大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot. Today he looks at her early training as a member of the Garc铆as, a family of singers, originally from Spain.

鈥淲hen I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world,鈥� an indicator, if ever there was one, of the inner steel of this week鈥檚 composer.

Born in 1821, Pauline Viardot possessed an array of exceptional qualities. As one of the opera stars of her age, she was admired from Paris to St Petersburg as a sublime interpreter of Rossini, Bellini, Handel and Gluck. Beyond her incomparable voice, her twice-weekly artistic salons were a high point in Parisian cultural life. She knew, and was admired by Chopin, George Sand, Delacroix, Liszt, Faur茅, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Sa毛ns to name but a few. While having, according to Saint-Sa毛ns, an unnecessarily modest view of her talent, she was also an accomplished composer. A talented linguist with five languages at her command, her compositions include a substantial body of songs, one or two instrumental works and a series of highly appealing operettas.

Across the week, Donald Macleod will be exploring different facets of her extraordinary life. We鈥檒l be hearing from a range of Viardot鈥檚 compositions as well as some of the operatic roles she made famous. He鈥檒l be examining her role in Parisian cultural circles, and her friendships with leading writers among them Charles Dickens, and in particular Ivan Turgenev, and composers such as Berlioz, Saint-Sa毛ns, Meyerbeer and Gounod, all of whom created roles specifically for her incredible voice.

Les filles de Cadix
Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano
Myung-Whun Chung, piano

Sc猫ne d鈥橦ermione (Andromaque)
Act IV: Je ne t鈥檃i point (pas), Cruel?
Gy枚rgyi Dombr谩di, mezzo-soprano
Lambert Bumiller, piano

Manuel Garcia Snr: La figlia dell鈥檃ria: 脠 non lo vedo鈥�. Son regina
Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano
International Chamber Vocalists
Zurich La Scintilla Orchestra
脕d谩m Fischer, conductor

Liszt: El Contrabandista - Rondo Fantastique sur Un Th猫me Espagnol, S.252
Valentina Lisitsa, piano

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Act 2)
Don Basilio! Cosa veggo? 鈥︹�� briconi, birbanti
Hermann Prey, baritone, Figaro
Teresa Berganza, mezzo-soprano, Rosina
Luigi Alva, tenor, Count Almaviva
Enzo Dara, bass, Dr Bartolo
Paolo Montarsolo, bass, Don Basilio
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Rossini: Otello (Act 3, Sc 1)
Canzone del Salice: Assisa a pie d'un salice
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano, Desdemona
Orchestra dell鈥橝ccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Edoardo M眉ller, conductor

Producer: Johannah Smith