title: Field artillery

text: The advance party consists of the battery commander, his driver, first sergeant, gunnery sergeant, FDC guide, gun guides, and communications representatives. Initially the Party looks to find suitable positions for an artillery unit to perform fire missions from. Then they perform what is known as route reconnaissance. The primary purpose of this reconnaissance is to determine the suitability of the route of the unit's movement. Items to be analyzed include possible alternate routes, cover, concealment, location of obstacles, likely ambush sites, contaminated areas, route marking requirements, and the time and distance required to traverse the route. Several factors are taken into consideration. Once a location is determined and having arrived at the new position the advance party conducts a security sweep and prepares the position for occupation. The purpose of the advance party security with METT-T and the absence of enemy troops, mines, booby traps, NBC hazards, and so on. If these threats or conditions are present in the proposed position area, the advance party breaks contact with any enemy forces or marks minefield and hazards and moves on to find another position area. The battery commander can coordinate for additional assets, or augment the advance party with internal assets, to provide the additional ability to clear areas of small enemy forces, obstacles, and minefields. Natural cover must be used to the maximum. Security is continuous throughout advance party operations. Once a location is determined to be safe the advance party prepares the position for eventual howitzer emplacement. This consists of several procedures such as escorting each howitzer to its prepared position, setting up communications, providing the unit with its initial azimuth of fire, and providing each gun with an initial deflection. In the case of the U.S. Army, this entire process is covered in U.S. Army Field Manual 6-50 Chapter 2.


title: Field artillery

text: Because artillery is an indirect fire weapon, the forward observer (FO) must take up a position where he can observe the target using tools such as binoculars and laser rangefinders and call back fire missions on his radio or telephone.


title: Field artillery

text: The FO usually establishes a covered and concealed observation post (OP) on the ground, from which he can see the enemy. However, he may also be airborne—this was one of the first uses of aircraft in World War I. He must take great care not to be observed by the enemy, especially if in a static position. Discovery of an FO does not only jeopardize his personal safety; it also hampers the ability of the battery to lay fire.


title: Field artillery

text: Using a standardized format, the FO sends map references and bearing to target, a brief target description, a recommended munition to use, and any special instructions such as "danger close" (the warning that friendly troops are within 600 meters of the target when using artillery, requiring extra precision from the guns).


title: Field artillery

text: The FO and the battery iteratively "walk" the fire onto the target. The Fire Direction Center (FDC) signals the FO that they have fired and the FO knows to observe fall of shot. He then signals corrections. These are normally of the form of left/right of the bearing line and distance along it, for example "right 50 add 100" (distance in meters). When the fire is good enough the FO signals "target on, fire for effect".


title: Field artillery

text: The FO may be called upon to direct fire for close air support and/or naval artillery in addition to field artillery based howitzer and infantry-embedded mortar units. The U.S. Army Field Manual describing the duties and responsibilities is FM 6‑30, "Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Observed Fire".


title: Field artillery

text: Typically, there is one FDC for a battery of six guns, in a light division. In a typical heavy division configuration, there exist two FDC elements capable of operating two four-gun sections, also known as a split battery. The FDC computes firing data—fire direction—for the guns. The process consists of determining the precise target location based on the observer's location if needed, then computing range and direction to the target from the guns' location. These data can be computed manually, using special protractors and slide rules with precomputed firing data. Corrections can be added for conditions such as a difference between target and howitzer altitudes, propellant temperature, atmospheric conditions, and even the curvature and rotation of the Earth. In most cases, some corrections are omitted, sacrificing accuracy for speed. In recent decades, FDCs have become computerized, allowing for much faster and more accurate computation of firing data. The FDC at the battalion level is responsible for recording friendly and enemy positions, tracking available battery munitions, and determining the optimal response for engaging a target identified by the FO.


title: Field artillery

text: In most Artillery Batteries the Command Post (CP) controls the firing of the guns. It is usually located at the battery center so as to be able to communicate easily with the guns. The CP should be well camouflaged, but the CPO (Command Post Officer) should be able to see all the guns with ease. Gun markers are sometimes placed in front of the CP to remind the CPO which gun is in which position. The CPO is assisted by two "Acks"—i.e., assistants—who operate the fire data computers. The GPO (Gun Position Officer) and CPO work at the plotter to ensure that the data calculated by the Acks is accurate and safe. The CP signaller is contact with the OP, or Observation Post, where the Forward Observer Officer (FOO), works with the OP team to identify targets and call-back fire data. In recent years headset radios have become common for communication between the CPO and gun detachment commanders.


title: Field artillery

text: The final piece of the puzzle is the firing unit itself. The FDC will transmit a warning order to the guns, followed by orders specifying the type of ammunition and fuze setting, bearing, elevation, and the method of adjustment or orders for fire for effect (FFE). Elevation (vertical direction) and bearing orders are specified in mils, and any special instructions, such as to wait for the observer's command to fire relayed through the FDC. The crews load the howitzers and traverse and elevate the barrel to the required point, using either hand cranks (usually on towed guns) or hydraulics (on self-propelled models).


title: Field artillery

text: Removing the threat posed by enemy artillery is an important objective on the battlefield. Most of the time enemy batteries are too far away for the infantry to engage, so it falls to artillery to do this job.


title: Field artillery

text: The battery uses a variety of techniques to calculate the position of the enemy battery, then can lay fire upon it. If possible, a FO can access a position to call fire on enemy guns directly; either on the ground or in the air, or a battery can be located using counter-battery radar, which can be used to observe the fall of enemy shells and thus calculate their trajectory. A correctly calculated trajectory will reveal the location from which the shell was fired, which information can then be passed on to a friendly battery command post as a fire mission.


title: Field artillery

text: To defend against counter battery fire there are two points of attack: either remove the enemy's ability to observe or make his observations irrelevant/obsolete.


title: Field artillery

text: To remove the ability to observe one must attack the observation assets. Because most counter-battery radar is active, the location can be determined electronically from listening to the beams. If one suspects one's position is being observed by a covert FO then a mission, either artillery or infantry, will be raised to deal with this threat.


title: Field artillery

text: Alternatively one can choose to make their observations obsolete by repeatedly moving the guns: hence self-propelled guns.


title: Field artillery

text: Ordinary towed guns can take a while to emplace and re-limber and are not armoured, so they are vulnerable to counter battery fire and take a while to engage when at a new location.


title: Field artillery

text: Self-propelled guns do not suffer from these restrictions. They can drive up, drop their trails, fire and move on. Because of their armour they are less vulnerable to counter-battery fire. However, this armor is light by comparison to that of a tank, so it protects only from light fire (e.g., machine guns) and shrapnel.


title: Field artillery

text: Another disadvantage of self-propelled guns is that they tend to be equipped with lighter, less accurate guns. Depending on the nature of the battle being fought, either or both of these drawbacks could prove a severe restriction. However, this is not necessarily true of modern self-propelled guns such as the German PzH 2000. This has a 155 mm main armament that can with assisted firing charges reach 60 km, has a maximum speed of 67 km/h (41 mph) on road surface and 45 km/h (28 mph) off-road, and has a fully computerised fire-control system that enables it to fire-move-fire before the enemy can pin it down for counter-battery fire. It has a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute.


