for January 1843. While preparations were underway, other ideas came to Donizetti and, discovering Cammarano's libretto for Giuseppe Lillo's unsuccessful 1839 Il Conte di Chalais, he turned it into the first two acts of Maria di Rohan within twenty-four hours. Another opera with Scribe as librettist was in the works: it was to be Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal planned for November 1843 in Paris. When Don Pasquale was presented on 3 January, it was an overwhelming success with performances continuing until late March. Writing in the Journal des débats on 6 January, the critic Étienne-Jean Delécluze proclaimed: 1843–1845: Paris to Vienna to Italy; final return to Paris By 1843, Donizetti was exhibiting symptoms of syphilis and probable bipolar disorder: "the inner man was broken, sad, and incurably sick", states Allitt. Ashbrook observes that the preoccupation with work which obsessed Donizetti in the last months of 1842 and throughout 1843 "suggests that he recognised what was wrong with him and that he wanted to compose as much as he could while he was still able". But after the success in Paris, he continued working and left once again for Vienna, arriving there by mid-January 1843. Shortly thereafter, he wrote to Antonio Vasselli outlining his plans for that year, concluding with the somewhat ominous: "All of this with a new illness contracted in Paris, which has still not passed and for which I am awaiting your prescription". But, in the body of the letter, he lays out what he will be aiming to accomplish in 1843: in Vienna, a French drama; in Naples, a planned Ruy-Blas [but it was never composed]; in Paris for the Opéra-Comique, "a Flemish subject", and for the Opéra, "I am using a Portuguese subject in five acts" (which was to be Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal, and actually given on 13 November.) Finally, he adds "and first I am remounting Les Martyrs which is creating a furor in the provinces". However, by early February, he is already writing via an intermediary to Vincenzo Flauto, then the impresario at the San Carlo in Naples, in an attempt to break his agreement to compose for that house in July. He was increasingly becoming aware of the limitations which his poor health is imposing upon him. As it turned out, he was able to revive a half-completed work which had been started for Vienna, but only after receiving a