“My name is Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti[a] (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848). I was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for my almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, I 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. I was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age I was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled me with a full scholarship in a school which I had set up. There I received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for me at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, I wrote my first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which I may never have been performed during my lifetime.”