Pauline Viardot

Michelle Pauline Viardot -Garcia, born García, ( born July 18, 1821 in Paris, † May 18, 1910 ibid ) was a mezzo-soprano and one of the most versatile artists of the 19th century.

Life

Pauline Viardot -Garcia was born in 1821 in Paris as the daughter of the Spanish tenor Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García. Growing up in a musical family (her sister was the singer Maria Malibran ), it developed into a singer with an extraordinary, designated by many admirers as charismatic mezzo- soprano voice that could switch from soprano to alto effortlessly. In all the great opera stages of Europe they celebrated a triumphant success. She has appeared not only in Paris, London and Berlin, but also in St. Petersburg, where she in 1843 on the occasion of a guest performance the acquaintance of the Russian poet Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev made ​​, which developed into a lifelong intense friendship. On April 18, 1840 she married the much older Parisian theater director and writer Louis Viardot ( 1800-1883 ). Since he was very wealthy, he could offer her financial security.

Viardot also spoke five languages ​​: Spanish because of their family; French because of their birthplace and home country France; Italian because of her career as an opera singer; German, because they not only gave guest performances in Germany, but also lived in Germany for several years; and Russian because of their close relationship to the Russian cultural scene. In addition to her career as a singer, she excelled as a pianist, who had been taught by Franz Liszt. In addition, she arranged music musician friends and himself composed composition Viardot had studied in Paris with Anton Reicha, who was also the teacher of Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz and Cesar Franck.

In 1859 she performed in a concert conducted by Hector Berlioz concert for the first time in Baden -Baden, and gave the town so a special artistic status. 1863 moved Viardot with her husband and their four children to Baden -Baden and made so that the development of the town until the international city of culture. In their Baden -Baden property, belonged to the addition of a villa, a garden theater and an art and lecture hall, musicians, poets, painters and other important personalities of the time, such as Wilhelm and Augusta of Prussia and Otto von Bismarck met. Viardot and Clara Schumann, with whom she had been close friends since 1838, provided for the presentation of musical art works by Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin and Johannes Brahms. In Viardot famous matinees among other things also the world-famous pianist Anton Rubinstein argued piano pieces. My former piano teacher Franz Liszt was as much as Richard Wagner or the poet Theodor Storm to the guests of the house Viardot in Baden -Baden. Camille Saint- Saëns dedicated his opera Samson et Dalila.

As Viardot 's voice lost its appeal, she devoted herself fully to composition and teaching, thereby fueling many later celebrities. As a voice teacher, she enjoyed a legendary reputation. Among her compositions, the operetta Le Dernier Sorcier heard ( " The Last Magician " ), which was conducted in 1869 by Johannes Brahms in the house Viardot. In 1870 she took over the solo part in the premiere of the Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms. She set texts of the German poet Eduard Moerike and Heinrich Heine, wrote songs based on French, Italian, Spanish and Russian texts ( Pushkin, Turgenev ) and edited, among other works of music by Haydn, Chopin and Brahms for piano and vocals. An up today occasionally mentioned composition is the original Marche Militaire AMII, 203 AMS.

By the Franco-German war 1870/1871 Viardot developed from the house of a multi-faceted arts and cultural scene, which even increased the attractiveness of the spa town. After the war began, the family moved back to Paris Viardot. There they helped, among other things Jules Massenet to a breakthrough in whose oratorio Marie- Magdeleine it in the premiere on 11 April 1873, the title role (soprano ) sang.

When Pauline Viardot -Garcia died in Paris on 18 May 1910, and left next to the memory of her famous singing performances and their use as highly competent singing teacher a variety of musical works of art that have been rediscovered only recently.

Assessment

Théophile Gautier about the debut of Pauline Viardot in the opera Otello by Gioachino Rossini on October 12, 1839 in the Paris Théâtre-Italien, "She has a voice that acts as one of the most magnificent musical instruments that can be heard. Your neither too bright nor occupied timbre is admirable. There is no metallic voice like this from the Grisi; but the sounds of the medium have something Soft and Sharp, which touches the heart. Its circumference is wonderful. In the pause of the Andante of the inserted by the Elisabetta in Otello Cavatina it has identified two octaves and a fifth, that is, from the low F to the tenor high C of the soprano. "

Portraits

• Silver plated bronze medal without year ( 1901), on her 80th birthday. 70 mm. Medal: Heinrich couch ( Prague 1859-1943 Vienna)

Student

• Aglaya Orgeni
• Désirée Artot
• Johanna Wagner
• Marianne Brandt ( singer )