The Donizetti Society has been established since 1973 and has regularly published Newsletters over that time. The following is the list of Newsletter content prior to 1980. At that time, Newsletters had less material, were less well produced using a stencil and duplicator and more informal with fewer substantial articles. Much of the information in them has been absorbed into or overtaken by later scholarship and the contents are included here mainly for the record.
You can use the "Find" facility, part of "Edit" on your browser, to search for keywords within each of those pages as well as using the Search facility on the Home page. Articles are in English unless stated otherwise.
- Article of introduction to the Society
- Mostly devoted to an article on Donizetti's Il borgomastro di Saardam by John Allitt. The article described a visit by the Society to a revival of the opera in the Netherlands in May 1973 using an edition created by Jan Schaap who also conducted. The production was by Mieke de Goeje and starred Renato Capecchi and Philip Langridge. A CD is available of the performance, e.g. see here, which also includes some short excerpts. The article is a pdf file here.
- Roundup of news on Donizetti and Mayr
- Donizetti and the Music Hall, Birkenhead by Brian Thornton.
Short article on an intriguing likeness of Donizetti on one
of the stones at the Music Hall, Birkenhead and an earlier
performance at the Craven Rooms, Birkenhead of Donizetti's
music. See
here for article
- Mayr's setting of the Passion by John S. Allitt
Article giving the background to a performance of Mayr's La
Passione that the Society sponsored in 1974. See
here for article
- News roundup
- Report of the first Society AGM
- News roundup
- Donizetti in Dublin 1830-1860 by Robert Potterton
Details of performances of Donizetti's operas in Dublin.
See
here for article. The legibility is a little below average
but has been included for its intrinsic interest. A related
article Persiani and Rubini - Dublin 1838 by Basil Walsh from
Newsletter 113 can be found
here.
- Letter from Count Giacomo Antonini
- News roundup
- Part of a scathing 1913 review by Wilhelm Peterson-Berger of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Graziella Pareto
- Reproduction of an article on Donizetti's death from The Illustrated London News
- News roundup
- The letters of Adolphe Nourrit on Donizetti by Robert
Potterton
Short extracts from various letters dated between December
28, 1837 to July 26, 1838. See
here for article. For more on Nourrit see Henry Pleasants,
The Great Tenor Tragedy. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1995
- News roundup
- News roundup
- News roundup including short sections on Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at Covent Garden, a visit to Naples including Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy at the San Carlo, Donizetti and Siegfried Wagner and the Museo Donizettiano, Bergamo.
- News roundup
- Alboni and the operas of Donizetti by Robert Potterton. See here for article. The legibility is a little below average but has been included for its intrinsic interest.
- News roundup
- Brief report on Mercadante's operas including Il bravo from Rome Opera, January 2, 1977
- Reprint of a review from The Times, April 6, 1838 of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Persiani, Rubini and Tamburini. See here.
- Reviews of Pro Opera's production of Donizetti's Maria di Rohan at the Queen Elizabeth's Hall, London, December 5, 1976.
- Reprint of a review from The Times, July 9, 1831 of Donizetti's Anna Bolena. See here
Newsletter 15, 1977
- Donizetti at Aix-en-Provence by Alexander Weatherson including a brief review of Caballé and Carreras in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux. See here.
- Reprint of a Felix Aprahamian review of the 1957 La Scala production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena.
- An obituary of Adolfo Camozzo, Artistic Director of the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo.
Newsletter 16, January(?) 1978
- Rare Donizetti by Alexander Weatherson
An overview of various bel canto performances taking place
in Europe, including two cantatas by Donizetti.
- Buxton and bel canto by Alexander Weatherson
Some comments on Buxton's plan to perform Donizetti's Lucia
di Lammermoor
- Italian Opera at the Court Opera 1842-50 of Copenhagen by
Borre Qvamme
Lists of operas and comments on them from the various
seasons. See
here for article
- Article on early Opera Rara recordings
- Donizetti's La Favorita at the Met by Don Gulliver and John
Standen
Review of performances March 20 & 23, 1978. See
here.
- Various reviews of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei by Pro Opera
The performance part sponsored by the Donizetti Society,
February 26, 1978
- Pro Opera and Adelaide di Borgogna by Alexander Weatherson
Background and overview of Rossini's opera. See
here for article. In passing Professor Weatherson makes
reference to the composer Carafa and wrote a longer article on
him, which can be found
here.
- Rossini and Donizetti
A rather fanciful description of Donizetti's education taken
from Sutherland Edwards' 1862 History of the Opera.
- List of performances in Great Britain between 1950 and 1978.
- Gabriella di Vergy by Marigold Mann
Review of Donizetti's opera performed in Belfast, November
9, 1978
- Book Review by Alexander Weatherson of The Walter Scott Operas by Jerome Mitchell (Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1977). He also wrote More Scott Operas (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1996)
- Some recent recordings by Giacomo Antonini
Reviews of Donizetti's Ugo, Conte di Parigi, Gemma di
Vergy, Lucia di Lammermoor and La Favorita
- Book review by Alexander Weatherson of Annals of Opera 1597-1940 by Alfred Loewenberg (Totowa N.J., USA : Rowman and Littlefield; London: John Calder, 1978. First published 1943; revised 1955)
- Donizetti da Camera by Gordon Bellingham
Comments on a concert of non operatic pieces by Donizetti
played by Redbridge Young Musicians on October 22, 1978 at the
Purcell Room. See
here.
Newsletter 20, May 1979
- Book Review: Dom Sébastien by René Swennen (Paris:
Julliard, 1979)
Review by Alexander Weatherson of the novel based on the
events surrounding Donizetti's composition of the opera. See
here
- List of World Premieres at the Théâtre-Italiens 1794-1837 and at the Salle Ventadour 1837-1856.
- Anna Bolena by Fulvio Lo Presti
Review of a performance of Donizetti's opera at the Théâtre des
Arts, Rouen. See
here
- Donizetti's Island by Alexander Weatherson
Background to Donizetti's opera Il Furioso all'isola di San
Domingo. See
hhere
- Review of Donizetti's Lucia given at the Buxton Festival
- Matteo Salvi's masterpiece by Alexander Weatherson
Background on Donizetti's Il Duca d'Alba completed by a one
time pupil Matteo Salvi. See
here.
- A letter from South Africa by Philip Miller
News on forthcoming South African opera productions including
Lucia with May Sandoz, Jon Treleaven and Lawrence Folley
- Verdi's Oberto in Rotterdam by Marigold Mann
Review of a performance in Rotterdam on May 31, 1979.