title: Field artillery

text: FDCs also exist in the next higher parent battalion that "owns" two to four artillery batteries. Once again, an FDC exists at the U.S. Army brigade or USMC regimental level that "owns" the battalions. These higher level FDCs monitor the fire missions of their subordinate units and will coordinate the use of multiple batteries or even multiple battalions in what is called a battalion or brigade/regimental mission. In training and wartime exercises, as many as 72 guns from 3 battalions may all be coordinated to put "steel on the target" in what is called a "brigade/regimental time on target" or brigade/regimental TOT for short. The rule is "silence is consent", meaning that if the lower unit does not hear a "cancel the mission" (don't shoot) or even a "check firing" (cease firing) order from the higher monitoring unit, then the mission goes on. Higher level units monitor their subordinate unit's missions both for active as well as passive purposes. Higher-level units may also get involved to coordinate artillery fire across fire support coordination boundaries (often parallel lines on maps) where one unit can not fire into without permission from higher and/or adjacent units that "own" the territory.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: Titanic Belfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS "Titanic" was built. It tells the stories of the "Titanic", which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS "Olympic" and HMHS "Britannic". The building contains more than of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: Titanic Belfast is owned by the Maritime Belfast Trust and commercially operated by Titanic Belfast Limited under a 25-year operator agreement which commenced in 2011.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The building is located on Queen's Island, an area of land at the entrance of Belfast Lough which was reclaimed from the water in the mid-19th century. It was used for many years by the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who built huge slipways and graving docks to accommodate the simultaneous construction of the "Olympic" and "Titanic". The decline of shipbuilding in Belfast left much of the area derelict. Most of the disused structures on the island were demolished. A number of heritage features were given listed status, including the "Olympic" and "Titanic" slipways and graving docks, as well as the iconic Samson and Goliath cranes.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The derelict land was renamed the "Titanic Quarter" in 2001 and was earmarked for regeneration. Development rights over 185 acres was subsequently bought by Harcourt Developments at a cost of £47 million, with 23 more acres set aside for a science park. The redevelopment plans included houses, hotels and entertainment amenities plus a maritime heritage museum and science centre. In 2005, plans were announced to build a museum dedicated to "Titanic" to attract tourists to the area, with the aim of completing it by 2012 to mark the centenary of "Titanic"s maiden voyage and sinking.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: A number of ideas were put forward for the attraction. Among ideas considered were reconstructing the massive Arrol Gantry in which "Titanic" and "Olympic" were constructed, or building an illuminated wire frame outline of "Titanic" in the dock in which she was fitted out. In June 2008, details of a project  – known then as the ""Titanic" Signature Project" – were announced. Northern Ireland's Tourism Minister, Arlene Foster, announced that the Northern Ireland Executive would provide 50 per cent of the attraction's funding through the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, with the remaining 50 per cent coming from the private sector, in the shape of Titanic Quarter Ltd, a sister company of Harcourt Developments, and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. Additional funding was pledged by Belfast City Council. The task of creating the visitor attraction was taken on by Harcourt Developments, who enlisted the help of the American architect Eric Kuhne and British exhibition designers Event Communications.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The building, now known as "Titanic" Belfast, was expected to attract 425,000 visitors annually, of whom between 130,000 and 165,000 would come from outside Northern Ireland. It is intended to serve a similar transformational function to that of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, as a focus for the regeneration of the city. It forms part of the "Titanic"–related heritage sites in Titanic Quarter, including the disused headquarters and drawing offices of Harland & Wolff, the SS "Nomadic" – the last surviving White Star Line ship – and Hamilton Dock, "Titanic"s Dock and Pump house and the "Titanic" and "Olympic" slipways.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: First year visitor numbers significantly exceeded projections, with 807,340 visitors passing through its doors, of which 471,702 were from outside Northern Ireland, according to Titanic Belfast. The attraction has also sold 1,376 bottles of champagne and hosted over 350 conferences. In 2015 there were 625,000 visitors.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: Titanic Belfast had a record-breaking year in 2017/18 with 841,563 people visiting the tourist attraction and the year before saw the Titanic Museum take home the World's Leading Tourism Attraction Award at the World Travel Awards (2016) In the same year, Titanic Belfast saw 84% of its visitors coming from outside Northern Ireland.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: It was the second-most visited tourist attraction in Northern Ireland in 2019 with over 800,000 visitors.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The Titanic visitor centre has received fifteen awards since its opening in 2012. Titanic Belfast has been credited for helping to transform tourism in Northern Ireland for the better over the past few years. The tourist attraction has also welcomed many famous visitors including Queen Elizabeth II and the man who discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: Eric Kuhne and Associates were commissioned as concept architects, with Todd Architects appointed as lead consultants. The building's design is intended to reflect Belfast's history of shipmaking and the industrial legacy bequeathed by Harland & Wolff. Its angular form recalls the shape of ships' prows, with its main "prow" angled down the middle of the "Titanic" and "Olympic" slipways towards the River Lagan. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the building looks like the Titanic, and locals have already nicknamed it "The Iceberg". Most of the building's façade is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodised aluminium shards. It stands high, the same height as "Titanic"s hull.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The interior of the eight-storey building provides of space. Its centrepiece is a series of interpretive galleries exploring aspects of the building, design, sinking and legacy of "Titanic". On the top floor of the museum is Belfast's largest conference and reception space, the "Titanic" Suite, a banqueting facility capable of seating 750 people. A reproduction of the original staircase on the "Titanic", made famous by the James Cameron film "Titanic" in 1997, is located in this conference centre. The building also provides education, community, retail and restaurant facilities plus a community resource centre.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The construction of the building cost £77 million with an additional £24 million spent on pre-planning, enabling works, underground car park and public realm enhancements. The foundations to the building involved one of the country's largest-ever concrete pours with of concrete delivered by 700 concrete lorries in 24 hours. Harcourt Construction (NI) Ltd oversaw the design and building phase of the project., a subsidiary of Dublin-based property development company Harcourt Developments Ltd.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: In front of the building is "Titanica", a sculpture by Rowan Gillespie depicting a diving female figure. Made of bronze, it is mounted on a brass base, evoking the design of figureheads on ships' prows, and is meant to represent hope and positivity. The figure was dedicated by representatives of the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian churches on 27 March 2012, a few days before the opening of "Titanic" Belfast.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: "Titanic" Belfast's exhibition was designed by London-based exhibition designers Event Communications and consists of nine interpretative and interactive galleries, covering the following themes:


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The first gallery recreates scenes from Belfast at the time of "Titanic"s construction in 1909–11. It illustrates the city's major industries before leading through an original set of gates from the Harland and Wolff shipyard into an interactive floor presenting "Titanic"s construction plans, along with original drawings and scale models of the ship.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The second gallery is dominated by a steel scaffold standing , which alludes to the Arrol Gantry built to aid the construction of "Titanic" and "Olympic". The actual gantry was four times the height of the gallery's representation. A lift carries visitors to the top of the gantry, where scenes of shipbuilding are displayed through audio and images. The visit continues on a six-seater car which takes the visitor on a ride through a recreation of a shipyard which moves through a scale replica of "Titanic"s enormous rudder.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The Launch gallery portrays scenes from the Spring day when "Titanic" was launched into Belfast Lough, watched by 100,000 people. It overlooks the slipway from which "Titanic" was launched and a window enables visitors to see the slipways and docks as they appear now.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The fourth gallery presents a large-scale model of "Titanic" to illustrate how the ship appeared to its passengers and crew, depicting all three classes of cabins. A central feature in the gallery presents a 360-degree computer-generated tour around "Titanic" through all the levels of the vessel, from the engine room to the dining saloons and the bridge.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The ship's disastrous maiden voyage is depicted in the fifth gallery, which depicts the ship's boat deck. Visitors can walk across the wooden deck, sit on benches or look out at a view across the docks and harbour. The gallery also presents photographs of the ship by the Jesuit photographer Father Francis Browne, who was aboard "Titanic" for the leg from Southampton to Cobh in southern Ireland.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The sixth gallery portrays the sinking of the "Titanic" with the background sound of Morse code SOS messages being sent to other ships. Images of the sinking are combined with audio of survivors telling their stories and illustrations of the confused press reporting of the disaster. The iceberg is evoked by a wall of 400 replica life-jackets, on which an image of the sinking ship is projected.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The aftermath of the sinking is documented in the seventh gallery, which is dominated by a full-size replica of one of the lifeboats used to evacuate passengers from the ship. The American and British inquiries into the disaster are portrayed on either side of the lifeboat through videos and information panels. Visitors can use interactive screens to search the passenger and crew lists to find out if one of their relatives was aboard the ship. The gallery also presents information on the subsequent histories of Harland and Wolff and "Titanic"s sister ships.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The disaster gave rise to numerous legends and myths, perpetuated through films, plays, books and poems. With Celine Dion's song "My Heart Will Go On" playing in the background, visitors are able to explore aspects of the popular culture inspired by "Titanic". Interactive screens also enable the visitor to explore myths about the ship.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: The last gallery presents "Titanic" as she is now, below the surface of the North Atlantic. Presented in conjunction with the discoverer of the wreck of "Titanic", Dr Robert Ballard, the gallery illustrates his expeditions to the ship through footage, audio and images. A fish-eye view of the wreck is set under the glass floor. Below the floor is the Ocean Exploration Centre, "Titanic" Belfast's principal educational facility, which shows marine biology and exploration in Northern Ireland's coastal waters as well as Ballard's various expeditions around the world.


title: Titanic Belfast

text: In late August 2018, several groups were vying for the right to purchase the 5,500 RMS Titanic relics that were an asset of the bankrupt Premier Exhibitions. Eventually, Titanic Belfast, Titanic Foundation Limited and the National Museums Northern Ireland joined with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich as a consortium that was raising money to purchase the 5,500 artefacts. The group intended to keep all of the items together as a single exhibit. Oceanographer Robert Ballard said he favoured this group since it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast (where the Titanic was built) and in Greenwich. The museums were critical of the bid process set by the Bankruptcy court in Jacksonville, Florida. The minimum bid for the 11 October 2018 auction was set at US$21.5 million (£16.5m) and the consortium did not have enough funding to meet that amount.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: Susan Jean Elisabeth "Zanny" Minton Beddoes (born July 1967) is a British journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of "The Economist", the first woman to hold the position. She began working for the magazine in 1994 as its emerging markets correspondent.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: Born in Shropshire, Minton Beddoes was educated at Moreton Hall School near Oswestry, received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Oxford, where she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) as an undergraduate student of St Hilda's College, Oxford. She earned a master's degree at Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar from 1989-1990, and had the scholarship fully renewed for an additional year.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: After graduation, she was recruited as an adviser to the Minister of Finance in Poland, in 1992, as part of a small group headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard. She then spent two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she worked on macroeconomic adjustment programmes in Africa and the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: Through this work, she joined "The Economist" in 1994 as the newspaper's correspondent for emerging markets, based in London. She became the Economics editor in 1996, overseeing global economics coverage from Washington DC, and later moved to Business Affairs editor, responsible for business, finance and science. She began as the 17th and first female editor-in-chief on 2 February 2015.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: Secured by her appointment to the top editor position at "The Economist", Minton Beddoes was described by the 2015 edition of "Debrett's 500" as "one of the most influential voices in financial journalism". She has written surveys of the world economy, Latin American finance, global finance and Central Asia. She has written extensively about the American economy and international financial policy; the enlargement of the European Union; the future of the IMF; and economic reform in emerging economies. She has been published in "Foreign Affairs" and "Foreign Policy", contributed chapters to several conference volumes, and edited "Emerging Asia" (Asian Development Bank, 1997), a book on the future of emerging-markets in Asia.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: In May 1998, she provided expert testimony on the introduction of the Euro to the United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: In 2010, Minton Beddoes spoke at Princeton University with Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Professor Alan Blinder, Chair of the Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton. Their discussion was called "How Did We Get Into this Mortgage Mess, and How Do We Get Out?" In 2012, she gave the 28th Annual Max Rosenn Lecture on "Stress-Testing America's Prosperity". Minton Beddoes is a regular commentator on "Marketplace" and other public radio programmes. She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC World Service, "Charlie Rose", "PBS NewsHour", CNBC, NBC and "Real Time with Bill Maher".


