The Society's History

The Donizetti Society was formed in 1973 by a group of musicians, scholars and enthusiasts to promote interest, learning and understanding of the works of Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), his teacher, Giovanni Simone Mayr  (1763-1845) and in the operatic life of their times. It has an international reputation and membership and seeks to draw together those people whose passionate concern is the rediscovery of lost, forgotten and neglected music of this era. The Society aims to support and encourage artists and scholars who work in this field, as well as provide the enthusiast with information on the music, recordings, books and performance venues.

The Donizetti Society is associated with the Fondazione Donizetti di Bergamo, which is currently organising the Donizetti Critical Edition (Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Gaetano Donizetti).  The Society also has artistic links with the Danish Belcanto Society as well as with a number of Italian Theatres.  Although UK based, the Society operates wherever there is an interest in Italian opera of the first half of the nineteenth-century; it undertakes to advise on matters of availability of musical material and libretti, supplying the necessary references for both performance and enjoyment at all levels. On occasion, it has both sponsored and help fund performances and projects.

The Society's Committee

Membership

The Society membership year runs from April to March.   Membership entitles you to receive the regular Newsletter  (usually 3 a year) that covers current revivals, recordings and publications, gives information about rare composers and events unavailable anywhere else, and includes short articles on all points of operatic interest for enthusiasts and experts alike. Members joining part way through a year get the back numbers of the Newsletters for that year.

Money from membership also enables the Society to give assistance to performances and projects connected with the operatic life of this era. The Society also carries out a number of original projects, notably publishing, on an occasional basis, the Donizetti Society Journal.

 To give individuals the opportunity to try membership, the cost for the first year is 12 GB Pounds Sterling worldwide. If you are interested then please print off the initial trial membership form in pdf (Acrobat) here  or in HTML  here and send it to the address on the form.  

Please contact the secretary:- Mr. Pip Clayton, 146 Bordesley Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 5LT, UK, telephone +44 (0)20 8648 9364 or email:-info@donizettisociety.com with any questions.

For subsequent years, the membership cost in the UK is 18 GB Pounds per year or 50 GB Pounds for three years. The renewal form is available here in pdf (Acrobat) and here in HTML. Outside the UK it is 23 GB Pounds annual or 65 GB Pounds for three years.  The renewal form is available here in pdf (Acrobat) and here in HTML.

(Please note that the formatting of the HTML prints may vary depending on your browser. If you do not have a pdf reader then you can download one free from http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/  or http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/download.php, which is smaller but Microsoft and Linux only)  

© Donizetti Society and contributors, 2004-2009