GAETANO DONIZETTI
ENIUS is no less remarkable for the manner of its appearance in the world than for the subsequent manifestations of the power. At times it seems to be the natural result of a cumulation of influences, and yet again it can be traced to no source or cause. Bellini descended from at least two generations of musicians; but his contemporary, Gaetano Donizetti, the subject of this sketch, had no family prototype and left no heritage in art to any child.
His father, Andrea Donizetti, is not known to have been born in Bergamo, but in that small city of North Italy he was occupied at first as a weaver. Desirous of bettering himself sufficiently to marry Domenica Nava, he obtained a modest position in the local Monte di Pietà, settled down to his routine employment and became the father of four sons. One of these, Gaetano,—born November 29, 1797,—was so bright, so alert and so evidently talented that the father began to hope and plan that he might be able to educate him for a lawyer, so that his professional position might give the family a higher social standing and perhaps add something to its narrow income. But so soon as the child was far enough advanced beyond elementary studies to have intelligent preferences, he began to show a predilection for the arts, which was so far indulged as to allow him to study drawing, architecture and literature. This did not satisfy the boy's cravings, however, and he plucked up courage to ask his father to have him taught music. He was so earnest and so confident that, in spite of the disappointment which this strong disposition caused, his father consented and cast about him to see how he could best provide the instruction.
The conditions could not have been more propitious. There had come to Bergamo in 1788 a young Bavarian named Johann Simon Mayer, for the purpose of studying music under the eminent guidance of Lenzi and Bertoni. When his own studies were completed he opened a school for twelve pupils, eight of whom were to be trained as sopranos and contraltos, to replace in the churches the men who had sung those parts hitherto, while the other four were to be taught the violin and the violoncello. All were obliged to study harmony and the art of accompanying, other capable teachers—among them Capuzzi, who had learned the violin under the famous Tartini—adding their instruction to Mayer's.
Into this little conservatory Donizetti entered in 1806. He was so fortunate as to enlist at once the interest of Mayer, who was already beginning to get a European fame because of his wisdom, solidity and learning. The lad's talent seemed so remarkable, his elasticity of disposition and his earnest determination so unusual for his years, that the master took special pains in developing him. Even at this early age, Donizetti showed marked imitative and dramatic ability, and such clearness of insight and exposition as made him at once an example and an aid to his slower or duller companions. By the time he was ten years old he had advanced so much in the right direction as to have made his mark in solo contralto music and to be appointed repetitore—or preparatory teacher—in the classes both of singing and of the violin, as well as to be taken by Mayer as his special pupil in harmony.
Naturally enough, the boy tried his hand at composition, but his master wisely made no account of these efforts until they had brought forth something really commendable for its ideas and their treatment. All the while new branches of study were suggested, in all of which Donizetti made commendable progress, learning to appreciate the classic masters of Italy and Germany, to play passing well upon the pianoforte, the organ, the flute and the double-bass, beside making constant progress as a singer, although it is said that his exactitude and grace were more noticeable than any fulness or strength of tone. Besides those professional studies, he was taught history, mythology, Latin and rhetoric, so that when in time he devoted himself to theatrical composition, he was well equipped. His special bent was shown, not only in his arranging a little stage for juvenile performances in which his part was always well done, but also in his attempting a tenor part in a real theatre; but failing in this, he gave up any hopes of becoming a professional vocalist and decided to devote himself to composition.
