Editing Pauline Viardot (section)

==Career==
[[File:Marietta Alboni and Pauline Viardot.jpg|thumb|Viardot as Valentina and [[Marietta Alboni]] as Urbano in Act&nbsp;1 of Meyerbeer's ''[[Les Huguenots|Gli Ugonotti]]''. [[Royal Opera House|Royal Italian Opera (Covent Garden)]] (1848) (lithograph by [[John Brandard]])]]
[[File:Pauline Viardot et Frédéric Chopin au piano.jpg|thumb|Pauline Viardot at the piano listening to Frédéric Chopin. Sketch.]]
In 1837, 16-year-old Pauline García gave her first concert performance in Brussels. She made her opera debut as Desdemona in [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]'s ''[[Otello (Rossini)|Otello]]'' in London in 1839. This proved to be the surprise of the season. Despite her flaws, she had an exquisite vocal technique combined with an astonishing degree of passion.

At the age of 17, she met and was courted by the famous French romantic poet [[Alfred de Musset]], who had earlier been taken with her sister Maria Malibran. Some sources say he asked for Pauline's hand in marriage, but she declined. However, she remained on good terms with him for many years.<ref name="harris"/><ref name=Steen/> Her friend [[George Sand]] (who later based the heroine of her 1843 novel ''[[Consuelo (novel)|Consuelo]]'' on her) had a role in discouraging her from accepting de Musset's proposal, directing her instead to [[Louis Viardot]] (1800–1883).<ref name=Figes/>

Viardot, an author and the director of the [[Théâtre Italien]] and twenty-one years Pauline's senior, was financially secure and would be able to provide Pauline with much more stability than de Musset. The marriage took place on 18 April 1840. He was 39 or 40, she 18. He was devoted to her and became the manager of her career. Her children followed in her musical footsteps. Her son [[Paul Viardot|Paul]] became a concert violinist, her daughter [[Louise Héritte-Viardot]] became a composer and writer, and two other daughters became concert singers.<ref name=hilde/>

Her marriage did not stop the steady stream of infatuated men. The Russian novelist [[Ivan Turgenev]] in particular fell passionately in love with her after hearing her rendition of ''[[The Barber of Seville]]'' in Russia in 1843. In 1845, he left Russia to follow Pauline and eventually installed himself in the Viardot household, treated her four children as his own, and adored her until he died.  She, in turn, critiqued his work and through her connections and social abilities, presented him in the best light whenever they were in public.  The exact status of their relationship is a matter of debate. Other men closely linked to her included the composers [[Charles Gounod]] (she created the title role in his opera ''[[Sapho (Gounod)|Sapho]]'') and [[Hector Berlioz]] (who initially had her in mind for the role of Dido in ''[[Les Troyens]]'', but changed his mind, which led to a cooling of his relations with the Viardots).<ref name=Steen/>

Renowned for her wide vocal range and her dramatic roles on stage, Viardot gave performances that inspired composers such as [[Frédéric Chopin]], Berlioz, [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] (who dedicated ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'' to her, and wanted her to sing the title role, but she declined on account of her age<ref>{{cite news|author=Erica Jeal|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/feb/24/classicalmusicandopera|title=Erica Jeal on pianist, singer and composer Pauline Viardot|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=11 August 2016}}</ref>), and [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]], for whom she created Fidès in ''[[Le prophète (opera)|Le prophète]]''.
[[Image:Pauline Viardot-Garcia 1 A.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|{{center|Pauline Viardot}}]]
She spoke fluent Spanish, French, Italian, English, German, and [[Russian language|Russian]], and composed songs in a variety of national techniques. Her career took her to the best music halls across [[Europe]], and from 1843 to 1846 she was permanently attached to the Opera in [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

She spent many happy hours at [[George Sand]]'s home at Nohant, with Sand and her lover [[Frédéric Chopin]]. She was given expert advice by Chopin on her piano playing, her vocal compositions, and her arrangements of some of his [[Mazurkas (Chopin)|mazurkas]] as songs. He in turn derived from her some firsthand knowledge about Spanish music.<ref name=harris/> In July 1847, Sand's and Chopin's relationship came to an end.  Viardot tried to heal the rift and get the two back together, but to no avail.<ref name=harris/>

She arranged instrumental works by [[Joseph Haydn]], [[Franz Schubert]] and [[Johannes Brahms]] as songs. She was the mezzo-soprano in the [[Tuba mirum]] movement of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]]'' at Chopin's funeral at [[Église de la Madeleine]] in Paris on 30 October 1849, which she performed together with a soprano, incognito behind a black curtain.<ref>[[Frederick Niecks]], ''The Life of Chopin'', Novello, Ewers & Co., London and New York, 1888, vol. II, p. 325).</ref>

