Gaetano Donizetti
A native of Bergamo, Donizetti studied locally under Johann Simon Mayr.

He was the leading composer of Italian opera for nearly a decade after the early death of Bellini in 1835.

His first success came in 1822 with the opera "Zoraida di Granata".

This was followed by more than sixty other operas, most of which characterized Italian Romaticism.

Rossini invited him to Paris to write an opera and there he was confined to hospital for some 17 months due to a strange nervous fever.

He returned to Bergamo where he died in 1848 and was buried next to maestro Mayr.

Donizetti was not exclusively a composer of opera, but wrote all kinds of music, songs, chamber music, piano music and a certain amount of music for the church.