Lives in Song is Opera Rara’s new Opera Insider series exploring musicians’ biographies through their music. In this first series, join our hosts Flora Willson and Roger Parker, as they put the music of prolific composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) under the microscope and tell the story of his life through some of the songs he composed.

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The year is 1837. Gaetano Donizetti is at the height of his international career as an composer of hugely popular operas. When his beloved wife, Virginia, dies aged just 28, Donizetti is devastated. In terms of operatic composition, the ‘show must go on’ – but does he show his grief through the songs he composes?

In this YouTube livestream, Flora and Roger discuss the impact this tragic loss had on Donizetti’s life and music, with musical excerpts from his operas Rosmonda d’Inghilterra and Roberto Devereux, and extracts from a lesser-known side of the composer’s career: the songs he composed, in particular “Il sogno”.

“Our wretched minds and bodies
Are severed for eternity. For me you are not living
And will not live again: fate has shattered
The vows you swore to me. So, wishing
To shout out in agony, my eyes
Filled with disconsolate tears, I roused myself,
Trembling, from sleep. She still
Remained before me: and in the uncertain beams
Of the sun, I believed that I saw her again.”
– Giacomo Leopardi

Streamed live on Opera Rara’s YouTube channel. Register to receive email ​reminders and a link to the show notes following the stream.