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: She is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Committee for Economic Development.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: In 2015, Minton Beddoes was one of 133 invitees to the 63rd Bilderberg conference, an invitation-only meeting of top business leaders, politicians, academics and royalty, for an informal and secret discussion of world issues.


title: Zanny Minton Beddoes

text: Minton Beddoes, the eldest daughter of a former British army officer and his German-born wife, was born Susan Jean Elisabeth, and later acquired the nickname Zanny. She is married to British-born journalist and author Sebastian Mallaby. They have four children.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Schools Association, Ten Schools Admissions Organization, and a former member of the G20 Schools group.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 817 students and 109 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 7.5:1. The school's student body was 55.0% (449) White, 21.3% (174) Asian, 9.9% (81) Black, 7.8% (64) two or more races and 6% (49) Hispanic.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In 2010, Lawrenceville announced that Janie Woods, who died at age 87 in 2007, and her husband, Henry C. Woods Jr., had bequeathed the school $60 million. In 2017, Head Master Stephen Murray announced to the school community that Joseph C. Tsai, Class of 1982 and executive vice chairman of global e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, and his wife Clara had donated the largest gift in the school's 207-year history. As of June 2019, the school's endowment stood at $487.2 million.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville received 2,046 formal applications for entry in fall 2018, of which 421 were offered admission, giving an acceptance rate of 20.5%.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: One of the oldest preparatory schools in the United States, Lawrenceville was founded in 1810 as the Maidenhead Academy by Presbyterian clergyman Isaac Van Arsdale Brown. As early as 1828, the school attracted students from Cuba and England, as well as from the Cherokee Nation. It had several names, including the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, the Lawrenceville Academy, and the Lawrenceville Classical Academy, before its current name, "The Lawrenceville School," was adopted during its refounding under the John Cleve Green Foundation in 1883. An area of the campus built then, including the Hamill House and numerous other buildings, has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. This portion of the campus includes buildings designed to a master plan by Peabody and Stearns, with landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted. An addition to the campus outside of that district was built in the 1920s. Lawrenceville's student body was almost entirely white for its first 150 years, with the first African American student admitted in 1964.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville was featured in several novels by Owen Johnson, class of 1895, notably "The Prodigious Hickey", "The Tennessee Shad", and "The Varmint" (1910). "The Varmint", which recounts the school years of the fictional character Dink Stover, was made into the 1950 motion picture "The Happy Years", starring Leo G. Carroll and Dean Stockwell, and was filmed on the Lawrenceville campus. A 1986 PBS miniseries was based on Johnson's Lawrenceville tales.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Among Lawrenceville's prominent teachers over the years have been Thornton Wilder, a three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author who taught French at the School in the 1920s; R. Inslee Clark Jr., who revolutionized Ivy League admissions at Yale in the 1960s; and Thomas H. Johnson, a scholar of early American poetry.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville was all-male until the Board of Trustees voted to make the school coeducational in 1985. The first girls were admitted in 1987, and 178 of the 725 students were female during the 1987-88 school year. In 1999, the student body elected a female president, Alexandra Petrone; in 2003, Elizabeth Duffy was appointed the School's first female headmaster; and in 2005, Sasha-Mae Eccleston, Lawrenceville Class of 2002 and Brown University Class of 2006, became Lawrenceville's first alumna to win a Rhodes Scholarship.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In its 2016 rankings, "Business Insider" ranked the school's tuition as the 22nd most expensive private high school in the United States. In its 2015 rankings the year before, "Business Insider" had ranked the school's tuition as the 2nd most expensive private high school tuition in the United States, with tuition and fees of $48,700 behind the $49,092 charged by Connecticut's Salisbury School. In the publication's five years of rankings, that was the first time Lawrenceville was not the top-ranked school.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The Lawrenceville School National Historic Landmark is a historic district on the campus of the Lawrenceville School. This portion, the old campus area built in 1894–1895, was designed jointly by the landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and the architects Peabody & Stearns. A new campus area, built in the 1920s, does not intrude and is not included in the district.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. It is included in the Lawrence Township Historic District, created in 1972.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The Lawrenceville School sits across U.S. Route 206, or Main Street, from the center of Lawrenceville.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The school includes a golf course and owns much of the land to its east, which is classified as Green Space under New Jersey state law.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville utilizes a house system, similar to many British schools. Students reside in four distinct groups of Houses—the Lower School, the Crescent, the Circle, and the Fifth Form (Senior) Houses—as do a number of faculty members associated with each House.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The school's weekly, student-run newspaper, "The Lawrence", is the third oldest secondary school newspaper in the United States, after "The Phillipian" and "The Exonian", Phillips Academy Andover's and Phillips Exeter Academy's weeklies, respectively. "The Lawrence" has been published regularly since 1881. Students make up the editorial board and all decisions for the paper, consulting with two faculty advisors at their discretion.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In the fall of 2014, L10 News, the school's weekly ten-minute newscast, was founded on The Lawrenceville School's YouTube Channel and Facebook page. The program format features a series of headlines, and three to four main stories from Lawrenceville, ranging from interviews with newsmakers, sports, arts, and special event coverage. L10 News is run by an editorial board composed of students and a faculty advisor. It is created by a team of student reporters, videographers, and video editors. As of 2017, the show had over 117,000 unique views on Facebook and YouTube.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Other student-run publications include "The First Amendment", a monthly political magazine founded in 2010; "The Ledger," a semesterly business magazine; "LMAG", a semesterly fashion magazine; "In the Margins", a Diversity magazine; "The Contour", a newspaper on global issues; "The Lawrenceville Historical Review," the school's annual history periodical; "El Artículo", a Spanish publication, and "The Lit", a literary magazine published three times a year. "The Lit" was founded in 1895 by author Owen Johnson, who went on to write the "Lawrenceville Stories". Also published annually are the "Olla Podrida", the yearbook; "Lawrencium", the science research journal; and "Prize Papers", a compilation of the best academic work in the English Department by that year's IV Form (junior) class. There is also a WLSR radio club.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville's rival is The Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, against which it competes as one of six schools in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League. On the first or second weekend of November during "Hill Weekend," the two schools celebrate the nation's eighth-oldest high school football rivalry and fifth-oldest school rivalry in the nation, dating back to 1887.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville competes with other schools in baseball, basketball, crew, cross-country, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, hockey, indoor and outdoor track, lacrosse, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. In addition, the School offers a variety of intramural sports, including Ultimate Disc for the girls' Crescent Houses and 8-man flag football for the boys' Circle Houses. The athletic directors of Lawrenceville and the other members of the Eight Schools Association compose the Eight Schools Athletic Council, which organizes sports events and tournaments among ESA schools.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In the spring of 2015, the Lawrenceville Boys' Varsity Crew team won the MAPL League Championship, beating out Peddie, Hun, and Blair; placed first at the US Rowing Mid-Atlantic Youth Championship; and then went on to place 4th at the US Rowing Youth Nationals held in Camden, NJ. The crew was selected for the Henley Royal Regatta and is widely regarded as the greatest crew in the school's history. Multiple members of this crew either went on to race for the United States Jr. National Team or row at D1 universities such as Cal, Wisconsin, Yale, Georgetown, and Northeastern. or the United States Jr. National Development Team. In the fall of 2010, the Lawrenceville Boys' Varsity Crew team won the Head of the Christina Regatta in Delaware, then placed 14th in a field of 75 at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts, later in the season.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In the spring of 2008, the Lawrenceville Boys' and Girls' Varsity Track and Field team completed its season undefeated, placing first in the NJISSAA and MAPL. In winter 2011, the 4x200 team was the fastest in the nation, earning each one of them the status of All-American. By January 2014, the Lawrenceville boys' varsity track team had won 103 dual meets in a row; the boys' team has not lost a dual meet, a Prep State A championship, or the MAPL championship since 2006. In winter 2014, the 4x55 Shuttle Hurdle Relay team was ranked #2 in New Jersey and #3 in the nation.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: On November 6, 2005, the Lawrenceville Girls' Varsity Field Hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 2-1 to capture their third straight Prep A state championship. On November 5, 2006, the Varsity Field Hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 1-0 to capture their fourth straight Prep A state championship. In 2007 they tied rival Stuart Country Day School for a shared victory in their fifth straight Prep A state championship with a 2-2 tie on a late Lawrenceville goal.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: On February 12, 2006, the Lawrenceville Varsity Boys' Squash team won the National Championship for the third year in a row.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: On May 18, 2006, the Lawrenceville Boys' Varsity Baseball Team won the New Jersey State Prep A Championship over Peddie School in a doubleheader (14-0 and 6-1), earning their second state championship in three years. Lawrenceville defeated Peddie again in the 2010 finals to win its second consecutive Prep A title.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: There are 38 major buildings on Lawrenceville's campus, including the Bunn Library, which has space for 100,000 volumes. Peabody and Stearns designed the original campus of the school, which included Memorial Hall (renamed Woods Memorial Hall in January 2010), a gymnasium, the headmaster's house, five dorms, and future plans for the chapel.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The four Crescent House dorms, Stanley, McClellan, Stephens, and Kirby, designed by Short and Ford Architects of Princeton, New Jersey, were opened in 1986, with a fifth Crescent House, Carter, opened in 2010. The Circle Houses, declared a national historic landmark, were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville has 18 athletics fields, a nine-hole golf course, 12 outdoor tennis courts, all-weather and indoor tracks, a boathouse, a hockey arena, and a ropes and mountaineering course. During the summer, Lawrenceville is a popular site for youth sports camps and several academic programs for students and teachers, including the New Jersey Scholars Program.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: In the spring of 2012, the School began to draw its energy needs from a solar farm, which consists of a nearly 30-acre, net-metered, 6.1-megawatt solar facility. The area also has several honey-producing bee hives, part of the Big Red Farm, which ring the perimeter of the array.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: The big red farm includes three greenhouses, 4 acres of tilled land, and 20 acres of pasture. It includes sheep, chickens, and pigs.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville is a member of a group of leading American secondary schools, the Eight Schools Association, which began informally in 1973–74 and was formalized at a 2006 meeting at Lawrenceville. At that meeting, Choate headmaster Edward Shanahan was appointed as the first president, Lawrenceville's Elizabeth Duffy was named first vice president, and former Lawrenceville chief financial officer William Bardel was hired as the executive assistant. Shanahan was succeeded in 2009 by Duffy, and former Hotchkiss head Robert Mattoon succeeded Bardel. The member schools are Lawrenceville, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Hotchkiss School, Northfield Mount Hermon, Phillips Academy (known as Andover), Phillips Exeter Academy (known as Exeter), and St. Paul's School.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville is also a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, established in 1966 and comprising Lawrenceville, Choate, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Andover, Exeter, St. Paul's, Taft School, Loomis Chaffee, and The Hill School.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville is affiliated with The Island School in Cape Eleuthera, The Bahamas, to which it sends students for semesters abroad.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Lawrenceville has many notable alumni, prominent in public life in America and abroad, including author and ecologist Aldo Leopold (1904-1905), former President of Honduras Ricardo Maduro, Congressman Patrick Murphy, federal judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, and former Senator and Governor of Connecticut Lowell P. Weicker Jr.


