of Bologna until sometime in 1818, and that he made such good use of his
opportunities as to obtain extra lessons from Mattei and to write things
which the library of the school still preserves with respect. They are
mostly for full orchestra and solo voices and several of them had public
presentment.
His formal studies ended, Donizetti returned to Bergamo, where he
kept at work training his memory and his quickness of mind and hand,
and writing string quartets after the style of such masters as Haydn,
Mozart and Beethoven. A variety of compositions for the voice, mostly
ecclesiastical, and for the piano were published by him, but no request
was yet made to him for any theatrical music, at which he was much
disappointed. It was indeed a difficult period for a new writer; the
stage was not yet weary of the operas of Cimarosa, Paisiello, Zingarelli,
Paër and Mayer, while the few opportunities of which a new comer might
hope to avail himself were scarcely more than sufficed for the genius of
Rossini and of Bellini. Any attempt to rival in his own field either of
these would necessarily have been fatal, and Donizetti was prudent enough
to create an independent style for himself while maintaining, like them,
that the melody of human voices was of the first value in the lyric drama.
At last his moment came and he began his course with "Enrico di
Borgogna," described as a "semi-serious" opera and successfully produced
at Venice in the autumn of 1818. Being asked to supply something for the
next season, he provided for the winter of 1819-20 a comic opera called
"Il Faleogname di Livonia," which was also well received. After getting
this well under way he went to Mantua with "Le Nozze in Villa," which he
had finished about the same time but which made a failure.
Long and serious schooling had wrought their proper effect on Donizetti,
and he set himself to analyze the causes of his success and unsuccess,
and allowed two years to pass before he was ready to try again. He
indeed went to Rome in the autumn of 1821, but it was not until winter
that he produced "Zoraide di Granata," which was immediately and
greatly successful, demonstrating that his life and talent ought to be
consecrated to operatic composition.
[Illustration: GAETANO DONIZETTI.
Reproduction of a portrait in Clément's "Les Musiciens Célèbres."]
One danger threatened him, however. Bergamo was under the Austrian
domination and he was liable to do military duty. Unless the fear of this
could be conjured away, he could not write with a free spirit, nor could
he marry the woman he loved, Virginia Vasselli, because her father would
not consent so long as his future was in doubt. Strong protestations
were addressed to the Austrian ambassador in Rome, Mayer used his best
efforts, an additional pretext was found in some slight physical defect,
and Donizetti was relieved from the anxious peril. He could now pursue
his art untrammeled, could form his domestic life as he desired and could
unite himself with sympathetic friends. This independence, added to his
natural activity, soon showed its effects in the further production of
three operas in that same year, of which two were given in Naples--"La
Zingara," a comic opera at the Nuovo, and "La Lettera Anonima," really a
musical farce, at the Fondo--and "Chiara e Serafina" or "I Pirati," at
the Scala, in Milan.
No sooner was it understood that Donizetti was free and ready to write,
than commissions were sent him from all the chief theatres of Italy.
Rossini, Bellini, Pacini and Mercadante were all in a certain sense
his rivals, and their names were often bulletined with his in the
prospectuses of one or another season. But his genius preserved its
individuality, and the charm of his music was so great that from this
time forward the years were few in which only one or two operas were
written by him, while during many twelvemonths he completed four and
even five operas. Some of these were short, it is true, limited even
to a single act, while others again are chronicled as mere farces in
the records of the time; so, too, several seasons passed before he rose
beyond the humorous disposition which had showed itself in mimicry and
simple buffoonery during his school years and attempted a strictly
serious or even a romantic subject.
Therefore, although he was constantly writing for such important houses
as the San Carlo, the Nuovo and the Fondo, in Naples; the Valle, in Rome;
the Carlo Felice, in Genoa; and later for the Scala and the Carcano,
in Milan; the catalogue of these works presents an array of names
unfamiliar to any but systematic students of musical literature. There
are indications, here and there, that his reading of books was wider than
that of some of his contemporaries and that there was springing up in him
a preference for historical subjects, as well as that interest in the
novels of Walter Scott which ultimately became almost a passion with him.
