大象传媒

Donald Macleod considers Pauline Viardot's role as a muse and a collaborator with Gounod, Saint-Sa毛ns and Meyerbeer, and we hear from her fairy-tale chamber opera to a libretto by Ivan Turgenev, Le dernier sorcier.

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, 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot.

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.

脡惫辞肠补迟颈辞苍
Gy枚rgy铆 Dombr谩di, mezzo-soprano
Lambert Bumiller, piano
Ars Musici AM 1288-2

Le dernier sorcier (Finale to Act 2)
C鈥檈st moi, ne craignez rien
Loupprola, Schibbola, Trix
O bienfaisante f茅e
Salut! Salut! O for锚t bien aim茅e
Adriana Zabala, mezzo-soprano, Lelio
Camille Zamora, soprano Stella
Eric Owens, bass-baritone, Krakamiche
Michael Slattery, tenor, Perlimpinpin
Manhatten Girls鈥� Chorus
Myra Huang, piano

Gounod: Sapho (Act 3)
O ma lyre immortelle鈥�.
Elina Garan膷a, mezzo-soprano
Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Yves Abel, conductor

Saint-Sa毛ns: Samson et Dalila (Act 1)
Printemps qui commence (Dalila, The Old Hebrew)
Waltraud Meier, mezzo-soprano
Samuel Ramey, baritone, the Old Hebrew
Orchestre et choeurs de l鈥橭p茅ra-Bastille
Myung-Whun Chung, conductor

Meyerbeer: Le proph猫te (Act V Sc 2, 3 & 4 )
脭 pr锚tres de Baal, o霉 m鈥檃vez-vous conduite ? 鈥︹�� Viens, il en est temps encore !
Marilyn Horne, mezzo-soprano, Fid猫s, mother of Jean
James McCracken, tenor, Jean de Leye
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Henry Lewis, conductor