It appears that Donizetti remained as a member of the Philharmonic Lyceum of Bologna until sometime in 1818, and that he made such good use of his opportunities as to obtain extra lessons from Mattei and to write things which the library of the school still preserves with respect. They are mostly for full orchestra and solo voices and several of them had public presentment. His formal studies ended, Donizetti returned to Bergamo, where he kept at work training his memory and his quickness of mind and hand, and writing string quartets after the style of such masters as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. A variety of compositions for the voice, mostly ecclesiastical, and for the piano were published by him, but no request was yet made to him for any theatrical music, at which he was much disappointed. It was indeed a difficult period for a new writer; the stage was not yet weary of the operas of Cimarosa, Paisiello, Zingarelli, Paër and Mayer, while the few opportunities of which a new comer might hope to avail himself were scarcely more than sufficed for the genius of Rossini and of Bellini. Any attempt to rival in his own field either of these would necessarily have been fatal, and Donizetti was prudent enough to create an independent style for himself while maintaining, like them, that the melody of human voices was of the first value in the lyric drama. At last his moment came and he began his course with "Enrico di Borgogna," described as a "semi-serious" opera and successfully produced at Venice in the autumn of 1818. Being asked to supply something for the next season, he provided for the winter of 1819-20 a comic opera called "Il Faleogname di Livonia," which was also well received. After getting this well under way he went to Mantua with "Le Nozze in Villa," which he had finished about the same time but which made a failure. Long and serious schooling had wrought their proper effect on Donizetti, and he set himself to analyze the causes of his success and unsuccess, and allowed two years to pass before he was ready to try again. He indeed went to Rome in the autumn of 1821, but it was not until winter that he produced "Zoraide di Granata," which was immediately and greatly successful, demonstrating that his life and talent ought to be consecrated to operatic composition. [Illustration: GAETANO DONIZETTI. Reproduction of a portrait in Clément's "Les Musiciens Célèbres."]