Donizetti

He wrote at speed — more than seventy operas, and Lélisir d'amore is said to have gone from contract to premiere in two weeks. After Rossini retired and Bellini died young, he carried Italian opera almost alone for a decade and a half, until Verdi took over.

Bel canto reaches its peak in his hands: the mad scene in Lucia di Lammermoor, flute and soprano chasing each other — originally scored for glass harmonica — is the most famous passage the style produced. Syphilis brought on a mental collapse in his last years and he was committed; he died in Bergamo, where he was born, in 1848. His comedy Don Pasquale is as good as his tragedies, which is rare in any composer.