"La Regina de Golconda," "Jeanne di Calais," "Il Castello di Kenilworth,"
"Francesca di Foix," "Imelda dei Lambertazzi" and "Anna Bolena" are
titles which appear between 1828 and 1831, while it is recorded that he
composed in 1830 an oratorio about the deluge.
Returning for a moment, it is to be noted that in 1822 he was in Naples,
making studies in the Conservatory whose librarian, Sigismondi, objected
intensely to the new style which had come in with Rossini, and it was
only by some ingenious device that Donizetti obtained the scores he
was so anxious to peruse. Wherever he went he was handsomely received
and greatly applauded. In 1826 he had special honor from the Queen of
Naples, and the celebrated manager Barbaja ordered a number of operas for
his various theatres and made him director of the Nuovo for two years.
During this period he wrote various isolated airs, eminent among which
is a setting of Dante's "Count Ugolino's Lament," written for the basso
Lablache. Like other composers of the time, Donizetti may be said to
have had no fixed residence. If he had a commission from any city, he
established himself there temporarily, to be in close and intelligent
relationship with the manager, the artists and the public whom he was to
please. It was near the close of 1830 that the first work of his which
holds a present place, "Anna Bolena," was sung at the Carcano, having
been put in rehearsal within four weeks after its beginning. This was
adjudged so great a work that Mayer wrote concerning it that "at last the
French had to confess that Italy had another composer beside Rossini."
Close upon this serious opera came "L'Elisire d'Amore," which still
stands beside Rossini's "Cenerentola," a splendidly gay illustration of
the best Italian _buffo_ writing.
In 1833 "Parisina" introduced him to the Pergola, in Florence, and in
the autumn of that year Rome received with great satisfaction "Torquato
Tasso," which the author dedicated to Bergamo, Sorrento and Rome.
In spite of its fecundity, the genius of Donizetti strengthened with
its exercise, and after comparatively brief intervals, occupied with
less important works, there appeared those great compositions which will
always remain magnificent examplars of Italian opera in the nineteenth
century. In 1834, the Scala, despairing because Mercadante, smitten with
opthalmia, could not fulfil his engagement, turned to Donizetti, who
taking the libretto which Romani had prepared for his friend, completed
upon it in twenty-five days, "Lucrezia Borgia," a lyric tragedy which
the musicians of all the world know. In 1834 came "Maria Stuarda;" in
1835, "Gemma di Vergy," "Marino Faliero," and the perennially interesting
"Lucia di Lammermoor;" in 1836, "Belisario," "Betly" and "L'Assedio di
Calais."
In the meantime Donizetti had been going up and down the peninsula,
visiting particularly Naples because he had hopes of becoming
Zingarelli's successor as professor of counterpoint, for which post
his education, severer, and his taste, simpler than Rossini's, seemed
to fit him. He had visited Paris in 1833, where "Marino Faliero" had a
splendid reception. It was in May, 1837, that the anticipated death of
the venerable Zingarelli took place, and Donizetti was named director
_pro tem_. of the Conservatory. In July of this same year his wife died
suddenly after fourteen years of happy wedlock. This was a heavy blow
for him, and his sorrowing heart found some relief in that pathetic and
sombre melody, "_Ella è Morta_," which he dedicated to her memory. But
his engagements left him no time for pure grief and he continued to
write, though less frequently, for a couple of years.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO DONIZETTI IN THE CATHEDRAL AT BERGAMO.