She sang the title role of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]'s opera ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice|Orphée et Eurydice]]'' at [[Théâtre Lyrique]] in Paris in November 1859, directed by Hector Berlioz who arranged the opera, and she sang this role over 150 times.<ref name=hilde>{{cite web|url=http://www.hildegard.com/pdf_notes/494-02592_notes.pdf|title=Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821–1910)|website=Hildegard.com|access-date=11 August 2016}}</ref> She was well acquainted with [[Jenny Lind]], the Swedish soprano and philanthropist,<ref name=Lind>{{cite web|url=http://www.iconsofeurope.com/paulineviardot.htm |title=Pauline Viardot: Singing In "Chopin And The Nightingale"|website=Iconsofeurope.com|access-date=11 August 2016}}</ref> who had been a student of her brother.

A notable remark of hers was made to the English soprano [[Adelaide Kemble]] when they attended the late concert in London by the great Italian soprano [[Giuditta Pasta]], who was clearly past her prime. Asked by Kemble what she thought of the voice, she replied 'Ah! It is a ruin, but then so is [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]]'s ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)|Last Supper]]'''.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

In 1863, Pauline Viardot retired from the stage. She and her family left France due to her husband's public opposition to [[Napoleon III|Emperor Napoleon III]] and settled in [[Baden-Baden]], Germany. In 1870, however, [[Johannes Brahms]] persuaded her to sing in the first public performance of his ''[[Alto Rhapsody]]'', at [[Jena]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CzHbjLeIpfgC&q=alto+rhapsody+pauline+viardot+march+1870&pg=PA49|title=The Cambridge Companion to Brahms|author=Michael Musgrave|page=49|date=27 May 1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-48581-4|access-date=11 August 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Salon of Pauline Viardot - Gallica.png|thumb|upright=1.5|{{center|Salon of M<sup>me</sup> Viardot,<br />article from [[L'Illustration]], 19 March 1853}}]]
After the fall of Napoleon III later in 1870, they returned to France, where she taught at the Paris Conservatory and, until her husband's death in 1883, presided over a music salon in the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Her students included [[Ada Adini]], [[Désirée Artôt]], [[Selma Ek]], [[Emma Engdahl-Jägerskiöld]], [[Marie Hanfstängl]], [[Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya]], [[Felia Litvinne]], [[Emilie Mechelin]], [[Aglaja Orgeni]], [[Anna Eugénie Schoen-René]], [[Mafalda Salvatini]], [[Raimund von zur-Mühlen]], and [[Maria Wilhelmj]]. ({{See LMST|Pauline|Viardot}}) Her pupil [[Natalia Iretskaya]] later became the teacher of [[Oda Slobodskaya]] and of [[Lydia Lipkowska]], who in turn taught [[Virginia Zeani]]. She was also the godmother of Artôt's daughter [[Lola Artôt de Padilla]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0HLkxKaFacC&q=lola+artot+padilla&pg=PA164|title=America's Musical Inheritance – Memories and Reminiscences|author1=Anna Eugenie|author2=Schoen Rene|date=March 2007|page=164|publisher=Read Books |isbn=978-1-4067-5149-9|access-date=11 August 2016}}</ref> In 1877, her daughter Marianne was briefly engaged to [[Gabriel Fauré]], but she later married composer [[Alphonse Duvernoy]].<ref name=Grove/>

On 11 April 1873 she appeared at the [[Théâtre de l'Odéon]] in Paris in the first performance of [[Jules Massenet]]'s oratorio ''[[Marie-Magdeleine]]''.<ref>Huebner, Steven (1999). ''French Opera at the Fin De Siècle. Wagnerism, Nationalism, and Style''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 30. {{ISBN|978-0-19-816280-3}}.</ref>

From the mid-1840s, until her retirement, she was renowned for her appearances in Mozart's opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', an opera with which her family had long been associated (see "Early life" above). In 1855, she had purchased Mozart's original manuscript of the opera in London. She preserved it in a shrine in her Paris home, where it was visited by many notable people, including [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]], who genuflected, and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], who said he was "in the presence of divinity". It was displayed at the Exposition Universelle of 1878, and at the centenary exhibition of ''Don Giovanni'''s premiere in 1887. In 1889 she announced she would donate it to the [[Conservatoire de Paris]], and this occurred in 1892.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/ncm.2001.25.2-3.165|doi=10.1525/ncm.2001.25.2-3.165|access-date=28 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724114728/http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/ncm.2001.25.2-3.165|archive-date=24 July 2011|title=Enshrining Mozart:Don Giovanniand the Viardot Circle |year=2001 |last1=Everist |first1=Mark |journal=19th-Century Music |volume=25 |issue=2–3 |pages=165–189 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>