Status Updates From Price of Genius: Life of Pa...

What an absolutely spellbinding and fabulous biography of Pauline Viardot, a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer of Spanish descent. Her friendships included George Sand, Chopin, Alfred de Musset and Turgenev. The latter both loving her in their own ways.

"The Berlin audience was suitably impressed, and indeed wanted her to repeat her double performance every day. Pauline refused, less because of the strain on herself than from fear of offending the singer who usually took the part of Isabella." (2)

"In Robert le Diable she performed a feat which has become legendary: she took two parts on the same evening. The performance was in jeopardy because of the illness of the singer taking the part of Isabella; Pauline, who was singing the part of Alice, decided to take both parts herself, which was possible because both characters never appear on the stage at the same time." (1)

Pauline and Turgenev met for the first time in November 1843.

"Pauline listened to their singing with fascination; the Russian gypsies' music was half-familiar to her, and conjured up memories of her father and the Spanish gypsy music which he had taught her, and which she had later heard in Spain. When the performance was over, she was asked to sing herself, and gladly agreed. The gypsies crowded round the piano, and listened with silent and rapt attention."

"...to arrive in Russia during one of the most stimulating periods in her history, during that ‘marvellous decade' when, in spite of Nicholas I’s oppressive régime, a group of very young men were laying the foundations for Russian liberal intellectual thought, and when the sudden, startling, and gorgeous phenomenon of Russian literature was about to burst upon the world." (chapter 8)

"The Viardots left Nohant on 10th September, and ten days later Pauline was able to announce to George the great news that a splendid contract for the coming season had been signed—a contract with the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg."

"He even went so far as to say that he would not allow any of his operas to be performed there unless she was engaged to appear in them. Meyerbeer was a very formidable ally; his operas had a phenomenal success in Paris, and he was in a position to dictate his terms to the management of the Opéra. Six years later he was to prove that he had not made an idle promise to Pauline, his ‘little Consuelo'..."

"From Vienna the Viardots went to Prague, where Pauline sang Il Barbiere on three days running, and left on the fourth. She received an ovation... Prague was of great interest to Pauline; her prototype, Consuelo, had already visited the city in George's novel, and it was in Prague that the opera which Pauline admired above all others—Don Giovanni—had been performed for the first time."

"From Vienna the Viardots went to Prague, where Pauline sang Il Barbiere on three days running, and left on the fourth. She received an ovation... Prague was of great interest to Pauline; her prototype, Consuelo, had already visited the city in George's novel, and it was in Prague that the opera which Pauline admired above all others—Don Giovanni—had been performed for the first time."

"This had delighted George Sand, who had the highest hopes for Pauline as a composer, and had always considered her compositions as important, if not more important, than her singing. In this George was mistaken; but Pauline did, in fact, have a talent for composition, and continued to compose throughout her life."

"George incorporated many minor true details from Pauline's life in Consuelo."
and
"Some of the events which George described in Consuelo were strangely prophetic."

"The idea of ‘art for the people’ is closely connected with the fourth, and probably most important, theme in Consuelo— the artistic theme, the rôle of the artist in society, and the attitude of the artist to his art. George's thought on this subject was strongly influenced by the teaching of Saint-Simon and of Lammenais."

"Pauline herself considered George's portrait of her to be an excellent likeness. “Read the first part of Consuelo, she advised Julius Rietz many years later, when she wanted him to get to know and understand her; this advice still holds good today."

"In addition to letters, Pauline and Louis received copies of La Revue Indépendante in which George's new novel, Consuelo, was being serialized. They could hardly wait for the next instalment to arrive—and small wonder, for George had modelled her heroine, Consuelo, on Pauline."

"And Pauline would listen, too, together with George, for hours, while Chopin played his own works, or improvised, his whole genius and personality becoming expansive as they rarely did, because he was secure in the knowledge that his audience truly understood him." (2)

"They would spend hours together at the piano, going through whole scores, whole operas, reviving the forgotten works of the old masters, of Palestrina, Porpora, Marcello; together they would play the works of Bach, and above all of Mozart, whose Don Giovanni was to Chopin, as it was to Pauline, the supreme masterpiece. " (1)

"Pauline would sing, Chopin, would play the piano, perhaps they would play duets, they would read through scores together, and in so doing achieved that happiness, satisfaction and spiritual communion which such intimate music-making among true musicians gives."

I'm deeply enjoying reading this biography on the multi- talented, hard-working and intelligent Pauline Viardot. She clearly lived passionately for her métier: music. I also completely adore her friendship with George Sand, my literary heroine.

I'm currently reading chapter 5.

"In 1840 the Paris opera season came to an end on 5th April, and on 18th April Pauline Garcia was married to Louis Viardot at the Mairie of the 2nd arrondissement."

"They found in each other's company that mixture of stimulus and repose which is the hall-mark of true friendship. George's influence on Pauline's life was to be immense; and Pauline was to be to George an unending source of consolation through some of the bitterest disillusionments and darkest moments of her life." (3)

"If George was maternal, and Pauline filial, that was only natural; but intellectually, and as creative artists, they were peers, and they knew it. It was perhaps this fact, together with the many interests and friends they shared, which first drew them together. They sincerely admired each other, and so were at their best with each other. " (2)

"A woman of George's calibre could not fail to make an impact on as intelligent a girl as Pauline. What was, perhaps, more surprising, was the tremendous impact which Pauline made on George. In spite of the difference in age, in their friendship there was, from the beginning, a natural sense of equality between them." (1)

"George was more than a novelist, a reformer and a libertine; she was a highly intelligent woman, one of the most intelligent women of her century, and she combined intelligence with a warmth of heart and intensity of feeling..." (about George Sand)

"Her admiration for Pauline's genius, her goodness, her intelligence and her nobility of character never waned or wavered from that day until her death. In fact, it is difficult to find in George's long and turbulent life any other friendship, certainly any other friendship with a woman, as constant, as untroubled, as deep-rooted and as sincere as her friendship with Pauline."

"Where and when Pauline first met George Sand for the first time is not known for certain, but it was probably sometime after Pauline's début, and they were probably introduced by one of the several friends they had in common, perhaps by Louis Viardot." (1839)

"She had already formed the habit, which she was to keep throughout her stage career, of planning her costumes herself, in order to ensure that they would be historically correct and aesthetically pleasing. Being an excellent artist herself, she would visit libraries and make sketches for her costumes from old prints, and from reference books which she consulted."

"Louis Viardot's visit to the Garcias in London was, therefore, more in the nature of a business visit than anything else. The opera season at the Théâtre Italien opened in October, and he wished to see for himself if the London critics' praise of Pauline's performances was justified. He found that she amply fulfilled his expectations, and promptly engaged her for the coming season in Paris."

I'm currently reading chapter 4.

"During the London season Pauline appeared at a number of concerts, and also sang in private houses. She sang twice at concerts held by the young Queen Victoria, who was only two years older than she was." (1839)