title: Lawrenceville School

text: Other prominent alumni include Obama press secretary Jay Carney; the musicians Huey Lewis and Dierks Bentley; socialite & "Real Housewife of New York" Tinsley Mortimer, the writers Owen Johnson, James Merrill, and Frederick Buechner; business executives Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Alibaba Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, former Mobil president Rawleigh Warner Jr., and former "Forbes" publisher Malcolm Forbes; athletes Joakim Noah and Bobby Sanguinetti; and academics, including the literary and media theorist Laurence A. Rickels, Nobel-Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried, and Bill Berkson, poet, critic, and teacher; and Episcopal priest Walter S. Cox; screenwriter Merian C. Cooper.


title: Degüello

text: Degüello is the sixth studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in November 1979. It was the first ZZ Top release on Warner Bros. Records and eventually went platinum. It was produced by Bill Ham, recorded and mixed by Terry Manning, and mastered by Bob Ludwig.


title: Degüello

text: Returning from a two year hiatus, the band began to showcase the influence they have collected during the time away; Gibbons' time in Europe introduced him to punk music, the influences of which seeped into the creation of the album. The band also consciously tried experimenting with technology: Gibbons saw an episode of "The Phil Donahue Show" where a person's identity was protected using silhouette and a pitch shifter; liking the sound, he asked engineer Manning to call the show and find out what the effects unit was. Manning eventually convinced a reluctant show producer to reveal it, and the effect was used for both vocals and guitars on songs like "Manic Mechanic".


title: Degüello

text: The album marked the first time that ZZ Top featured cover versions on a studio album: "I Thank You" by Isaac Hayes/David Porter and "Dust My Broom", credited on early editions to Elmore James but subsequently credited to Robert Johnson who recorded it in 1936. Elmore James had adapted and popularized the song in 1951.


title: Degüello

text: "Degüello" means "decapitation" (literally, a slashing of the throat) or, idiomatically, when something is said to be done "a degüello", it means "no quarter" in Spanish (as in, "no surrender to be given or accepted—a fight to the death"). It was also the title of a Moorish-origin bugle call used by the Mexican Army at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.


title: Kwon Yul (actor)

text: Kwon Se-in (born June 29, 1982), better known by the stage name Kwon Yul, is a South Korean actor. He made his acting debut with a leading role in the 2007 high school sitcom "Mackerel Run". Kwon is best known for his roles as Seo Ji-seok on the daily soap opera "Angel's Revenge" (2014), Yi Hoe in the blockbuster period film "" (2014), and as Lee Sang-woo in the hit romantic comedy series "Let's Eat 2" (2015).


title: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5)

text: The fifth season of the television sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" premiered September 26, 2017 on Fox. This was the final season to air on Fox, as the series was axed on May 10, 2018, before NBC picked it up for a sixth season, the next day later.


title: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5)

text: Jake and Rosa adjust to life in jail before the Nine-Nine are able to bust Melanie Hawkins when Holt is forced to make a deal with local mobster Seamus Murphy. After their release, Jake realizes he's not ready to be back out in the field right away and Rosa breaks up with Adrian. During the fifth annual Halloween heist, Jake proposes to Amy and they get engaged. On a trip to Los Angeles for the funeral of the Nine-Nine's previous captain, Holt learns he's in the running to become the new police commissioner and the crew vows to help him deal with Murphy. Rosa comes out as bisexual. Gina returns to the Nine-Nine after spending months on maternity leave. Though the crew successfully finds a loophole that allows Holt to keep up his deal with Murphy without jeopardizing his moral code, Murphy finds out about their ruse and threatens Kevin's life.


title: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5)

text: Kevin is forced to remain in a safe house with Jake for two months to avoid detection from Murphy. After the Nine-Nine successfully locates Murphy's hideout, Kevin takes down Murphy and the mobster and his men are successfully apprehended. Charles attempts to run his own food truck business. Amy passes the Sergeant's Exam. After their wedding plans fall apart from a bomb threat, Jake and Amy get married outside of the precinct. The season ends at the after-party of their wedding where the squad is unsure whether Holt won the Commissioner title or not.


title: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5)

text: The fifth season received critical acclaim from audiences and critics, who praised the chemistry, humor, prison arc, performances, and writing, with many calling it a heartwarming ending to the Fox era of the show and some calling it one of the best seasons of the show. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating, with an average score of 8.5/10, based on 14 reviews. The website's consensus reads, ""Brooklyn Nine-Nine"s final year with Fox pops with such joyous affection that it could have been a satisfying closer for the series, but the ensemble's unflappable chemistry continues to gel so well that viewers will be glad that these cops will live to fight crime again."


title: La Fama (song)

text: "La Fama" (stylized in all caps; ) is a song recorded by Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía featuring Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on 11 November 2021 through Columbia Records, as the lead single from her third studio album "Motomami" (2022). The song was written and produced by both performers alongside El Guincho, Frank Dukes, Noah Goldstein, Sir Dylan, Sky Rompiendo and Tainy.


title: La Fama (song)

text: "La Fama" is a mid-tempo non-guitar driven bachata track with electropop and experimental elements. Its lyrics see Rosalía describing the seductions of fame as well as its superficiality and emptiness. The song was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who embraced its challenging way to produce bachata without its characteristic acoustic guitar. It received a nomination for Record of the Year at the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards. The song's music video, directed by Director X and inspired by Robert Rodríguez' "From Dusk till Dawn", accompanied the song's release, and depicts Rosalía as a bloodstone vedette.


title: La Fama (song)

text: Commercially, "La Fama" debuted atop the PROMUSICAE chart in Spain, becoming Rosalía's seventh number-one single in her home country and the Weeknd's first. Elsewhere, the song entered the top ten charts in Belgium, France, Mexico, Bulgaria, Panama, El Salvador and the US Hot Latin Songs. It also entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 and the Global 200, peaking at 94 and 34 respectively.


title: La Fama (song)

text: On 2 November 2021, to celebrate the three-year anniversary of the release of her second studio album "El Mal Querer" (2018), Rosalía revealed that her upcoming third studio album "Motomami" would be released in 2022. Earlier in October, during a meet and greet in Mexico, Rosalía revealed that the lead single from "Motomami" would be released in November. Later in the month, she posted a snippet of a then-unreleased song on her TikTok account.


title: La Fama (song)

text: On 8 November 2021, multiple advertisements were spotted in Buenos Aires that revealed the name of the single was "La Fama". It was also announced that the song would feature the Weeknd and that it was set to be released on 11 November. Later in the day, Rosalía unveiled the trailer for the song's music video. This marked the second collaboration between Rosalía and the Weeknd, following the remix of the Weeknd's 2019 single "Blinding Lights".


