The music of Donizetti (1798-1848) is now paying the price of a long
career of popularity by enduring a season of neglect. His tragic operas,
which were the delight of opera-goers in the fifties and sixties, sound
cold and thin to modern ears. There is far more genuine life in his
lighter works, many of which still delight us by their unaffected
tunefulness and vivacity. Donizetti had little musical education, and
his spirit rebelled so strongly against the rules of counterpoint that
he preferred to go into the army rather than to devote himself to church
music. His first opera, 'Enrico di Borgogna,' was produced in 1818, and
for the next five-and-twenty years he worked assiduously, producing in
all no fewer than sixty-five operas.
'Lucia di Lammermoor' (1835), which was for many years one of the most
popular works in the Covent Garden repertory, has now sunk to the level
of a mere prima donna's opera, to be revived once or twice a year in
order to give a popular singer an opportunity for vocal display. Yet
there are passages in it of considerable dramatic power, and many of the
melodies are fresh and expressive. The plot is founded upon 'The Bride
of Lammermoor,' but it is Scott's tragic romance seen through very
Italian spectacles indeed. Henry Ashton has promised the hand of his
sister Lucy to Lord Arthur Bucklaw, hoping by means of this marriage to
recruit the fallen fortunes of his house.
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