Pauline Viardot

The García family

Pauline Viardot was the youngest child of Manuel and Joaquina García. She was born on July 18th, 1821 in Paris. Pauline's father Manuel García was an accomplished tenor and influential vocal pedagogue. He was one of Rossini's favorite singers. He wrote the role of Count Almaviva from The Barber of Seville for Manuel. Pauline's mother Joaquina was also a singer. Her brother Manuel Garcia invented the laryngoscope, an instrument that enables the examination of vocal cords. Although all of the children from the García family were musically gifted, the best of them was Pauline's older sister Maria, a true diva of the 19th century who captivated audiences with her voice, beauty and stage presence.

In addition to growing up in such an incredible environment, with parents and siblings more or less talented for music, young Pauline witnessed her family meet and discuss with the best artists of the 19th century. Given that her father had friendly relations with some of the leading musicians of the time, it is not a surprise his children easily entered opera and concert stages, which was of course preceded by an excellent education with optimal conditions for the development of musical abilities.

Pauline's talents

Pauline Viardot was a well-known opera singer whose career spanned more than two decades. When she retired from the stage, Pauline devoted herself to vocal pedagogy and composing. She also regularly organized music salons in her home, where some of the greatest composers of the Romantic era gathered. In addition to her lavish voice and expressive acting, Pauline was also fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Russian. Her self-portraits show her as a gifted painter. It is a well-known fact that she read poetry with great passion, which in turn led her to compose numerous songs for voice and piano. She used poems of contemporary poets. Since she could communicate in different languages, there are songs  written on Russian, German, Spanish, French or Italian texts in her oeuvre.

Music education

Pauline possessed a strong intellect, a personality eager for knowledge and of course exceptional musical ability. By the time she was eight, Pauline was so skillful as a pianist that she could accompany her father's students in his singing studio. For a while, her piano teacher was no less than the famous Franc Liszt, a great virtuoso who aroused audiences across Europe. Pauline was actually a great pianist, many artists praised her as a piano performer. Her first appearance on the concert stage was as a piano collaborator. However, when her father died, Pauline devoted herself to singing at her mother's urging, even though she actually wanted to be a professional pianist. In addition to piano and singing, Pauline also studied composition with Anton Reicha, professor at the Paris Conservatory. This comprehensive musical education enabled her to compose vocal and instrumental works after she retired as an opera singer. 

Pauline Viardot and Frédéric Chopin

Pauline Viardot's friendship with Frédéric Chopin was very intimate, imbued with mutual respect. She met him at George Sand's summer residence in Nohant, where Chopin spent most of the year composing. During summer months, many prominent artists of the time came to the house, such as Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Flaubert and Honoré de Balzac. Chopin wrote some of his best compositions there.

Viardot and Chopin often spent their time together around the piano, giving each other advice on music. Pauline could hear something useful and constructive from Chopin considering her compositions and the Polish pianist could learn more about Spanish music and singing from her. Chopin was deeply interested in belcanto, an art which inspired him greatly. At Chopin's funeral in October 1849, Pauline Viardot participated in the performance of Mozart's Requiem. From a letter sent to George Sand one can see that she was very saddened by the news. Only after she heard about Chopin's death did she realize how much affection she had for him.

"He was a noble soul. I'm happy to have known him 

and to have been his friend, ” - said Pauline Viardot.

She really appreciated Chopin's piano compositions, so she made arrangements of these pieces for voice and piano. Vocal arrangements of instrumental compositions form a significant part of Pauline's oeuvre. Her arrangements of Chopin's piano miniatures are certainly the most famous and the most performed. Two collections containing six poems each, based on Chopin's Mazurkas, were printed in 1864 and 1865 respectively. They were even printed in other languages, Polish among others. 

In addition to her close friendship with Frédéric Chopin, which was filled with very warm mutual feelings, Viardot maintained contacts with many other artists of the time, often helping them make a career in music. 

Pauline's successes in opera

Pauline performed her first operatic role at the Queen's Theater in London in 1839. She sang the role of Desdemone in Rossini's Otello. She performed the same role again at the Théâtre Iatlien in her native Paris. Since then she begun to mount success in many opera houses in Europe. Although Pauline was warmly received in theaters in London and Germany, her popularity was particularly high in St. Petersburg, where she first appeared in 1843 on the stage of the Imperial Theater. An acquaintance and then a long-lasting friendship with Ivan Turgenev dates from this period. 

Pauline as a composer and pedagogue

Pauline never wanted to become a famous composer, but she wrote music primarily for her students. This doesn't mean her works had only an instructive value or that they were written to be performed during exams in music schools. On the contrary, her works have artistic value and are often extremely virtuosic. In addition to the well-known arrangements of Chopin's mazurkas, as well as compositions by other musicians, adapted for voice and piano, Pauline Viardot has also written original works, mostly vocal compositions, but her opus also contains choral and instrumental works, as well as five salon operas.

Music salons in the home of the Viardot family

During years Viardot family spent in Baden-Baden, after Pauline ended her operatic career, she devoted herself to composing and teaching. At the time, she also wrote short salon operas for her students. Her idea was to provide them with the opportunity to develop their singing and acting skills by participating in smaller opera productions, where they could be accompanied with a piano. For Pauline's three salon operas the libretto was written by the Russian poet Ivan Turgenev, a great friend of the Viardot's, while for the remaining two both music and lyrics were written by Pauline.

The Viardot family regularly invited distinguished guests to their home on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. This part of Pauline's engagement was very important for young composers, since she was a patron of music and helped them establish their careers. She has helped many artists of French Romanticism, such as Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré. Of course, one of the best ways to promote a composer is to participate in performances of their works. Pauline created the title role in Gounod's opera Sapho. 

The musical evenings held on Thursday nights at their home were more formal. During those gatherings, the aforementioned composers were able to make important contacts and to have their works performed. That is how Pauline herself was introduced to the Parisian society as a very young girl, before making her debut on the concert and opera stage. On Sunday afternoons it was more fun and relaxing at the Viardot's, because only the closest friends gathered at their house. Opera parodies were performed and guests played an interesting game of portraits. It implied that each participant should draw a human character on paper and then, based on that drawing, they should describe in detail the physical and psychological characteristics of that person.