A native of Bergamo, Donizetti studied locally under Johann Simon Mayr.

He was the leading composer of Italian opera for nearly a decade after the early death of Bellini in 1835.

His first success came in 1822 with the opera "Zoraida di Granata".

This was followed by more than sixty other operas, most of which characterized Italian Romaticism.

Rossini invited him to Paris to write an opera and there he was confined to hospital for some 17 months due to a strange nervous fever.

He returned to Bergamo where he died in 1848 and was buried next to maestro Mayr.

The opera "Anna Bolena", which won considerable success when it was first staged in Milan in 1830, provides a popular soprano aria in its final "Piangete voi? Deserto in terra".

The last opera, "Don Sèbastien", staged in Paris in 1843, is a favourite with operatic tenors, from Caruso to Pavarotti.

The comic opera "Don Pasquale", staged in Paris in 1843, is a well-loved part of standard operatic repertoire, as is "L'elisir d'Amore" ("The Elixir of Love"), from which the tenor aria "Una furtiva lagrima" ("A hidden tear") is all too well known.

Mention should be made of "La Favorita" and "La Fille du règiment" ("The Daughter of the Regiment"), both first performed in Paris in 1840 and sources of further operatic recital arias.