Born in Paris, July 18, 1821
Died in Paris, May 18, 1910
- Pauline Viardot-Garcìa was a mezzo soprano, pianist, and composer from the Garcìa family, a Spanish family of musicians and voice teachers.
- Her father was Manuel Garcìa, a voice teacher and tenor.
- Her mother was soprano María Joaquina Sitches.
- Her elder sister was mezzo soprano and composer Maria Malibran.
- Her brother was Manuel Garcìa II, a baritone and voice teacher.
- Viardot-Garcìa made her vocal concert debut in 1837, and her operatic debut in Rossini’s Barber of Seville in 1839. She was one of the greatest bel canto singers of her time.
- Composers who wrote for Viardot-Garcìa include Schumann (Liederkreis, Op. 24), Meyerbeer (the role of Fides in Le prophète) and Brahms (Alto Rhapsody).
- Her expertise as a singer led composers to turn to her for advice in writing vocal works, including Berlioz (Béatrice et Bénédict) and Gounod (Sapho).
- Viardot-Garcìa’s artistic circle also included Chopin (whose piano pieces she arranged as songs), George Sand (who wrote a novel inspired by her, Consuelo), and Ivan Turgenev, her close friend (possibly lover) who wrote the texts for many of Viardot-Garcìa’s songs and operas.
- Viardot-Garcìa composed over 100 songs, as well as salon operas, chamber music, piano music and choral music.1
Biography from Christin Heitmann, cataloger of Viardot’s works (Viardot Werkverzeichnis or VWV)
ACP Arts Blog post on Pauline Viardot-Garcìa
ACP Arts Blog post on Maria Malibran
Sources
- Beatrix Borchard, “Viardot [née García], (Michelle Ferdinande) Pauline,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 10, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029283.