Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may never have been performed during his lifetime.

29 November 1797

Born on the same birth day (29 November): Adam Clayton Powell Jr. • Amos Bronson Alcott • Aylin Tezel • Bobbi Martin • Busby Berkeley • Damon Harrison • David E. Campbell (political scientist) • Eric Barnes (footballer) • Fran Ryan • George Brown (Canadian politician) • Henri Fabre • Jedediah Purdy • Jeff Fahey • Lauren German • MJ Melendez • Michael Craze • Mildred Gillars • Pierre André Latreille • Ronnie Montrose • Sheldon Richardson • Shintaro Katsu • Suzan Rose Benedict • Thomas Percy, 1st Baron Egremont • Vladimir Šenauer

Born in the same month (November 1797): Charles Lyell