Donizetti was a truly prolific opera composer, he could turn out as many as three or four a year and was said to have sketched and written the last act of La favorita in a few hours. Imagine composing ...

“The most resounding fiasco of Donizetti’s career” is Jeremy Commons’s phrase for the reception of this, his 59th opera, at La Fenice, Venice, in 1838. In the canon it comes just before Poliuto, which ...