title: La Fama (song)

text: "La Fama" is a mid-tempo bachata track with electropop influences. In a statement for "Rolling Stone", Rosalía noted that she "wanted to write, in my own way, a bachata with a little story around ambition. The challenge was also to compose a bachata song without using a guitar, which was able by chopping my voice. Taking as a reference the lyrics of Rubén Blades or Patti Smith and the songs of Aventura, I ended up writing a story of romance with fame." She also stated for Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 that, after expressing her aim to write a bachata track, Romeo Santos reached out to the singer and sent her an extense playlist. The composition of "La Fama" began in 2018 and was intended to be solo. However, the Weeknd hopped on the song in early 2020, before the recording of the "Blinding Lights" remix.


title: La Fama (song)

text: The music video for "La Fama", directed by Director X, who also directed the music video for Rosalía and J Balvin's "Con Altura", premiered on 11 November 2021 alongside the single's release. The video featured a cameo appearance from actor Danny Trejo and is heavily inspired by the 1996 horror cult film "From Dusk till Dawn". The typography featured in the video was inspired by the 1996 slasher film "Scream".


title: La Fama (song)

text: In the video, Rosalía, introduced by Trejo, performs at a dimly lit nightclub as "La Fama". She wanders out to the crowd until she notices the Weeknd sitting alone watching her performance. She seduces him onto the stage, where they embrace before Rosalía stabs him with a hidden knife. She continues her performance while the Weeknd perishes. The audience applauds enthusiastically as Trejo is heard off-screen saying "Be careful what you wish for".


title: Fatima (given name)

text: Fatima (, ), also spelled Fatimah, is a female given name of Arabic origin used throughout the Muslim world. Several relatives of the Islamic prophet Muhammad had the name, including his daughter Fatima as the most famous one. The literal meaning of the name is "one who weans an infant" or "one who abstains".


title: Fatima (given name)

text: The colloquial Arabic pronunciation of the name in some varieties (e.g., Syrian and Egyptian) often omits the unstressed second syllable and renders it as "Fatma" when romanized. Incidentally, this is also the usual Turkish and Azerbaijani form of the name (another variant, Fadime, is less common). In South Asian countries, such as India (most commonly), Pakistan, it may be spelt as Fathima. In Persian, the name is rendered as "Fatemeh" in the Iranian dialect, "Fatima" in Afghan dialect and "Fotima" (Фотима) in Tajik dialect.


title: Fatima (given name)

text: Fatima is also used by non-Muslims: the town of Fátima, Portugal (originally named after a Moorish princess) was the site of a famous Marian apparition in 1917, after which it achieved some popularity as a female personal name among Catholic populations, particularly in the Portuguese-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries.


title: Fatima (given name)

text: This name has a lot of variations in different languages. The Turkish and Azerbaijani transliteration of the name is either "Fatma" or "Fadime". In Somali the name became "Fadumo". It is "Faḍma" in Kabyle. In South Asia, it is spelt "Fathima". Spelled as "Fátima", the name is also common amongst Spanish and especially Portuguese speaking peoples in Iberia as well as in the Americas. Due to the Berber influence on Moroccan Arabic, other variations exist in Morocco, such as Fatna, Fadma, Fettoosh, Fattoom.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the "bel canto" opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy "Il Pigmalione", which may never have been performed during his lifetime.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his residency there until production of "Caterina Cornaro" in January 1844. In all, 51 of Donizetti's operas were presented in Naples. Before 1830, success came primarily with his comic operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences. His first notable success came with an "opera seria", "Zoraida di Granata", which was presented in 1822 in Rome. In 1830, when "Anna Bolena" was first performed, Donizetti made a major impact on the Italian and international opera scene shifting the balance of success away from primarily comedic operas, although even after that date, his best-known works included comedies such as "L'elisir d'amore" (1832) and "Don Pasquale" (1843). Significant historical dramas did succeed; they included "Lucia di Lammermoor" (the first to have a libretto written by Salvadore Cammarano) given in Naples in 1835, and one of the most successful Neapolitan operas, "Roberto Devereux" in 1837. Up to that point, all of his operas had been set to Italian libretti.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Donizetti found himself increasingly chafing against the censorship limitations in Italy (and especially in Naples). From about 1836, he became interested in working in Paris, where he saw greater freedom to choose subject matter, in addition to receiving larger fees and greater prestige. From 1838, beginning with an offer from the Paris Opéra for two new works, he spent much of the following 10 years in that city, and set several operas to French texts as well as overseeing staging of his Italian works. The first opera was a French version of the then-unperformed "Poliuto" which, in April 1840, was revised to become "Les martyrs". Two new operas were also given in Paris at that time. Throughout the 1840s Donizetti moved between Naples, Rome, Paris, and Vienna, continuing to compose and stage his own operas as well as those of other composers. From around 1843, severe illness began to limit his activities. By early 1846 he was obliged to be confined to an institution for the mentally ill and, by late 1847, friends had him moved back to Bergamo, where he died in April 1848 in a state of mental derangement due to neurosyphilis.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamo's "Borgo Canale" quarter, located just outside the city walls. His family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Simone Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas, had become "maestro di cappella" at Bergamo's principal church in 1802. He founded the Lezioni Caritatevoli school in Bergamo in 1805 for the purpose of providing musical training, including classes in literature, beyond what choirboys ordinarily received up until the time that their voices broke. In 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe (then 18), was considered too old. Gaetano (then 9) was accepted.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: While not especially successful as a choirboy during the first three trial months of 1807 (there being some concern about a "difetto di gola", a throat defect), Mayr was soon reporting that Gaetano "surpasses all the others in musical progress" and he was able to persuade the authorities that the young boy's talents were worthy of keeping him in the school. He remained there for nine years, until 1815.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: However, as Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes, in 1809 he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing. In 1810 he applied for and was accepted by the local art school, the Academia Carrara, but it is not known whether he attended classes. Then, in 1811, Mayr once again intervened. Having written both libretto and music for a "pasticcio-farsa", "Il piccolo compositore di musica", as the final concert of the academic year, Mayr cast five young students, among them his young pupil Donizetti as "the little composer". As Ashbrook states, this "was nothing less than Mayr's argument that Donizetti be allowed to continue his musical studies".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The piece was performed on 13 September 1811 and included the composer character stating the following:


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In reply to the chiding which comes from the other four characters in the piece after the "little composer" 's boasts, in the drama the "composer" responds with:


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The performance also included a waltz which Donizetti played and for which he received credit in the libretto. In singing this piece, all five young men were given opportunities to show off their musical knowledge and talent.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The following two years were somewhat precarious for the young Donizetti: the 16-year-old created quite a reputation for what he did do—which is regularly to fail to attend classes—and also for what he did instead, which as to make something of a spectacle of himself in the town.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: However, in spite of all this, Mayr not only persuaded Gaetano's parents to allow him to continue studies, but also secured funding from the Congregazione di Carità in Bergamo for two years of scholarships. In addition, he provided the young musician with letters of recommendation to both the publisher Giovanni Ricordi as well as to the Marchese Francesco Sampieri in Bologna (who would find him suitable lodging) and where, at the Liceo Musicale, he was given the opportunity to study musical structure under the renowned Padre Stanislao Mattei.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In Bologna, he would justify the faith which Mayr had placed in him. Author John Stewart Allitt describes his 1816 "initial exercises in operatic style", the opera "Il pigmalione", as well as his composition of portions of "Olympiade" and "L'ira d'Achille" in 1817, as no more than "suggest[ing] the work of a student". Encouraged by Mayr to return to Bergamo in 1817, he began his "quartet years" as well as composing piano pieces and, most likely, being a performing member of quartets where he would have also heard music of other composers. In addition, he began seeking employment.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: After extending his time in Bologna for as long as he could, Donizetti was forced to return to Bergamo since no other prospects appeared. Various small opportunities came his way and, at the same time, he made the acquaintance of several of the singers appearing during the 1817/18 Carnival season. Among them was the soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis and her husband, the bass Giuseppe de Begnis.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: A coincidental meeting around April 1818 with an old school friend, Bartolomeo Merelli (who was to go on to a distinguished career), led to an offer to compose the music from a libretto which became "Enrico di Borgogna". Without a commission from any opera house, Donizetti decided to write the music first and then try to find a company to accept it. He was able to do so when , the impresario of the Teatro San Luca (an early theatre built in 1629, which later became the Teatro Goldoni) in Venice accepted it. Thus "Enrico" was presented on 14 November 1818, but with little success, the audience appearing to be more interested in the newly re-decorated opera house rather than the performances, which suffered from the last-minute withdrawal of the soprano Adelaide Catalani due to stage fright and the consequent omission of some her music. Musicologist and Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook provides a quotation from a review in the "Nuovo osservatore veneziano" of 17 November in which the reviewer notes some of these performance issues which faced the composer, but he adds: "one cannot but recognize a regular handling and expressive quality in his style. For these the public wanted to salute Signor Donizetti on stage at the end of the opera."


