He was born in 1797 in Bergamo, Lombardy. He began his musical studies at the age of eight. During his studies, he composed the one-act comedy Il Pigmalione. His first works were presented in 1818 in Venice, while his first successes came in 1822 with the operas Zoraida di Granata and La zingara. He developed and perfected the bel canto technique and, together with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he is considered one of its main representatives. He has been a link between Vincenzo Bellini and Giuseppe Verdi, contributing to the transition from the bel canto style to the dramatic intensity of the later Italian opera. During his career, he wrote more than seventy operas, including L’ elisir d’ amore (1831), Lucrezia Borgia (1832), Maria Stuarda (1834), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), La favorita (1840), Don Pasquale (1843), Dom Sébastien (1843). Anna Bolena (Teatro Carcano, Milan, 1830), his most mature composition, has been a turning point in his career. In addition to operas, he wrote church music, piano pieces, string quartets, choral and orchestral works. He died in Bergamo on 8/4/1848. // Last update of the biography: February 2026 – The list of the productions below is continually updated.