Review

Pauline reached the best music theatres all over Europe, including the St. Petersburg Opera, bringing Western music to Russia and vice versa. Her voice, of enormous extension, is also remarkable for its agility, phrasing, technique and remarkable dramatic charge. Much loved by the most influential composers, she helped to consolidate the careers of some of them. Her musical salon was a meeting place for the greatest personalities of her time. The study method, L'École classique du Chant, is still used today in France.

Justifications

• She has gone down in music history as one of the greatest singers of the 19th century.
• The range of Viardot's voice remains legendary, as evidenced by the breadth and variety of her repertoire, which
• The first foreigner to sing the Italian repertoire in Russia and to help bring Russian music to the West.
• Friend of Clara Schumann who recognised her as the most gifted woman he had ever met.
• Her house was a meeting place for the most important literary and musical figures of her time.
• In 1864 she published L'École classique du Chant, a method of study that is still used in France.
• Her compositions include several operas, some theatrical works, a large number of lyrical works for voice and piano, fragments for violin and piano, solo piano and chamber music.
• Her activity as a singing teacher gave her great satisfaction, more than as a composer, as she always said.

Biography

She came from a family of musicians who introduced her to music and singing: her father was the famous Spanish tenor, composer, pedagogue and impresario Manuel García; her mother, Joaquina Briones, actress and singer; and her sister María Malibran, a famous opera singer. His brother Manuel Patricio García was an influential baritone and singing teacher and inventor of the laryngoscope.
Pauline García made her debut in 1837 after training with the leading musicians of the day. In 1839 she was hired in London for the role of Desdemona in Rossini's opera Othello. The success was such that in October of the same year she was engaged in Paris, at the Théâtre des Italiens. On the advice of her great friend, George Sand, Pauline agreed to marry Viardot in 1840, whose name established her as one of the greatest singers of the 19th century. 

In 1840 he met F. Chopin with whom he maintained a musical and spiritual relationship. Together they discovered their passion for folk music and transcribed some of the Mazurkas in fragments for voice and piano. 
Pauline sang operas and songs by the leading composers of the day, becoming the first foreigner to sing the Italian repertoire in Russia and helping to bring Russian music to the West; her mezzo-soprano-contralto voice had an exceptionally wide range (three and a half octaves). 
Pauline's gatherings and evenings at her little hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris soon became a meeting place for the most important literary and musical figures of her time.

After retiring from the stage in 1863, Viardot settled first in Baden-Baden and then in Paris, where she taught at the Conservatoire from 1871 to 1875. She performed in the first public performance of the Rhapsody for contralto that Johannes Brahms had composed for her as a wedding present for the daughter of her friend, Clara Wieck, who recognised her as the most gifted woman he had ever met.
In 1864 she published L'École classique du Chant, a method of study still used in France. Her compositions include several operas that were staged in private houses such as Le Cendrillon (written for amateur singers, with the sole accompaniment of a piano), and some minor plays such as Trop de femmes (1867), L'Ogre (1868) and Le dernier sorcier (1869). She also wrote a large number of lyrical works for voice and piano, fragments for violin and piano, solo piano and chamber music. 
Her activity as a singing teacher gave her great satisfaction, more than as a composer, as she always said. Among her pupils were her daughter, Luisa Paulina Henrieta and several soloists of European fame.

Works

English

• Cendrillon

Spanish

• Cendrillon

Bibliography

Adkins Chiti, Patricia. (1995). Las mujeres en la música. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Bofill Levi, Anna. (2015). Los sonidos del silencio. Aproximación a la historia de la creación musical de las mujeres. España: Editorial Aresta.

Brilliant Classics, (2019). Pauline Viardot: Mélodies, Chopin Mazurkas and other Songs, 25-05-2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koplMg4pMaE&t=9s>

Músicas y Silencios, 25-05-2023, <https://musicasysilencios.blogspot.com/p/pauline-viardot-1821-1910.html>

Scorser, 25-05-2023, <http://it.instr.scorser.com/C/Tutto/Pauline+Viardot/Opere/Alphabeticly.html>

Tellechea, Juan Carlos (2021). "200º aniversario de Pauline Viardot-García, un talento universal", en Mundoclasico.com, 25-05-2023 <https://www.mundoclasico.com/articulo/36111/200%C2%BA-aniversario-de-Pauline-Viardot-Garc%C3%ADa-un-talento-universal>

Didactic approach

Pauline Viardot, due to her personality, her professionalism and the quality of her compositions, should be present in the contents of different subjects in Secondary Education, such as History and History of Music, but also in Ethical Values and Equality.
At the University, in Teacher Training, its use is relevant in subjects with competences in listening, didactics and musical analysis, making the music of women composers visible and valued.
In professional Conservatories and Higher Music Schools, her work can be used in the different instrumental specialities, Ensemble, Choir and in the subjects of History of Music and Analysis.

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