Creators
Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) was remarkably productive, composing more than 60 operas plus orchestral and chamber music, in a career abbreviated by mental illness and premature death.
Italian poet and scholar Felice Romani (1788 – 1865), wrote over 90 libretti and was considered the finest opera librettist of his day, collaborating most notably with Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. Romani based the plot of L'Elisir d'Amore on another opera, Daniel Auber's Le philtre (1831) with a libretto by Eugène Scribe.