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: For Donizetti, the result was a further commission and, using another of Merelli's librettos, this became the one-act, "Una follia" which was presented a month later. However, with no other work forthcoming, the composer once again returned to Bergamo, where a cast of singers made up from the Venice production the month before, presented "Enrico di Borgogna" in his home town on 26 December. He spent the early months of 1819 working on some sacred and instrumental music, but little else came of his efforts until the latter part of the year when he wrote "Il falegname di Livonia" from a libretto by Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini. The opera was given first at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice in December. Other work included expansion of "Le nozze in villa", a project which he had started in mid-1819, but the opera was not presented until the carnival season of 1820/21 in Mantua. Little is known about it except its lack of success and the fact that the score has totally disappeared.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: After these minor compositions under the commission of Paolo Zancla, Donizetti retreated to Bergamo once again to examine how he could make his career move along. From the point of view of Donizetti's evolving style, Ashbrook states that, in order to please the opera-going public in the first quarter of the 19th century, it was necessary to cater to their tastes, to make a major impression at the first performance (otherwise there would be no others), and to emulate the preferred musical style of the day, that of Rossini whose music "was the public's yardstick when they were assessing new scores".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Remaining in Bergamo until October 1821, the composer busied himself with a variety of instrumental and choral pieces, but during that year, he had been in negotiation with Giovanni Paterni, intendant of the Teatro Argentina in Rome, and by 17 June had received a contract to compose another opera from a libretto being prepared by Merelli. It is unclear as to how this connection came about: whether it had been at Merelli's suggestion or whether, as William Ashbrook speculates, it had been Mayr who had initially been approached by Paterni to write the opera but who, due to advancing age, had recommended his prize pupil. This new "opera seria" became Donizetti's "Zoraida di Granata", his ninth work. The libretto had been started by August and, between then and 1 October, when Donizetti was provided with a letter of introduction from Mayr to Jacopo Ferretti, the Roman poet and librettist who was later to feature in the young composer's career, much of the music had been composed.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The twenty-four-year-old composer arrived in Rome on 21 October, but plans for staging the opera were plagued with a major problem: the tenor cast in the major role died a few days before the opening night on 28 January 1822 and the role had to be re-written for a "musico", a mezzo-soprano singing a male role, a not uncommon feature of the era and of Rossini's operas. Opening night was a triumph for Donizetti; as reported in the weekly "Notizie del giorno":


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Soon after 19 February, Donizetti left Rome for Naples, where he was to settle for a large part of his life. It appears that he had asked Mayr for a letter of introduction, but his fame had preceded him for, on 28th, the announcement of the summer season at the Teatro Nuovo in the "Giornale del Regno delle Due Sicilie" stated that it would include a Donizetti opera, describing the composer as:


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: News of this work impressed Domenico Barbaja, the prominent intendant of the Teatro San Carlo and other royal houses in the city such as the smaller Teatro Nuovo and the Teatro del Fondo. By late March Donizetti had been offered a contract not only to compose new operas, but also to be responsible for preparing performances of new productions by other composers whose work had been given elsewhere. On 12 May the first new opera, "La zingara", was given at the Nuovo "with hot enthusiasm", as scholar Herbert Weinstock states.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: It ran for 28 consecutive evenings, followed by 20 more in July, receiving high praise in the "Giornale". One of the later performances became the occasion for Donizetti to meet the then-21-year-old music student, Vincenzo Bellini, an event recounted by Francesco Florimo some sixty years later.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The second new work, which appeared six weeks later on 29 June, was a one-act "farsa", "La lettera anonima". Ashbrook's comments—which reinforce those of the "Giornali" critic who reviewed the work on 1 July—recognize an important aspect of Donizetti's burgeoning musical style: [he shows that] "his concern with the dramatic essence of opera rather than the mechanical working out of musical formulas was, even at this early stage, was already present and active."


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: On 3 August for what would become "Chiara e Serafina, ossia I pirati", Donizetti entered into a contract with librettist Felice Romani, but he was over-committed and unable to deliver anything until 3 October. The premiere had been scheduled for only about three weeks away and, due to the delays and illnesses among the cast members, it did not receive good reviews, although it did receive a respectable 12 performances.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Returning north via Rome, Donizetti signed a contract for performances of "Zoraida" by the Teatro Argentina which included the requirement that the libretto to be revised by Ferretti, given Donizetti's low opinion of the work of the original Neapolitan librettist, Andrea Leone Tottola: he referred to it as "a great barking". In addition to the revision, he committed to write another new opera for the Rome's Teatro Valle which would also be set to a libretto written by Ferretti. Donizetti finally returned to Naples by late March.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Immediately busy in the spring months of 1823 with a cantata, an "opera seria" for the San Carlo, and an "opera buffa" for the Nuovo, Donizetti also had to work on the revised "Zoraide" for Rome. Unfortunately however, the music set for the San Carlo premiere of "Alfredo il grande" on 2 July was described in the "Giornali" as "...one could not recognize the composer of "La zingara"." It received only one performance, while his two-act "farsa", "Il fortunato inganno", given in September at the Teatro del Fondo, received only three performances.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In October and for the remainder of the year, he was back in Rome, where he spent time adding five new pieces to "Zoraida", which was performed at the Teatro Argentina on 7 January 1824. However, this version was less successful than the original. The second opera for Rome's Teatro Valle also had a libretto by Ferretti, one which has since been regarded as one of his best.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: It was the "opera buffa" "L'ajo nell'imbarazzo" ("The Tutor Embarrassed"), the premiere of which took place on 4 February 1824 and "was greeted with wild enthusiasm [and] it was with this opera that [...] Donizetti had his first really lasting success." Allitt notes that with a good libretto to hand, "Donizetti never failed its dramatic content" and he adds that "Donizetti had a far better sense of what would succeed on the stage than his librettists."


