Donizetti Society
Donizetti Picture
 Articles
Header2
Header3
  Search Recording Contact
Future Donizetti's life Books Membership
Past Productions Donizetti works Scores Newsletters
Other links Mayr's Life and works Articles Journals

Although the Donizetti Society Newsletter is no longer being published, the Society's website is happy to host articles and reviews on Donizetti and on opera from the first half of the 19th century. 
Please send any material to
info@donizettisociety.com .

 

News

 

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of our chairman,  Alexander Weatherson, 
who passed away on the 7th February, 2024.  

Alexander is irreplaceable as he had at his fingertips a wealth of knowledge about Donizetti and his times that was unique. He was Chairman of the Donizetti Society for nearly 40 years and was editor of the Society’s Newsletters and Journals for even longer.  He was a major figure in the Donizetti and more broadly the bel canto revival of the late twentieth century.  A special interest and enthusiasm was the composer Giovanni Pacini on whom he wrote a book. Many people contacted him over the years with questions about editions, the whereabouts of scores and manuscripts, performance histories, etc. and he was always prepared to share his knowledge.

Donizetti Society Committee member, Fulvio Stefano Lo Presti, has contributed an obituary of Alex (in Italian), see here, which the Society Treasurer, Alan Jackson, has translated into English, see here.

Alexander Weatherson wrote a very large number of articles on aspects of bel canto music, most of which were posted on the Donizetti Society website. However, he also had his own website,  http://alexander.weatherson.info, on which there were a few additional papers. These have been added onto this site in order to make sure that they are not lost. See here

 

All copies of the Newsletter and the Journals are now online. 

Opera Rara have released their recording of Donizetti's  L'esule di Roma.  See here

The 10th Donizetti Festival has been announced for November 14 - December 1, 2024  in Bergamo. The main works are Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, Don Pasquale  and Zoraida di Granata . See here

Dynamic have released a DVD and Bluray of Donizetti's Chiara e Serafina from the 2022 Donizetti Festival. Charles Jernigan reviewed the original video stream of the production. See here. John Harris was there in person. See here.

Sophia Lambton has published a new book on Maria Callas titled The Callas Imprint.


Reviews

pic

Reviews by Charles Jernigan of Donizetti's Zoraida di Granata from the 2023 Wexford Festival and Alfredo il grande, Il diluvio universale and Lucie de Lammermoor from the 2023 Donizetti Festival in Bergamo.

Zoraida di Granata is being streamed free by Operavision until May 3, 2024. The Bergamo operas are available on  subscription from https://donizettitv.uscreen.io/

Review (in German) by Herbert Büttiker of Donizetti's Olivo e Pasquale  by Die Zürcher Kammeroper on December 31, 2023 at the Gemeindesaal Zollikon, Switzerland, It was the first performance of the opera in Switzerland. 

pic

Review by Alan Jackson of Random Opera's production of Marianna Bottini’s Elena e Gerardo

Review by Herbert Schneider of Donizetti's Les Martyrs in Vienna (in German)

Older reviews can be found on the Past Productions pages

 

Opinions included on the site do not necessarily represent those of the Donizetti Society