Out of Italian Gaetano Donizetti or Czech Bedřich Smetana, which opera composer lived and worked earlier?
Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana (] ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera "The Bartered Bride" and for the symphonic cycle "Má vlast" ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land.
Gaetano Martinelli Gaetano Martinelli (? – 1802) was an Italian librettist active in the court theatres of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg from 1766 to 1769 and in Lisbon as the court poet to Joseph I of Portugal and his daughter Maria I from 1769 until his death in 1802. He was one of a group of reforming Italian librettists which also included Calzabigi, Verazi, and Migliavacca, who moved away from the traditional Metastasian plot structures that had dominated opera during the first half of the 18th century. The majority of his early libretti were for comic ("opera buffa") or semi-comic ("dramma giocoso") operas.