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Back in Naples, he embarked upon his first venture into English Romanticism with the "opera semiseria", "Emilia di Liverpool", which was given only seven performances in July 1824 at the Nuovo. The critical reaction in the "Giornali" some months later focused on the weaknesses of the "semiseria" genre itself, although it did describe Donizetti's music for "Emilia" as "pretty". The composer's activities in Naples became limited because 1825 was a Holy Year in Rome and the death of Ferdinand I in Naples caused little or no opera to be produced in either city for a considerable time.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: However, he did obtain a year-long position for the 1825/26 season at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo, where he became musical director (as well teaching at the Conservatory). There, he staged his 1824 version of "L'ajo nell'imbarazzo" as well as his new opera "Alahor in Granata". But overall, his experience in Palermo does not appear to have been pleasant, mainly because of the poorly managed theatre, the continual indisposition of singers, or their failure to appear on time. These issues caused a delay until January 1827 for the premiere of "Alahor", after which he went back in Naples in February, but with no specific commitments until midsummer.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: That summer was to see the successful presentations at the Teatro Nuovo of the adapted version of "L'ajo nell'imbarazzo" given as "Don Gregorio" and, a month later, a one-act "melodramma" or opera, "Elvida", a "pièce d'occasion" for the birthday of Queen Maria of the Two Sicilies, which contained some florid music for the tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini; but it only received three performances.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Writer John Stewart Allitt observes that, by 1827/28, three important elements in Donizetti's professional and personal life came together: Firstly, he met and began to work with the librettist Domenico Gilardoni, who wrote eleven librettos for him, beginning with "Otto mesi in due ore" in 1827 and continuing until 1833. Gilardoni shared with the composer a very good sense of what would work on stage. Next, the Naples impresario Barbaja engaged him to write twelve new operas during the following three years. In addition, he was to be appointed to the position of Director of the Royal Theatres of Naples beginning in 1829, a job that the composer accepted and held until 1838. Like Rossini, who had occupied this position before him, Donizetti was free to compose for other opera houses. Finally, in May 1827 he announced his engagement to Virginia Vasselli, the then 18-year-old daughter of the Roman family who had befriended him there.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The couple were married in July 1828 and immediately settled in a new home in Naples. Within two months he had written another "opera semiseria", "Gianni di Calais", from a libretto by Gilardoni. It was their fourth collaboration, and became a success not only in Naples but also in Rome over the 1830/31 season. Writing about the Naples premiere, the correspondent of the "Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano" stated: "The situations that the libretto offers are truly ingenious and do honour to the poet, Gilardoni. Maestro Donizetti has known how to take advantage of them...", thus reaffirming the growing dramatic skills displayed by the young composer.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In 1830, Donizetti scored his most acclaimed and his first international success with "Anna Bolena", given at the Teatro Carcano in Milan on 26 December 1830 with Giuditta Pasta in the title role. Also, the acclaimed tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini appeared in the role of Percy.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: With this opera, Donizetti achieved instant fame throughout Europe. Performances were staged "up and down the Italian peninsula" between 1830 and 1834 and then throughout Europe's capitals well into the 1840s, with revivals being presented up to about 1881. London was the first European capital to see the work; it was given at the King's Theatre on 8 July 1831.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In regard to which operatic form Donizetti was to have the greater success, when the semi-seria work of 1828, "Gianni di Calais", was given in Rome very soon after "Anna Bolena" had appeared, the "Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano" described the relationship between the two forms of opera and concluded that "in two classes—tragic and comic—very close together...the former wins incomparably over the latter". This appears to have solidified Donizetti's reputation as a composer of successful serious opera, although other comedies were to appear quite quickly.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: With his commissions, the years from 1830 to 1835 saw a huge outpouring of work; "L'elisir d'amore", a comedy produced in 1832, came soon after "Anna Bolena"s success and is deemed to be one of the masterpieces of 19th-century "opera buffa".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Then came a rapid series of operas from Naples including "Francesca di Foix" (May 1831); "La romanziera e l'uomo nero" (June 1831); and "Fausta" (January 1832). Two new operas were presented in Milan: "Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali" (April 1831) and "Ugo, conte di Parigi" (March 1832). Rome presented "Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo" (January 1833) and "Torquato Tasso" (September 1833). "Otto mesi in due ore" (1833) was given in Livorno and "Parisina" (March 1833) was given in Florence.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: After the successful staging of "Lucrezia Borgia" in 1833, his reputation was further consolidated, and Donizetti followed the paths of both Rossini and Bellini by visiting Paris, where his "Marin Faliero" was given at the Théâtre-Italien in March 1835. However, it suffered by comparison to Bellini's "I puritani" which appeared at the same time.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Donizetti returned from Paris to oversee the staging of "Lucia di Lammermoor" on 26 September 1835. It was set to a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, the first of eight for the composer. The opera was based on "The Bride of Lammermoor", the novel by Sir Walter Scott, and it was to become his most famous opera, one of the high points of the "bel canto" tradition, the opera reaching a stature similar to that achieved by Bellini's "Norma".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: This "dramma tragico" appeared at a time when several factors were moving Donizetti's reputation as a composer of opera to greater heights: Gioachino Rossini had recently retired and Vincenzo Bellini had died shortly before the premiere of "Lucia" leaving Donizetti as "the sole reigning genius of Italian opera". Not only were conditions ripe for Donizetti to achieve greater fame as a composer, but there was also an interest across the continent of Europe in the history and culture of Scotland. The perceived romance of its violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology, intrigued 19th century readers and audiences, and Scott made use of these stereotypes in his novel.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: At the same time, continental audiences of that time seemed to be fascinated by the Tudor period of 16th century English history, revolving as it does around the lives of King Henry VIII (and his six wives), Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"), Queen Elizabeth I, as well as the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. Many of these historical characters appear in Donizetti's dramas, operas which both preceded and followed "Anna Bolena". They were "Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth", based on Scribe's "Leicester" and Hugo's "Amy Robsart" (given in Naples in July 1829 and revised in 1830). Then came "Maria Stuarda" ("Mary Stuart"), based on Schiller's play and given at La Scala in December 1835. It was followed by the third in the "Three Donizetti Queens" series, "Roberto Devereux", which features the relationship between Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex. It was given at the San Carlo in Naples in October 1837.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: As Donizetti's fame grew, so did his engagements. He was offered commissions by both La Fenice in Venice—a house he had not visited for about seventeen years and to which he returned to present "Belisario" on 4 February 1836. Just as importantly, after the success of his "Lucia" at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris in December 1837, approaches came from the Paris Opéra. As musicologists Roger Parker and William Ashbrook have stated, "negotiations with Charles Duponchel, the director of the Opéra, took on a positive note for the first time" and "the road to Paris lay open for him", the first Italian to obtain a commission to write a real grand opera.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In October 1838, Donizetti moved to Paris vowing never to have dealings with the San Carlo again after the King of Naples banned the production of "Poliuto" on the grounds that such a sacred subject was inappropriate for the stage. In Paris, he offered "Poliuto" to the Opéra and it was set to a new and expanded four-act French-language libretto by Eugène Scribe with the title, "Les Martyrs". Performed in April 1840, it was his first grand opera in the French tradition and was quite successful. Before leaving that city in June 1840, he had time to oversee the translation of "Lucia di Lammermoor" into "Lucie de Lammermoor" as well as to write "La fille du régiment", his first opera written specifically to a French libretto. This became another success.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: After leaving Paris in June 1840, Donizetti was to write ten new operas, although not all were performed in his lifetime. Before arriving in Milan by August 1840, he visited Switzerland and then his hometown of Bergamo, eventually reaching Milan where he was to prepare an Italian version of "La fille du régiment". No sooner was that accomplished than he was back in Paris to adapt the never-performed 1839 libretto "L'Ange de Nisida" as the French-language "La favorite", the premiere of which took place on 2 December 1840. Then he rushed back to Milan for Christmas, but returned almost immediately and by late February 1841 was preparing a new opera, "Rita, ou Deux hommes et une femme". However, it was not staged until 1860.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Donizetti returned once more to Milan where he stayed with the accommodating Giuseppina Appiano Stringeli with whom he had a pleasant time. Unwilling to leave Milan, but encouraged to return to Paris by Michele Accursi (with whom the composer was to be involved in Paris in 1843), he oversaw the December production of "Maria Padilla" at La Scala, and began writing "Linda di Chamounix" in preparation for March 1842 travels to Vienna, in which city he had been engaged by the royal court.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: During this time and prior to leaving for Vienna, he was persuaded to conduct the premiere of Rossini's "Stabat Mater" in Bologna in March 1842. Friends—including his brother-in-law, Antonio Vasselli (known as Totò)—continually attempted to persuade him to take up an academic position in Bologna rather than the Vienna court engagement, if for no other reason that it would give the composer a base from which to work and teach and not be continually exhausting himself with travel between cities. But in a letter to Vasselli, he adamantly refused.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: When Donizetti went to Bologna for the "Stabat Mater", Rossini attended the third performance, and the two men—each former students of the Bologna Conservatory—met for the first time, with Rossini declaring that Donizetti was "the only maestro in Italy capable of conducting my "Stabat" as I would have it".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Arriving in Vienna in the Spring of 1842 with a letter of recommendation from Rossini, Donizetti became involved in rehearsals for "Linda di Chamounix" which was given its premiere in May and which was a huge success. In addition, he was appointed kapellmeister to the chapel of the royal court, the same post which had been held by Mozart.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: He left Vienna on 1 July 1842 after the Spring Italian season, travelling to Milan, Bergamo (in order to see the now-aging Mayr, but where the deterioration of his own health became more apparent), and then on to Naples in August, a city he had not visited since 1838. A contract with the San Carlo remained unresolved. Also, it appears that he wished to sell his Naples house, but could not bring himself to go through with it, such was the sorrow which remained after his wife's death in 1837.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: However, on 6 September he was on his way back to Genoa from where he would leave for a three-month planned stay in Paris to be followed by time in Vienna once again. He wrote that he would work on translations of "Maria Padilla" and "Linda di Chamounix" and "God knows what else I'll do". During the time in Naples, his poor health was again a problem causing him to remain in bed for days at a time.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Arriving once again in Paris in late September 1842, he accomplished the revisions to the two Italian operas and he received a suggestion from Jules Janin, the newly appointed director of the "Théâtre-Italien", that he might compose a new opera for that house. Janin's idea was that it should be a new "opera buffa" and tailored to the talents of some major singers including Giulia Grisi, Antonio Tamburini, and Luigi Lablache who had been hired. The result turned out to be the comic opera, "Don Pasquale", planned for January 1843. While preparations were underway, other ideas came to Donizetti and, discovering Cammarano's libretto for Giuseppe Lillo's unsuccessful 1839 "Il Conte di Chalais", he turned it into the first two acts of "Maria di Rohan" within twenty-four hours. Another opera with Scribe as librettist was in the works: it was to be "Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal" planned for November 1843 in Paris.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: When "Don Pasquale" was presented on 3 January, it was an overwhelming success with performances continuing until late March. Writing in the "Journal des débats" on 6 January, the critic Étienne-Jean Delécluze proclaimed:


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: By 1843, Donizetti was exhibiting symptoms of syphilis and probable bipolar disorder: "the inner man was broken, sad, and incurably sick", states Allitt. Ashbrook observes that the preoccupation with work which obsessed Donizetti in the last months of 1842 and throughout 1843 "suggests that he recognised what was wrong with him and that he wanted to compose as much as he could while he was still able". But after the success in Paris, he continued working and left once again for Vienna, arriving there by mid-January 1843.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Shortly thereafter, he wrote to Antonio Vasselli outlining his plans for that year, concluding with the somewhat ominous: "All of this with a new illness contracted in Paris, which has still not passed and for which I am awaiting your prescription". But, in the body of the letter, he lays out what he will be aiming to accomplish in 1843: in Vienna, a French drama; in Naples, a planned "Ruy-Blas" [but it was never composed]; in Paris for the Opéra-Comique, "a Flemish subject", and for the Opéra, "I am using a Portuguese subject in five acts" (which was to be "Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal", and actually given on 13 November.) Finally, he adds "and first I am remounting "Les Martyrs" which is creating a furor in the provinces".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: However, by early February, he is already writing via an intermediary to Vincenzo Flauto, then the impresario at the San Carlo in Naples, in an attempt to break his agreement to compose for that house in July. He was increasingly becoming aware of the limitations which his poor health is imposing upon him. As it turned out, he was able to revive a half-completed work which had been started for Vienna, but only after receiving a rejection to his request to be released from his Naples' obligations did he work on finishing "Caterina Cornaro" by May for a production in Naples in January 1844, but without the composer being present. When it did appear, it was not very successful. As far as the work for the Opéra-Comique was concerned—"Ne m'oubliez moi" it was to be called—it appears that he was able to break his contract with that house, although he had already composed and orchestrated seven numbers.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Donizetti's obligations in Vienna included overseeing the annual Italian season at the Theater am Kärntnertor which began in May. Verdi's "Nabucco" (which Donizetti had seen in Milan at its premiere in March 1842 and with which he had been impressed) was featured as part of that season. However, his main preoccupation was to complete the orchestration of "Maria di Rohan", which was accomplished by 13 February for planned performances in June. The season began with a very successful revival of "Linda di Chamounix". "Nabucco" followed, the first production of a Verdi opera in Vienna. The season also included "Don Pasquale" in addition to "The Barber of Seville". Finally, "Maria di Rohan" was given on 5 June. In reporting the reaction to this opera in a teasing letter to Antonio Vasselli in Rome, he tried to build suspense, stating that "With the utmost sorrow, I must announce to you that last evening I have given my "Maria di Rohan" [and he names the singers]. All their talent was not enough to save me from "a sea of [pause, space] – applause...Everything went well. Everything."


