{"id":928,"date":"2011-08-03T15:19:45","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/?p=928"},"modified":"2013-09-26T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T19:12:35","slug":"pauline-viardot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2011\/08\/03\/pauline-viardot\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Viardot"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was kindly contributed by Andrea Cawelti, Ward Project Music Cataloger at Houghton:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pauline Garcia Viardot (1821-1910) was one of the 19th<\/sup> century\u2019s most versatile and influential opera stars.\u00a0 Born into an operatic family (her father Manuel Garcia created the role of Almaviva in Rossini\u2019s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, <\/em>later becoming a renowned voice teacher; her sister Maria Malibran created the title role in Donizetti\u2019s Maria Stuarda<\/em> among others, and was famous for her temperament on and off the stage; her brother Manuel taught singing at the Paris Conservatory and went on to found his own school of singing based on his father\u2019s, producing such pupils as Jenny Lind, Charles Santley, and Mathilde Marchesi) Viardot herself became a celebrated mezzo-soprano, composer, and voice teacher. Fervently admired by many composers including Meyerbeer and Gounod, Berlioz described her as one of the greatest artists in the history of music.\u00a0 Viardot\u2019s collaboration with Berlioz in revising Gluck\u2019s Orph\u00e9e<\/em> for her voice was only one of many milestones in her singing career.\u00a0 She was also a gifted composer, producing songs, chamber music, and operettas throughout her life.\u00a0 Like her brother, Viardot also taught singing to great success.<\/p>\n

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Cover of Viardot’s manuscript for “Les filles de Cadix”<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Detail of Viardot's manuscript of "Les Filles de Cadise" (sic)<\/p><\/div>\n

Viardot was particularly interested in Russian music and from 1843 she sang regularly in St. Petersburg, where she met the writer Ivan Turgenev. \u00a0Turgenev fell in love with her and followed her to Paris, remaining close to her for the rest of his life.\u00a0 Viardot\u2019s long friendship with Turgenev had a profound influence on his literary development, and he in turn wrote the librettos for and collaborated on many of her vocal works.<\/p>\n

Combining funds from the Amy Lowell Trust, the Bayard Livingston Kilgour and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund, the Frank E. Chase Bequest, and the John M. Kasden Fund, and with a major gift from \u00a0John Milton Ward, William Powell Mason Professor of Music emeritus at Harvard University, the Modern Books and Manuscripts department at Houghton has purchased a spectacular collection of Viardot and Turgenev materials.\u00a0 Highlights include manuscripts of Turgenev\/Viardot collaborations, many of which are unknown to scholars today; correspondence; notebooks of Viardot\u2019s early study with her father; manuscripts of her own compositions; journals; many pencil sketches, watercolors, and elaborate costume designs; cadenzas from Viardot\u2019s most famous roles; autograph manuscripts of works by her father, her sister Maria, and Gounod; a scrapbook of fan letters regarding her characterization of Orph\u00e9e, and more.\u00a0 In the context of the Turgenev and Viardot collections already held at Houghton (see bMS Mus 264<\/a>, bMS Mus 232<\/a>, bMS Mus 265<\/a>, and fMS Mus 266<\/a> for Viardot collections, and see HOLLIS for a list Turgenev manuscript material<\/a>)\u00a0 this new purchase provides additional breadth to already rich holdings, and should not be missed by devotees of either artist.<\/p>\n

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Claudie Viardot's portrait of Ivan Turgenev on his deathbed. Pencil, 1883.<\/p><\/div>\n

*2011M-3. Pauline Garcia Viardot and Ivan Turgenev papers. Purchased with funds from the Ruth N. and John M. Ward Fund, the Amy Lowell Trust, the Frank E. Chase Bequest, the John M. Kasdan Fund, and the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund, 2011.<\/p>\n

Images:<\/p>\n

Top: Undated self-portrait.<\/p>\n

Middle: Viardot’s manuscript of “Les filles de Cadise.” (sic)<\/em><\/p>\n

Bottom: Portrait of Ivan Turgenev on his deathbed by Claudie Viardot, Pauline Viardot’s daughter. Pencil, 1883.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was kindly contributed by Andrea Cawelti, Ward Project Music Cataloger at Houghton: Pauline Garcia Viardot (1821-1910) was one of the 19th century\u2019s most versatile and influential opera stars.\u00a0 Born into an operatic family (her father Manuel Garcia created the role of Almaviva in Rossini\u2019s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, later becoming a renowned voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5TUly-eY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3017,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/3017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}