Discovering the Unknown Side of Pauline Viardot Garcia

Spanish music magazine Ritmo has published my opinion piece on Pauline Viardot in their 2021 June edition. I feature here a slightly expanded version of my article in English.

Opinion #LasMusas/Pauline Viardot García: The surprising “unknown” side of Pauline Viardot

Like so many conservatory students, I learned my music history from books written by Grout and Palisca; I was introduced to the history of 19th century music via the two volume compendium “Romantic Music” by Platinga. Yet, the first time a woman composer that was brought up in the context of my music history classes, was done by one of my music professors (a woman by the way), showcasing non other than the iconic transversal artist Laurie Anderson, during my 20th century music history class (and not because Laurie Anderson was actually featured in my 20th Century Music text book authored Eric Salzman!).

Yet now, so many years after my student days at the conservatory, the academic world finds itself in the midst of the so called “Critical Race Theory” movement, which has brought about the just revaluation of whom the western music canon has excluded. This cultural shift has coincided dramatically enough, with the current bicentennial of the birth of Pauline Viardot-García, a member of perhaps the most important operatic dynasty in the history of Western music, as well as star singer, pianist, composer and vocal pedagogue. The recently published book “The Europeans” by Orlando Figes however, reveals the lesser known aspects of Viardot: that of an excellent business woman, her incredibly important role as taste maker and veritable “influencer” of mid to late 19th century musical culture; but perhaps the biggest surprise of all is Viardot's lesser known facets of that of collaborator to figures such as Bizet, Saint Sa?ns and Berlioz. All these fascinating facts and more are slowly coming to light via the excellent scholarship of Hilary Poriss in the United States in her article “Travelling Diva”.

Pauline Viardot García (Paris, 1821-1910) becomes at the death of her sister, Maria Malibran, one of the most important opera singer of her day, with a career spanning a vast repertoire of roles and styles. A polyglot from childhood, the Pan European outlook that she inherits is by virtue of being born to the García family, who hailed originally from Seville. Although French by birth and culture, according to Figes book her artistic trajectory benefits not only from this cosmopolitanism, but also from the new founded railroads that in her time begin to connect together the various countries of Europe; she is also a witness to the birth of the international book trade, and music scores during her time are easily disbursed by a flourishing international editorial activity.1

In the annals of operatic history, the influence of Viardot and her musicianship is difficult to overestimate. Gounod made his debut as a composer for the ópera with Sapho, a work written for her. Berlioz had her in mind as the vocal prototype of Didon in Les Troyens, and in 1859 he made his version of Gluck's Orfeo for her, providing her with a role that marked the artistic apogee of her career. Saint-Sa?ns composed the role of Dalila to her measure; she helped launch Massenets career as an operatic composer. In the world of concert music, we find dedications by Schumann to her in his Liederkreis (Opus 24). She is also the first interpreter of Brahms's Alto Raphsody.2

As a performer and investigator, Viardot's Bicentennial has provided me an excellent occasion to both examine as well as program her songs in upcoming concerts and academic meetings. Her compositions span art song, solo piano, chamber music and chamber opera; it is an activity that she pursues from 1840's until her last years in 1909. It could be hardly surprising that in her trajectory as a composer (and many times as the interpreter of her own works) transitions in vocal styles can be discerned. Also evident is her protean like ability to compose in the different nationalistic styles of Italy, Spain and Russia. Her well known reputation as a French chanson classicist is founded on works via editions that remained in print; thanks to recent new editions by Hildegard Publishing, Master Publications, Alfred Publishing, Peters and Breitkopf & Hartel, it can be said her music is more widely obtainable than ever before and we can now better assess and hear her works in its true trans national perspective.

The path that has taken me to explore “The Unknown Pauline Viardot”, together with my colleagues pianist Isabel Perez Dobarro, in close collaboration with musicologist Patricia Kleinman has brought forth works for solo piano in Spanish nationalistic style that uses a jota rhythm; songs in Italian with text by Petrarch; songs in English; songs in the Andalusian style, which are a continuation of both her father, the tenor star Manuel del Pópolo García and her sister Maria Malibran taste and promulgation of Andalusian music to the highest spheres of European salon society, influencing Liszt, Schumann, Chabrier and Bizet among many others.

Patricia Kleinman has mined the archives at the Houghton Library at Harvard as well as the France's National Library for works that are on a “second plane” from those she published during her lifetime, and which remained in the families' musical life, but that are of excellent quality and reveal further clues of her aesthetic explorations. As the 19th century advanced, Viardot composed songs of a more urbane Fin de siecle aesthetic, and even commercial jingles. There is also importantly enough, a vocal repertoire in the Spanish language that reveals an intimate side as well as a cultural identification that was previously not highlighted. Works such as the songs for voice and piano “Ca?a espa?ola” and “Corazón triste” we have found in her correspondence written about as programmed at her concerts as well as being anxiously awaited encores from her audience and fans. Just as the famous “Yo soy el contrabandista”, these two songs by Viardot can well be remarked as being part of her signature and brand. Both have remained until very recently, unsung and unknown.

Breitkopf & Hartel in Germany has recently published a new edition of their “Viardot-García, Selected Songs, Vol. 1” . I print below for the benefit of the singer and pianist, a non exhaustive list of editions of songs for voice and piano by Pauline Viardot that are currently published and available in the United States:

Songs and Duets of Garcia, Malibran and Viardot: Rediscovered Songs by Legendary Singers. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., 1997.

13 Songs by Pauline Viardot-García. Riverdale, NY: Classical Vocal Reprints, 1997.

Chopin-Viardot, 12 Mazurkas for voice and piano. Edited by Jerome Rose. New York, NY: International Music Co., 1988.

Havanaise for mezzo-soprano or alto voice and piano by Pauline Viardot. Edited and annotated by Michael Kaye. Boca Raton, Fl: Masters Music Publications, Inc., 2005.

Pauline Viardot García, Twelve Lieder for voice and piano, settings of poems by Pushkin, Feth, Turgenev. Edited and annotated by Catherine Sentman Anderson, with preface by Marilyn Horne. Worcester, MA: Hildegard Publishing Company, 1994.

24 Italian Songs & Arias by Women Composers. Edited by Randi Marrazzo & Nicole Leone. Worcester, MA: Hildegard Publishing Company, 2020.

“The Unknown Pauline Viardot” joins many other celebrations that are taking place this year both in Spain and abroad, to return the music Pauline Viardot García to the annals of music history as well as to the repertoire of the world stage. From performances being done at The Salzburg Festival, to the music conservatories around the world, my colleagues and myself happily join the many interpreters bringing her music back to the concert platform and look forward to contributing to the fascinating narrative of this multi faceted and truly modern artist and woman.

Anna Tonna is an American mezzo soprano and music investigator from New York City. She is a graduate of the Mannes School of Music, and is presently one of the music curators for the education department of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. She has realized investigations regarding art song by Spanish compsoers as Fulbright Scholar to Spain. Her two commercial CD's are Espa?a alla Rossini (Recording Consort) y Las canciones de Julio Gómez (Verso) . www.annnatonna.com

1Figes, Orlando, The Europeans Penguin Books, New York, 2020.

2Parker, Roger, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994. Pgs. 437-439.