Executed by the sculptor Vincenzo Vela. Erected in 1855 by his brothers
Giuseppe and Francesco]
But Paris was constantly reclaiming him, and in 1840 "La Fille du
Régiment"--"created" to a French text--made its brilliant entrance at
the Opéra Comique, and public, press and court bestowed upon its author
all their honors. Already resident in Paris for some two years, Donizetti
saw that it was best for him to remain there, not only because there
was more money to be made, but also because there was more to learn and
to be inspired by. He began to modify his native fun according to the
lighter humor of France, and during the next three years he composed "La
Favorite," "Linda di Chamounix" and "Don Pasquale," besides such graver
things as "Les Martyrs," (known in Italian as "Il Poliuto"), "Maria di
Rohan," "Dom Sebastien," "Maria Padilla" and "Adelia," even the few which
were written to Italian texts for Milan, Rome and Vienna, being sent out
from Paris.
[Illustration: DONIZETTI.
Bust by Dantan in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris.]
In 1840 he visited Switzerland for his health and crossed the frontier
to Milan and Bergamo, where his townsfolk drew his carriage home after a
festival performance at the theatre. But if he had hoped to be called on
to Naples for the position which had been virtually promised him, he was
disappointed, for Mercadante about this time received the appointment,
and Donizetti soon returned to Paris and his work. Other brief visits
to Italy and to Germany were made during this epoch, and among many
honorary tributes came some from the Sultan of Turkey and Pope Gregory
XVI. In Vienna, whither he went early in 1842 to direct his "Linda," he
had also great honor, and was named royal _Kapellmeister_ and director of
the opera, with an _honorarium_ of four thousand florins and without the
obligation of permanent residence.
The next few years were divided between Paris and Vienna, and his operas
passed out of Europe across the Atlantic and even reached Constantinople
and Calcutta. Men distinguished in art, science and letters became his
friends, and his income was constantly augmenting. But early in 1845 he
was found one morning senseless upon his bedroom floor in Paris, and
from that hour dated the dreadful decay of mind and body which ended at
last in death on April 8, 1848, after several years passed in private
lunatic asylums. His sensitive and susceptible nature, excited and worn
by his eager and exhausting industry, and perhaps by some irregularities
of life, had given warnings in intense headaches, and bewildering
depressions, against which he had nerved himself with a destructive
strain. The dreary imbecility of these later years made death welcome,
when at last it came to him in Bergamo, whither he had been removed in
the care of a nephew and his physician in the autumn of 1847. Bergamo
gave him a noble funeral and assigned him a tomb in the cathedral beside
that of his master, Mayer, who had died three years before, and in 1855
his brothers Giuseppe and Francesco erected a stately monument made by
Vincenzo Vela.
[Illustration: Fac-simile musical manuscript written by Donizetti.]
Donizetti's life fell all within the most brilliant and inspiring
period of Italian opera, touching the earlier great at its beginning,
running parallel with other distinguished men and overlapping the rise
of Verdi, Ricci and the elder writers of the present time. All things
considered, it does not seem as if his talent could have been turned to
better account, although his astonishing facility made him often take the
quickest rather than the best way to reach his ends. But he had been so
well grounded in the departments which Bellini avoided, and had pursued
so much serious study, that although he was sometimes superficial he was
never trivial, and the outlines of his scoring were correct even when
they were badly filled. His own skill with instruments and his knowledge
of vocalism were of immense advantage; because, being above all things a
melodist, he could adapt his airs perfectly to their singers or to the
instruments which were to carry them in accompaniment. His reading and
his taste led him to select strong, sympathetic subjects, preferably
historical or romantic, and his dramatic disposition enabled him to make
his scenes expressive and captivating. He was fortunate and unusual in
his ability to treat appropriately both humorous and serious subjects,
and his melodies are eminent for their true sentiment no less than for
their variety and the purely musical quality which makes them interesting
and beautiful whether they be sung or played. His accompaniments are
often thin and conventional arrays of simple chords, but when he is at
his best they are full, rich in harmony and tone-color and enlightened by
significant figures. Yet he understood so well the purpose of the lyric
drama that his scores are never heavy with ostentatious counterpoint or
intricate polyphony. That he was capable of dignity and forcefulness, his
graver and less familiar works illustrate, and the praise bestowed upon
his string quartets when they were played in Paris, in 1856, proved that
he was equal to composition upon classic lines had it been demanded of
him.
