The Monument to Donizetti is located in a public garden in Piazza Cavour, adjacent to the

Teatro Donizetti The Teatro Donizetti is an opera house in Bergamo, Italy. Built in the 1780s using a design by architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, the theatre was originally referred to as either the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera. The first opera to be mo ...

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

. It commemorates the opera composer

Gaetano Donizetti 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 dur ...

, a native of Bergamo. It was inaugurated in 1897 to mark the centenary of the composer's birth. The monument was designed by

Francesco Jerace Francesco Jerace (26 July 1853 – 18 January 1937) was an Italian sculptor. Biography He was born at Polistena in Calabria, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He trained locally under his grandfather, a sculptor, but moved to Naples where h ...

as a result of a competition. The statuary group is atop a plain plinth engraved only with the composers name. The monument is surrounded by a Basin. Atop, Donizetti sits, realistically depicted, and bound to present world, in the corner of a curved bench. A short distance away stands the lyrical muse,

Melpomene In Greek mythology, Melpomene (; grc, Μελπομένη, Melpoménē, to sing' or 'the one that is melodious), initially the muse of chorus, eventually became the muse of tragedy, and is now best known in that association. Etymology Melp ...

, strumming her lyre. The artist, with eyes closed, listens to his inspiration. The statue mixes both realism and the allegory to classical mythology; also expressing the sense that the artists communicates with a superior realm.The Italy of the Italians
by Helen Zimmern, pp. 130–131. Donizetti's funereal monument in Bergamo, erected in 1856, also features a mournful lyrical muse.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donizetti Bergamo Buildings and structures in Bergamo 1897 sculptures Buildings and structures completed in 1897 Monuments to composers Statues of musicians Musical instruments in art Gaetano Donizetti Cultural depictions of classical musicians Cultural depictions of Italian men