VIARDOT: Cendrillon.(Brief Article)(Review)

VIARDOT: Cendrillon [] Piau, Rigby Waters, Vidal; Viala, Kelly, Cognet; Members of the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Kok (piano and conductor). Text and translation. Opera Rara ORR212 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.)

Daughter of Manuel Garcia (Rossini's first Almaviva), sister of Maria Malibran, dedicatee of works by Faure, Saint-Saens and Schumann, muse (and perhaps paramour) of novelist Ivan Turgenev, center of a distinguished circle of artists and intellectuals, mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) was one of the most remarkable women of her time. She was also, first and foremost, a consummate artist in her own right. Like Maria Callas a century later, Viardot enthralled audiences with her expressive power and inspired musicianship in spite of considerable shortcomings, including a voice that, by all accounts, was stretched far beyond its natural limits. From vocal dross, though, Viardot spun the purest lyric gold: wrote one of her contemporaries, "Her musical handling of so peculiar an instrument will take [its] place in the highest annals of art."

Viardot was a composer, as well, and in recent years her songs have found an eloquent champion in Cecilia Bartoli. From Opera Rara comes an even more noteworthy addition to the ...