#Donizetti

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

DEAD. ABSOLUTELY DEAD.

[empirearchives]

Left: Gaetano Donizetti, Right: Marshal Moncey

On May 5, [Gaetano] Donizetti was present at the ceremony memorializing Napoleon on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Writing to Antonio Vasselli on May 6, he said: “Yesterday (May 5) I went to the funeral service for the death of Napoleon. It was touching to see all those who served: some of them even had the uniforms of that period, moth-eaten, threadbare, frazzled; many had had them made new. They kissed the lid, the imperial crown; they wept, and Moncey, the oldest marshal, who is almost a hundred years old, was in dress uniform.”

Context: The year was 1841. Marshal Moncey passed away a year later in 1842.

Source: Herbert Weinstock, Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, pg. 167

[supercantaloupe]

opera stream alert!

what: l'elisir d'amore, teatro alla scala 2015

when: tomorrow, sunday april 21, 1pm edt (utc -4)

where: https://kosmi.to/246t72

more info: what the hell is going on? why is it in an actual working airport? why do two random guys keep interrupting the show to talk about it like it's sports radio? come out and join, to find out more (hope you understand italian or french though)

[malusienki]

mad scene.

[vera-dauriac]

This is everything.

[4operalove]

RENATA SCOTTO

as Vitellia in MOZART's *La Clemenza di Tito*, 1984 (ph 1&2)

IDEM

as Violetta Valery in VERDI's *La Traviata* (ph 3)

as Amina in BELLINI's *La Sonnambula* (ph 4)

as La Gioconda (PONCHIELLI) (ph 5)

as Lady Macbeth in VERDI's *Macbeth*

as Elisabetta di Valois in VERDI's *Don Carlo*

as Lucía in DONIZETTI's *Lucía di Lammermoor* Copyright ©️ Tamino Autographs

as Anna Bolena in DONIZETTI's opera of the same name.

in *Iván Susanin*

[postcard-from-the-past]

Italian composer Donizetti on a vintage postcard

[callas23]

MARÍA CALLAS as Lucía di Lammermoor DONIZETTI Wien 1956 🇦🇹

Color by Laisnara Oliveira & Club María Callas México

[opera-ghosts]

November 29.1797 the famous composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) was born in Bergamo. Here we see a very rare original castlist show the first opera from Donizetti that was performed at The Metropolitan Opera New York in the first season of this Operahouse 1883. “Lucia di Lammermoor”. Take a look on this great list of singers. Until today the operas from Donizetti are in the repertory of all important stages. Thanks for all that great Music.

[whitesteinway]

Anna Netrebko as Norina in Don Pasquale ౨ৎ

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

man donizetti really went balls to the wall writing the maria stuarda confrontation scene

[empirearchives]

Giuseppe Donizetti — served Napoleon on Elba and accompanied him during the Hundred Days

Portrait of Giuseppe Donizetti later in life

Giuseppe Donizetti was born into poverty in 1788, in the Northern Italian city of Bergamo. The eldest of his siblings, he worked from a young age, training as a tailor’s apprentice. His true talent was in music, which was spotted early on in his life.

Giuseppe was conscripted in 1808 at the age of 20. He served the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in the Seventh Italian Regiment. He fought against Austria in the War of the 5th Coalition in 1809. He spent the years of 1811, 1812 and 1813 in Spain.

In 1811, he was became ill en route to Spain and was hospitalized at Castelnaudary in France. 43 years later in 1854, he wrote about it to the court of the Ottoman Empire:

“Constantinople, November 22, 1854. Mémoire to His Highness Achmed-Fethy Pasha. Finding myself in a comfortable position thanks to the beneficences of Our August and Glorious Sovereign, I cede to the Hospital of Castelnaudary (Aude), in which I was ill in 1811, the portion coming to me of the legacy left by the Emperor Napoleon I to the Battalion of the Island of Elba. The papers establishing my right to participate in the credit opened up by the Decree of August 5, 1854, issued at Biarritz by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Napoleon III, I have been obliged to send to France at the time when I was honored with a brevet as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Your Highness's Very humble Servant, Joseph Donizetti.”

Location and photograph of Castelnaudary

After the dissolution of the Kingdom of Italy and the First French Empire, he enlisted in the French military and was stationed on the island of Elba as a military flutist. It was on Elba, in the town of Portoferraio, where he was married in 1815.