Besides his sixty-six operas, most of which have been named above, he
wrote many overtures, some large church pieces, many albums of songs in
various languages, of which none are unworthy of preservation, beside a
multitude of ephemeral things of which none remain but few and scattered
traces.
All the greatest vocalists of the first half of the century sang for
him, and the rosters of the opera-houses for which he wrote, repeat the
names of Catalani, Cecconi, Méric-Lalande, Tosi, Pasta, Grisi, Ungher,
Borghesi, Dorus-Gras and Stolz among the women, and of Fioravanti,
Donzelli, Busti, Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, Verger, Winter, Donzelli,
Negrini, Salvi, Duprez, Derivis, Levasseur, Wartel, Coletti, Baroilhet,
Ronconi and Rovere among the men. His life, therefore, was active,
honorable, prosperous and happy; and in reviewing it one finds little to
regret except that it was not ended by a sudden, instead of a gradual,
death.
[Illustration: H. M. Ticknor]
[Illustration: GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO SPONTINI
_Reproduction of a lithograph portrait by Maurin._]
[Illustration]
GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO SPONTINI
Although Italian by birth, the author of "La Vestale" was, in his life
work, almost a Frenchman, and, like other celebrated composers, reflected
a share of his glory upon his adopted country.
Gasparo Luigi Pacifico Spontini was born at Majolati, Nov. 14, 1774;
he was intended by his parents for the priesthood, and was accordingly
placed under the care of a paternal uncle, dean of the Church of Santa
Maria del Piano at Jesi. He had much trouble in overcoming the opposition
of his family, and particularly of his uncle, to his musical education,
but the dean was obliged to yield at last, and consented to the little
Gasparo studying music in his spare moments, first with the singer
Ciaffolati and the organist Menghini, then with Bartoli, director of
music at Jesi, and Bonnami, director of music at Masaccio. In 1791,
Spontini was ready to enter the conservatory _la Pietà dei Turchini_ at
Naples, where he made such rapid progress under the direction of Sala and
Tritta, that he soon received the title of _maestrino_, or tutor. One
fine day (he was then twenty-two years old) he fled from the conservatory
and hastened to Rome, where he brought out a very pleasing little opera,
"Le Puntigli delle donne." Between that time and 1802 he brought out at
Rome, Naples, and Venice fifteen operas, which established his early
fame. The best known of those early operas is "Gli amanti in cimento,"
sung at Rome in 1801. But the young musician dreamed of greater triumphs,
and in 1803 he left Italy for France, where his genius was destined to be
developed in a very marked fashion.
Spontini began his Paris career by giving singing lessons, and in order
to bring himself before the public he produced at the _Italien_ (Feb.
11, 1804) his opera "La Finta Filosofa." This performance, which was
honored by the presence of the First Consul and Josephine, was a great
success for the young composer, whom the newspapers announced as a pupil
of Cimarosa. Afterwards he succeeded in forcing the doors of the _Opéra
Comique_ with "La Petite maison," which was very badly received by reason
of the poem, and was played only three times. It must be said that the
new-comer had against him not only the French musicians, professors and
pupils of the Conservatoire, opposed to the invasion of Italian music,
but also the Italian composers who had succeeded in making a place
for themselves in France, like Della Maria and Nicolo, and who had no
intention of giving up the place to this unexpected rival. The failure
of "La Petite maison" did not prevent Spontini from being chosen by Jouy
to set to music a poem entitled "La Vestale," and about the same time he
received from the hands of Dieulafoi a new libretto in one act, "Milton."
This work was played at the _Opéra Comique_, Nov. 27, 1804, and brought
Spontini into notice, for the breadth of certain motives, the touching
simplicity of some of the melodies, fixed upon him the serious attention
of the public, and gave a foretaste of the transformation which was to
take place in the young composer.
