life. As a successful composer, Donizetti was exasperated by the pettiness and incompetence of Naples' opera houses, and deeply frustrated by the attitude of the city's strict censors. When his leading lady defied them by swearing on stage, Donizetti's career hung in the balance. Featuring recordings by Anna Netrebko, Beverly Sills and Thomas Hampson. How Donizetti was exasperated by the pettiness and incompetence of Naples's opera houses.
2014	04	Sadness And Success	20140918	Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life. By the late 1830s Donizetti had tired completely of Naples, exasperated by the censors' meddling and impresarios' incompetence. He was also devastated by grief, having lost his wife and newborn child. Deciding to settle in Paris, he delighted audiences at the Theatre-Italien with his operas La Fille du Regiment and La Favorite. Donald Macleod focuses on Donizetti's life in the late 1830s.
2014	05 LAST	When The Music Stopped	20140919	Gaetano Donizetti composed almost 70 operas in 19th-century Italy, the age of the impresario, the prima donna and the star tenor. Donald Macleod traces his extraordinary life. By the 1840s Donizetti enjoyed success in Paris, and had been appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Austrian Emperor. He was the most performed opera composer in Italy, and Don Pasquale and Linda di Chamounix received ecstatic receptions. However tragegy was to strike: shortly after the premiere of his grand opera Dom S退bastien, roi de Portugal, Donizetti suffered a devastating physical and mental collapse. Donald Macleod discusses the devastating physical and mental collapse Donizetti suffered.