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The Birthplace where Gaetano Donizetti came into the world in 1797 is a place of historical and cultural value that was declared a national monument in 1926. The oldest part (the rooms in which the Donizetti family lived) may be dated back to the 14th – 15th centuries and has retained its original appearance, making it the ideal backdrop against which to imagine the day-to-day goings-on and habits of the past. The Birthplace has been open to the public free of charge since 2009, when work to make the entire facility accessible was completed.
Identified thanks to the research conducted by Ciro Caversazzi published in 1924, the home in which Gaetano Donizetti was born is a five-story building dating back to medieval times.
Visitors enter the building from the entrance on Via Borgo Canale, passing through an atrium that hosts the welcome desk.
By climbing down into the basement, visitors may see the rooms of historical interest, where the Donizetti family lived, as well as the service rooms, painstakingly restored to reflect the historical reality.
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There is no furniture: the people who lived here were too poor to have furnishings of any value, and the change of residents did not help preserve what little there was.
Returning to the ground floor, the two rooms that face downhill have wall panels that provide an overview of the lives of Donizetti and his teacher Mayr: the view of the hills of Bergamo from the windows is quite a show in itself!
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D#Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. Although he did not come from a musical background, at an early age he was taken under the wing of composer Simon Mayr who had enrolled him by means of a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Mayr was also instrumental in obtaining a place for the young man at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may not have ever been performed during his lifetime.
The next floor houses a small auditorium, accessed through an atrium that also serves as a gallery showing portraits of Donizetti. In the picture Alida Altemburg playing the piano inside Donizetti Foundation. For more: www.donizetti.org Ph: Al Cool
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