1 - 1797–1821: The beginnings

Summary

Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo in the province of Lombardy on 29 November 1797. His baptismal certificate, dated 3 December 1797, is to be found among the parish records of Santa Grata inter Vites, the church that stands not a stone's throw from the house in which he was born. The notice reads:

Dominicus Cajetanus Maria filius Andreae Donizetti et Domenicae Nava Legitimum Iujalium natura die 29 9mbris in hoc suburbio, hodie baptizzatus a me Antonio Mauro Bonzi Praeposito – Patrino Dominico Iraina ex Zanica.

At the time of Gaetano's birth his parents had been living for about eleven years in the basement apartment at Borgo Canale, no. 10 (now renumbered 14), a street that slants down the north-west shoulder of the hill occupied by the old town of Bergamo Alta. Today the house is marked by a plaque and has been designated a national museum. The dark, cramped quarters eloquently testify to the poverty in which the family lived. Donizetti never forgot the place. He described it a few years before his death in a letter to his teacher and benefactor Simon Mayr: ‘I was born underground in Borgo Canale. You went down cellar steps, where no glimmer of light ever penetrated. And like an owl I took flight… never encouraged by my poor father, who was always telling me: it is impossible that you will compose, that you will go to Naples, that you will go to Vienna.’