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.[4] Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr[5] 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,[6] he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may never have been performed during his lifetime.