Pauline Viardot and Don Giovanni

Trivia:  Did you know?

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a mezzo-soprano and composer,  possessed the holograph of the famous opera Don Giovanni  of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She left it to the Paris Conservatory Library.

Pauline Viardot [née García] (July 18, 1821 – May 18, 1910) was a 19th century French mezzo-soprano and composer of Spanish descent. She achieved initial fame as "Pauline García". She referred to herself simply as "Mme. Viardot" after her marriage.

She spoke fluent Spanish, French, Italian, English, German,and Russian, and composed variety of songs. Her career took her to the best music halls across Europe. In 1840s she was permanently attached to the Opera in Saint Petersburg, Russia.


Viardot was renowned for her wide vocal range and her dramatic roles on stage. Her performances were noted to have inspired composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns (who dedicated Samson and Delilah to her, and wanted her to sing the title role, but she declined on account of her age).  She also arranged instrumental woks of Joseph Haydn, Schubert and Brahms as songs.  She was a friend of Clara Schumann.

She spent many happy hours at George Sand's home at Nohant, with Sand and her lover Frédéric Chopin. The warmth of feeling that existed between Viardot and Chopin was based on reciprocal esteem and affinity of temperament. The friendship was also one of mutual artistic benefit. She was given expert advice by Chopin on her piano playing, her vocal compositions, and her arrangements of some of his mazurkas as songs. He in turn derived from her some firsthand knowledge about Spanish music. When Sand's and Chopin's relationship came to an end in July 1847, Viardot tried to get the two back together, but failed.

Pauline Viardot died in 1910, at the age of eighty-eight. Her body is interred in the Paris, Montmarte Centemery.



Resources:

• Eric Blum, Editor.  Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition, 1954.

• "Pauline Viardot Garcia".  Hildegard.com/Notes.  Accessed December 11, 2013.

• The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot by Rachel M. Harris.  Accessed December 11, 2013.