
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
The comic opera Don Pasquale by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti had its first performance in Paris on this date in the year 1843. To this day it remains one of his best-loved and most frequently performed works. In all, Donizetti wrote about 70 operas, sometimes turning out four per year.
Amazing as this seems today, it wasn’t at all uncommon in the 19th century, especially in Italy, where audience demand for new works was insatiable. Back then, when composers vied with one another for speed, Donizetti was asked if he believed that Rossini had written The Barber of Seville in only 13 days. “Why not?” quipped Donizetti. “He’s so lazy!”
In our time, the corollary of a busy opera composer like Donizetti might be a hard-pressed Hollywood composer like John Williams, who could quip that Donizetti was the lazy one. After all, he has surpassed Donizetti’s count of 70 operas with well over 100 film scores.
Williams started out in the 1960s writing scores for TV shows like Wagon Train and Gilligan’s Island before shifting primarily to movies and crafting the iconic soundtracks like Jaws, E.T., Star Wars and Schindler’s List.
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848): Don Pasquale Overture; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, condcutor; EMI 54490
John Williams (b. 1932): Devil’s Dance, from Witches of Eastwick; Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor; Philips 422 385
4.7
168168 ratings
The comic opera Don Pasquale by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti had its first performance in Paris on this date in the year 1843. To this day it remains one of his best-loved and most frequently performed works. In all, Donizetti wrote about 70 operas, sometimes turning out four per year.
Amazing as this seems today, it wasn’t at all uncommon in the 19th century, especially in Italy, where audience demand for new works was insatiable. Back then, when composers vied with one another for speed, Donizetti was asked if he believed that Rossini had written The Barber of Seville in only 13 days. “Why not?” quipped Donizetti. “He’s so lazy!”
In our time, the corollary of a busy opera composer like Donizetti might be a hard-pressed Hollywood composer like John Williams, who could quip that Donizetti was the lazy one. After all, he has surpassed Donizetti’s count of 70 operas with well over 100 film scores.
Williams started out in the 1960s writing scores for TV shows like Wagon Train and Gilligan’s Island before shifting primarily to movies and crafting the iconic soundtracks like Jaws, E.T., Star Wars and Schindler’s List.
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848): Don Pasquale Overture; Philharmonia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, condcutor; EMI 54490
John Williams (b. 1932): Devil’s Dance, from Witches of Eastwick; Boston Pops; John Williams, conductor; Philips 422 385
6,074 Listeners
9,129 Listeners
1,187 Listeners
3,111 Listeners
3,009 Listeners
500 Listeners
38,692 Listeners
878 Listeners
8,642 Listeners
38,151 Listeners
1,354 Listeners
13,262 Listeners
3,598 Listeners
234 Listeners
6,677 Listeners
27,495 Listeners
5,499 Listeners
2,084 Listeners
13,448 Listeners
1,123 Listeners
5,870 Listeners
15,941 Listeners
3,601 Listeners
199 Listeners
1,076 Listeners