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Returning to Paris as quickly as possible, Donizetti left Vienna around 11 July 1843 in his newly purchased carriage and arrived on about 20th, immediately getting down to work on finishing "Dom Sébastien", which he describes as a massive enterprise: "what a staggering spectacle...I am terribly wearied by this enormous opera in five acts which carries bags full of music for singing and dancing." It is his longest opera as well as the one on which he spent the most time.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: With rehearsals in progress at the Opéra for "Dom Sébastien", the first performance being planned for 13 November, the composer was also working on readying "Maria di Rohan" for the Théâtre-Italien on the following evening, 14 November. Both were successful, although author Herbert Weinstock states that "the older opera was an immediate, unquestioned success with both audience and critics". However, "Maria di Rohan" continued for 33 performances in all, whereas "Dom Sébastien" remained in the repertory until 1845 with a total of 32 performances.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: On 30 December 1843, Donizetti was back in Vienna, having delayed leaving until the 20th because of illness. Ashbrook comments on how he was viewed in that city, with "friends notic[ing] an alarming change in his physical condition", and with his ability to concentrate and simply to remaining standing often being impaired.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Having entered into a contract with Léon Pillet of the Opéra for a new work for the coming year, he found nothing to be suitable and immediately wrote to Pillet proposing that another composer take his place. While waiting to see if he could be relieved from writing a large-scale work if Giacomo Meyerbeer would allow "Le Prophète" to be staged instead that autumn, he looked forward to the arrival of his brother from Turkey in May and to the prospect of their traveling to Italy together that summer. Eventually, it was agreed that his commitment to the Opéra could be postponed until November 1845.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: While taking care of some of his obligations to the Viennese court, for the remainder of the month he awaited news on the outcome of the 12 January premiere of "Caterina Cornaro" in Naples. By the 31st (or 1 February), he learned the truth: it had been a failure. What was worse were the rumours that it was not in fact Donizetti's work, although a report from Guido Zavadini suggested that it was probably a combination of elements which caused the failure, including the singers' difficulty in finding the right tone in the absence of the maestro, plus the heavily censored libretto. Primarily, however, the opera's failure appears to have been due to the maestro's absence, because he was unable to be present to oversee and control the staging, normally one of Donizetti's strengths.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The Italian season in Vienna, which included Bellini's "Norma" and revivals of "Linda di Chamounix" and of "Don Pasquale", also included the first production there of Verdi's "Ernani". Donizetti had made a promise to Giacomo Pedroni of the publishing house Casa Ricordi to oversee the production of the opera, which was given on 30 May with Donizetti conducting. The result was a very warm letter from Giuseppe Verdi entrusting the production to his care; it concluded: "With the most profound esteem, your most devoted servant, G. Verdi".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Gaetano's brother Giuseppe, on leave from Constantinople, arrived in Vienna in early June. He had intended to leave by about 22nd, but Gaetano's bout of illness delayed his departure, and the brothers traveled together to Bergamo on about 12 or 13 July proceeding slowly but arriving around the 21st.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: William Ashbrook describes the second half of 1844 as a period of "pathetic restlessness". He continues: "Donizetti went to Bergamo, Lovere on Lake Iseo [about 26 miles from Bergamo], back to Bergamo, to Milan [31 July], to Genoa [with his friend Antonio Dolci, on 3 August, where they stayed until 10 August because of illness], to Naples [by steamer, from which he wrote to Vasselli in Rome explaining that the upcoming visit may be last time he would see his brother], [then] to Rome [on 14 September to see Vasselli], back to Naples [on 2 October after being invited back to Naples for the first San Carlo performances of "Maria di Rohan" on 11 November, which was immensely successful], to Genoa [on 14 November by boat; arrived on the 19th] and on to Milan again [for two days]" before reaching Bergamo on 23 November where his found his old friend Mayr to be very ill. He delayed his departure for as long as possible, but Mayr died on 2 December shortly after Donizetti had left Bergamo.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: By 5 December he was in Vienna writing a letter to his friend Guglielmo Cottrau on 6th and again on 12th, stating "I am not well. I am in the hands of a doctor." While there were periods of relative calm, his health continued to fail him periodically and then there were relapses into depression, as expressed in a letter: "I am half-destroyed, it's a miracle that I'm still on my feet".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Writing to unnamed Paris friends on 7 February, even after the very positive reaction received at the premiere of a specially-prepared "Dom Sébastien" on 6 February 1845 (which he had conducted for three performances of the total of 162 given over the following years until 1884), he grumbles about the reactions of the Parisian audiences and continues with a brief report on his health which, he says, "if it is no better and this continues, I'll find myself forced to go to spend some months resting in Bergamo." At the same time, he rejected offers to compose, one offer coming from London and requiring an opera four months away; the objection of having limited time was given. Other appeals came from Paris, one directly from Vatel, the new impresario of the Théâtre-Italien, who traveled to Vienna to see the composer. As other biographers also note, there is an increasing sense that, during 1845, Donizetti became more and more aware of the real state of his health and the limitations it has begun to impose on his activities. Other letters into April and May reveal much of the same, and the fact that he did not attend the opening performance of Verdi's "I due Foscari" on 3 April, finally seeing it only at its fourth performance, confirms that.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: By the end of May, no decision as what to do or where to go had been made, but—finally—he decided on Paris where he would claim a forfeit from the Opéra for the non-production of "Le duc d'Albe", his unfulfilled second commission from 1840 which, although still unfinished, had a completed libretto. He left Vienna for the last time on 10 July 1845.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: By the time he reached Paris, Donizetti had been suffering from malaises, headaches, and nausea for decades, but had never been formally treated. In early August, he initiated a lawsuit against the Opéra which dragged on until April 1846 and in which he prevailed.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: The culmination of the crisis in Donizetti's health came in August 1845 when he was diagnosed with cerebro-spinal syphilis and severe mental illness. Two doctors, including Dr. Philippe Ricord (a specialist in syphilis), recommended that, along with various remedies, he abandon work altogether and both agreed that the Italian climate would be better for his health. But letters to friends reveal two things: that he continued to work on "Gemma di Vergy" that autumn for its performance in Paris on 16 December, and that he revealed a lot about the progression of his illness.


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: As his condition worsened, the composer's brother Giuseppe dispatched his son Andrea to Paris from Constantinople. Arriving there on 25 December, Andrea lodged at the Hôtel Manchester with his uncle, but immediately consulted Dr. Ricord on his uncle's condition. Ricord recorded his opinion in mid-January that, while it ultimately might be better for the composer's health for him to be in Italy, it was not advisable for him to travel until the spring. Consulting two additional doctors as well as Dr. Ricord, Andrea received their written opinion after an examination on 28 January 1846. In summary, it stated that the doctors "believe that M. Donizetti no longer is capable of calculating sanely the significance of his decisions".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: In February 1846, reluctant to consider going further towards institutionalization, he relied on the further advice of two of the doctors who had examined his uncle in late January. They stated:


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: Therefore, Andrea agreed to allow his uncle to be taken to a facility which has been described as "resemb[ling] that of a health spa... with a central hospital more-or-less in the guise of a country house" and Donizetti left Paris by coach with Andrea, believing that they were travelling to Vienna, where he was due by 12 February to fulfill his contract. Following behind in another coach was Dr. Ricord. After three hours they arrived at the Maison Esquirol in Ivry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, where an explanation involving an accident was concocted to explain the need to spend the night at a "comfortable inn". Within a few days—realizing that he was being confined—Donizetti wrote urgent letters seeking help from friends, but they were never delivered. However, evidence provided from friends who visited Donizetti over the following months, states that he was being treated very well, the facility having a reputation for the care given to its patients. Various aggressive treatments were tried, and were described as having their "successes, however fleeting".


title: Gaetano Donizetti

text: By the end of May, Andrea had decided that his uncle would be better off in the Italian climate, and three outside physicians were called in for their opinions. Their report concluded with the advice that he leave for Italy without delay. But, as Andrea began to make plans for his uncle's journey to and upkeep in Bergamo, he was forced by the Paris Prefect of Police to have his uncle undergo another examination by other physicians appointed by the Prefect. Their conclusion was the opposite of that of the previous doctors: "we are of the opinion that the trip should be forbidden formally as offering very real dangers and being far from allowing hope of any useful result." With that, the Prefect informed Andrea that Donizetti could not be moved from Ivry. Andrea saw little use in remaining in Paris. He sought a final opinion from the three doctors practicing at the clinic, and on 30 August, they provided a lengthy report outlining step-by-step the complete physical condition of their declining patient, concluding that the rigours of travel—the jolting of the carriage, for example—could bring on new symptoms or complications impossible to treat on such a journey. Andrea left for Bergamo on 7 (or 8) September 1846, taking with him a partial score of "Le duc d'Albe", the completed score of "Rita", and a variety of personal effects, including jewelry.