A false lead:

Donizetti, Violin Maker

(No relation to the composer, as far as I could tell.) Donizetti's is a small shop in a hill town called Pamparato, in in the rough country northeast of Milan. The shop sits on the edge of a cliff high above a narrow, forested valley. Far off to the south, between two rounded peaks, one can see a vague glimmering blue; this, Signor Donizetti claims, is the Mediterranean.

Donizetti is very old and runs the shop himself, specializing in miniature playable violins. Although they are the finest of their type I have ever encountered (I bought a dozen to use as gifts), this reason alone leads me to discount Donizetti's as the source of Il Devastatore.

Back to "The Origins of Il Devastatore"

"We all must learn where to place our fingers."