That same year, he accompanied Napoleon during the Hundred Days, traveling with him on the same ship from Elba to Antibes, France. He likely fought at the battle of Waterloo.

Landing of Napoleon I in Antibes in 1815

After Napoleon:

The Austrians took control of Northern Italy after the fall of Napoleon. According to the historian Emre Aracı, Giuseppe was “a greal admirer of Napoleon and the French […] Giuseppe strongly opposed his country’s domination by the Austrians. Evidence shows that he secretly took part in the Carbonari resistance and even appeared at court trials.”

Giuseppe Donizetti became a composer, and had a full career as Instructor General of the Imperial Ottoman Music. He even composed the first National Anthem of the Ottoman Empire, the Mecidiye Marşı. His main legacy is introducing Western marching music to the military of the Ottoman Empire.

He was employed by the Ottoman government on 17 September 1828 for an annual salary of 8,000 francs. This was considered a very high salary by his family. Giuseppe’s trouble with the Austrian authorities after the fall of Napoleon may have been a motivator for him to leave Italy. He moved to Constantinople at the age of 39 and spent the rest of his life there.

Giuseppe’s patron was Sultan Mahmud II, who ruled from 1808 to 1839, and Sultan Abdulmejid I, who ruled from 1839 to 1861.

According to the historian Emre Aracı:

“The Donizettis were so well-liked in the Ottoman capital that when fire broke out near their house Ahmet Fethi Pasha, the sultan's brother-in-law, ordered all the houses surrounding the maestro's home to be razed to the ground in order to prevent the flames reaching the building.”

Sultan Mahmud II

His brother, Gaetano, called him his fratello turco— Turkish brother, writing to his friend that “He loves Constantinople, to which he owes everything.”

Giuseppe even encouraged his brother to move to Constantinople, but Gaetano declined. “I do not want to play the fool like my brother, the Bey, who, after having earned more than I perhaps, stays there in ancient Byzantium to scratch his belly between the plague and the stake,” wrote Gaetano.

Giuseppe moved to Constantinople two years after the creation of the Imperial Musical School (Muzıka-i Hümâyûn), which was an Ottoman institution which trained its students in Western style of music. He was specifically recruited as an expert to help lead this effort.

Giuseppe’s younger brother, Gaetano. By Francesco Coghetti, 1837

Gaetano Donizetti, though younger than Giuseppe, became the much more successful and internationally well-known brother, producing nearly 70 operas in his life. Gaetano is considered one of the most successful opera composers in history. Because of this, Giuseppe is widely known as Gaetano Donizetti’s brother. The historian Emre Aracı pointed out that this has actually been good for Giuseppe’s reputation because it has enabled him to be remembered when many other composers have been forgotten.

Both brothers were awarded the Ottoman Order of Nișan-i Iftihar. When Gaetano received the award at the Ottoman Embassy in Paris, he proudly said: “Napoleon belongs to two centuries, I to two religions.”

Burial:

Giuseppe died in 1856, and is buried in the vaults of St. Esprit Cathedral, on the European side of Constantinople, in the district called Pera (now called Beyoğlu). According to Emre Aracı, the district “was once the home of a thriving Christian community”. The Church was built in 1846, 10 years before Giuseppe died.

Interior of St. Esprit Cathedral

Giuseppe and his brother Gaetano are two great success stories and examples of people from impoverished backgrounds who go on to live prosperous and interesting lives.

Sources:

Herbert Weinstock, Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, 1963

Emre Aracı, Giuseppe Donizetti at the Ottoman Court: A Levantine Life, The Musical Times, Vol. 143, No. 1880 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 49-56

Emre Aracı, Giuseppe Donizetti Pasha and the Polyphonic Court Music of the Ottoman Empire, The Court Historian, Volume 7, 2 December 2002

Özgecan Karadağli, Western Performing Arts in the Late Ottoman Empire: Accommodation and Formation, 2020

[rapgamelilybart]

liv redpath lucia di lammermoor my absolute beloved........

[malusienki]

hello !!!!!! i drew these last night but here u go the full image to comically large eyebrows sulpice.

[figarotrilogy]

salvatore this, who is she that, let's talk about real bangers like Don Pasquale Act III "Aspetta, aspetta, cara sposina"

[mariodelmonaco108]

MARIO del MONACO as Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood in DONIZETTI's Masterpiece "Lucía di Lammermoor* at the Metropolitan Opera House, NY, 1952.