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 ...

Composed for the Paris Opéra, the romantic but ultimately tragic narrative of Donizetti’s grand opera La Favorite is set amidst the Moorish invasions of Spain and the power struggles between ...