Synopsis
The comic opera Don Pasquale by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti had its first performance in Paris on this date in the year 1843. To this day it remains one of his best-loved and most frequently performed works. In all, Donizetti wrote about 70 operas, sometimes turning out four per year.
Amazing as this seems today, it wasn’t at all uncommon in the 19th century, especially in Italy, where audience demand for new works was insatiable. Back then, when composers vied with one another for speed, Donizetti was asked if he believed that Rossini had written The Barber of Seville in only 13 days. “Why not?” quipped Donizetti. “He’s so lazy!”
In our time, the corollary of a busy opera composer like Donizetti might be a hard-pressed Hollywood composer like John Williams, who could quip that Donizetti was the lazy one. After all, he has surpassed Donizetti’s count of 70 operas with well over 100 film scores.
Williams started out in the 1960s writing scores for TV shows like Wagon Train and Gilligan’s Island before shifting primarily to movies and crafting the iconic soundtracks like Jaws, E.T., Star Wars and Schindler’s List.
Music Played in Today's Program
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848): Don Pasquale Overture; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, condcutor; EMI 54490
John Williams (b. 1932): Devil’s Dance, from Witches of Eastwick; Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor; Philips 422 385
On This Day
Births
1909 - Danish pianist and musical humorist Victor Borge, in Copenhagen
1943 - Austrian composer, singer and double bass player H.K. Gruber, in Vienna
Deaths
1785 - Italian composer Baldassare Galuppi, 68, in Venice
1942 - Russian composer and violinist Julius Conus, 72, in Malenski (USSR)
Premieres
1738 - Handel: opera Faramondo in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket. This was the opening production of Handel’s opera season that year, and featured the London debut of Gaetano Majorano (called Caffarelli), a male soprano castrato (Gregorian date: Jan. 14).
1843 - Donizetti: opera Don Pasquale, in Paris
1890 - Tchaikovsky: ballet, Sleeping Beauty (Gregorian date: Jan. 15)
1897 - Dukas: Symphony in C, in Paris
1903 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 7, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Dec. 21, 1902)
1941 - Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting
Others
1925 - German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler makes his American debut, conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
