A Tribute to Pauline Viardot
Marina Viotti (mezzo-soprano), 
Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset
Sung texts and English translations provided.
rec. 2021, Conservatory Jean-Baptiste Lully, Puteaux, Paris, France
Aparté AP290 [70]

This new album is a collection of ten arias and two overtures from French and Italian Romantic operas, all connected to Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) a prima donna whom no less a figure than Berlioz esteemed and described as a great artist. Viotti is accompanied by the renowned period instrument orchestra Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset.

A Parisian of Spanish descent, Pauline Viardot-García was the daughter of tenor Manuel Garcia, much esteemed by Rossini, while her mother was the actress and soprano Joaquina Sitches. Viardot’s elder sister Maria Malibran was a famous mezzo-soprano also associated with Rossini operas. Not only was Viardot a celebrated mezzo-soprano – sometimes described as a contralto – and a composer of some note, but she also studied the piano with Liszt and later in life was an educator. 

Undoubtedly Viardot’s voice and character inspired a number of composers, markedly as the heroine Fidès from Meyerbeer’s grand opera Le Prophète a role written specifically for her. She also created the title role in Gounod’s opera Sapho and gave the first public performance of Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody for contralto, male chorus, and orchestra. An extraordinary figure in the music world, she had numerous influential and talented individuals as her friends, yet over time her fame began to wane.

In 2021, assisted by the bicentenary of her birth, a Viardot revival was marked by a number of celebrations resulting in increased exposure. A prolific composer, Viardot wrote in excess of a hundred songs and in a number of other genres, including five salon operas (or operettas) and instrumental works. She was largely reluctant to promote and publish her own compositions, preferring to keep them private. She has been overlooked for far too long, but there is now a resurgence of interest in her life and an increasing number of recordings of her works. Singers, notably Cecilia Bartoli, Frederica von Stade and Philippe Jaroussky, have increasingly included her songs in their recital programmes. Recently I reviewed Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka’s album of art songs by nine French composers who had set texts in several languages; this collection contains seven Viardot settings, six of which use Russian texts.

At eighteen years old Pauline Garcia married Louis Viardot, director of the Théâtre Italien, twenty-one years older than she. She sang in several languages including Russian. During a tour to Saint Petersburg, she and her husband met Ivan Turgenev, who became besotted with her and in what became a ménage-a-trois, he lived with the married couple and she became his muse. 

The soloist on this album, the prize-winning mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti, is a name new to me. Swiss-born and raised in France, Viotti studied humanities at university and was awarded a master’s degree. Her vocal training was with Heidi Brunner in Vienna, and she continued at the Lausanne University of Music in the class of Brigitte Balleys. Viotti completed her studies with a diploma as a soloist and studied bel canto with Raúl Giménez and Alessandra Rossi. Her quest for a career in opera began with the Lausanne Opera, the Lucerne Theatre and the young ensemble at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2015, she made her debut as Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri at the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad. She has already appeared at an impressive number of the world’s most famous opera venues including La Scala (Stéphano), the Bayerische Staatsoper (Maddalena), the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Dame Marthe; Fyodor), the Zurich Opernhaus (Maddalena), the Luzerner Theater (Elisabetta), the Arena di Verona (Rossini Gala), Bilbao (Zaida), the Bolshoi (Rosina), the Liceu Barcelona (Nicklausse/Muse) and the Théâtre des Champs Élysée, Paris (Périchole).

It soon becomes clear how much Viotti is enjoying this largely Romantic repertoire of works spanning some sixty years from 1816 (Il barbiere di Siviglia) to 1877 (Samson et Dalila). Seven of her arias are in French and three are in Italian. The most famous arias are from Il barbiere di Siviglia and Samson et Dalila which contrast with a single aria from Massenet’s little-known Marie-Magdeleine actually a drame sacré (or oratorio).

Massenet had his first taste of success with Marie-Magdeleine a French text about the crucifixion of Jesus from Mary Magdalene’s perspective. It made a considerable impression on Tchaikovsky. In the air Ô mes sœurs, Mary’s heartfelt plea for Jesus of Nazareth to appear, Viotti clearly appreciates the French text and melody in a tenderly beautiful and sincere performance. 

Enjoying an enduring popularity with audiences, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia to an Italian libretto contains several great arias to enchant the listener. Serenaded by her suitor Lindoro, Rosina, in her Act One showcase aria Una voce poco fa, proclaims how she knows a hundred ways to get her own way. This challenging bel canto aria requires a range of moods and suits Viotti down to the ground. Characterising impressively, Viotti is a feisty and wily Rosina, resolved to outsmart Bartolo, her guardian. Adeptly achieving leaps to the highest notes, Viotti is unfazed by the coloratura passages which she handles exceedingly well.

For good reason, two of the most famous arias in the Romantic repertoire are Rachel’s Il va venir! from Halévy’s La Juive and Ô ma lyre immortelle from Gounod’s Sapho. Viotti sings well and with undoubted commitment; nevertheless, Rachel’s aria doesn’t communicate the intense passion generated in recordings by Régine Crespin and Julia Varady, and in Sapho’s aria there isn’t the same allure as produced by Shirley Verrett and Montserrat Caballé. The range of Viotti’s mezzo-soprano is striking, and her diction in both French and Italian is a notable asset. Conversely, there is a slightly hard edge to her voice which doesn’t have the warmth I admire in acclaimed mezzo-sopranos such as Joyce DiDonato, Magdalena Kožená and Elīna Garanča. 

Early music specialist Christophe Rousset conducts Les Talens Lyriques who play with a commendable level of controlled expression. The period instruments combine gratifyingly to make an impressive sound and the section principals play several lovely solos. Classical and acoustic music specialists Little Tribeca recorded this album at the Conservatoire Jean-Baptiste Lully in Puteaux, Paris. Viardot biographer Patrick Barbier has written the helpful essay ‘Pauline Viardot, a great European woman, devoted to music’. In addition, sung texts with English translations are provided. 

Michael Cookson

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Contents
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)/Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) 
Orphée et Eurydice
(Originally Orfeo ed Euridice in 1762 with Italian libretto. Reworked by Berlioz in 1859 in French as Orphée et Eurydice for Pauline Viardot)
1.) Récitatif & air: Qu’entends-je?… Amour, viens rendre à mon âme (Orphée, Act I, no.6) 
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830, in Italian) 
2.) Arie: Se Romeo t’uccise un figlio; La tremenda ultrice spada (Romeo, Act I, 3)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Marie-Magdeleine (1873, Drame Sacré in French)
3.) Air: Ô mes sœurs (Méryem, Act I, no.2)
Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1862)
La Juive (1835, in French)
4.) Romance: Il va venir! (Rachel, Act II, no.10)
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816, in Italian) 
5.) Aria: Una voce poco fa (Rosina, Act I, 5)
Semiramide (1823, in Italian)
6.) Overtura
7.) Cavatina: Bel raggio lusinghier (Semiramide, Act I)
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
La Favorite (1840, in French)
8.) Récitatif & air: L’ai-je bien entendu? … Ô mon Fernand… Venez cruels (Léonor, Act III, no.11)
9.) Ouverture
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Les Troyens (1863, in French)
10.) Monologue & air: Ah, ah, je vais mourir… Adieu fière cité (Didon, Act V, 2)
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Sapho (1851, in French)
11.) Récitatif & air: Où suis-je? … Ô ma lyre immortelle (Sapho, Act III, no.19)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Samson et Dalila (1877, in French)
12.) Récitatif & air: Samson recherchant ma présence… Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse (Dalila, Act II, 1)