PAULINE VIARDOT
THE STAR PERFORMER AND ILLUSTRIOUS FRENCH OPERA DIVA INSPIRES OUR LINE OF PRODUCTS
Pauline Viardot-Garcia
was more than just the greatest diva of the 19th century. The Spanish - born mezzo-soprano transformed 19th-century opera and song, inspiring everyone from Berlioz to Brahms, and Clara Schumann to the young Fauré.
Pauline Viardot
one of history's greatest opera stars
The poet Alfred de Musset heard Pauline sing when she was 17. He compared her voice to "the taste of a wild fruit... Pauline possesses the secret of great artists: before expressing something, she feels it. She does not listen to her voice, but to her heart." He was the first of many who fell in love with this woman.
In 1847 Giuseppe Verdi composed his first grand opera, Jérusalem, for the Académie Royale de Musique. Its rather mitigated success, attributed at the time to the mediocrity of the performers, would not prevent Verdi from accepting commissions for Les Vêpres Siciliennes (1855) and Don Carlos (1867). Verdi always had an ambiguous relationship with the Paris Opéra: he never refused the honour of having a work commissioned but he constantly complained about the demands exacted by what he referred to as "la grande Boutique".
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition as well, including Lully, Gluck, Salieri, Cherubini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Offenbach.
French opera
The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica.
Palais Garnier
LUXURIATE IN THE EXPRESSIVE MELODY OF FRAGRANCE AND LET YOUR SPIRIT SHINE!
TIME TO SHINE!
Pauline Viardot