He afterwards experienced another failure at the _Opéra Comique_ with
"Le Pot de fleurs" (March 12, 1805), but this failure did not make much
impression, for people remembered only "Milton."
Moreover, Spontini was engaged upon the work which was to gain for him
immortality. He had found in Jouy's poem the opportunity for developing
all his qualities of breadth, boldness, and dramatic sentiment, which he
had vainly sought to bring out in his Italian operas, or in his little
French operettas. But it was not enough to have written a masterpiece
like "La Vestale," it must also be performed. Spontini, favored with the
protection of Josephine, had composed a cantata in honor of the conqueror
of Austerlitz, "l'Eccelsa Gara," sung at the Imperial Theatre on Feb. 8,
1806. The Emperor in return had signed the order for the preparation and
_mise en scène_ of "La Vestale," and the rehearsals were begun. But the
new opera was withdrawn in favor of a certain ballet, "Ulysses," by Milon
and Persuis; then the decorations which had been painted for "La Vestale"
were destroyed by a storm. Finally Napoleon, who never encouraged
Spontini, although he was credited with remarks complimentary to the
latter, decided to bring out first the "Triomphe de Trajan," a grand
opera written in his honor by Esménard, with music by Lesueur, Persuis,
and Kreutzer, and though this opera had proved a great success, thanks to
its rich _mise en scène_, and had left a free field to Spontini, there
was talk of again postponing "La Vestale" in favor of Lesueur's opera,
"La Mort d'Adam." Jouy and Spontini probably would have expostulated
in vain, but that Lesueur's music, happily for them, was not ready at
the necessary moment. Then they were obliged to make all haste with the
rehearsals and bring out "La Vestale," Dec. 15, 1807. The composer was
only thirty-seven years old, when at this auspicious moment he stepped
into the position left vacant by the death of Gluck and the departure of
his successor Salieri.
[Illustration: G. SPONTINI.
Reproduction of a portrait by Vincent.]
This work gave to the ancient lyric tragedy an unexpected life, warmth,
and elevation, and made Spontini absolute master of the theatre. One
of the decennial prizes instituted by Napoleon was awarded to him,
notwithstanding the redoubtable competition of Lesueur's "Bardes," the
opera preferred by the Emperor. Méhul, Gossec, and Grétry, the three
members of the Académie des Beaux Arts who rendered this verdict, gave
evidence of a commendable independence. Spontini, having dedicated his
score to the Empress Josephine, immediately set about composing a new
work on a poem which Jouy had just sent him, "Ferdinand Cortez," and
this was performed at the _Opéra_, Nov. 28, 1809. This work was fairly
successful, thanks to the music, and in spite of the weakness of the
poem, which was so badly put together that subsequently Jouy was obliged
to reverse the order of the acts, in order to improve them dramatically.
Yet the general feeling was that this score, notwithstanding its striking
beauties, had not the inspiration, the unity of effect, which had been
appreciated so much in "La Vestale," and it always remained a work of
secondary importance in the opinion of the musical public. These two
successes singularly developed the natural importance and vanity of
Spontini, who never doubted his own genius, and who even at the opening
of his career showed an extraordinary confidence and spirit; but a less
favorable period was in store for him. He married the daughter of the
celebrated piano manufacturer, Jean Baptiste Erard, and in 1810 the
privilege of the direction of the _Théâtre Italien_ was given to him,
but in consequence of administrative dissensions he was soon supplanted,
after having made known to the Parisians, in 1811, Mozart's "Don
Giovanni." Three years later he wanted his privilege returned to him by
the royal government, but it was refused, being granted to Mme. Catalani
associated with Paër.
[Illustration: SPONTINI.
Reproduced from a portrait engraved after a painting by Jean Guérin, made
shortly after the first representation of "La Vestale."]