Pauline Viardot (1821 –1910)
Pauline Viardot was born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García in Paris. Her parents were Spanish opera singers who had settled in France. She and some of her siblings became singers, and the family toured Europe and the United States. Pauline was also a gifted pianist, studying with Franz Liszt, and a composer studying with Anton Reicha. When she was 19, she married the writer and critic Louis Viardot.
Most of Pauline Viardot’s compositions are vocal music. She composed several operettas, including three based on librettos by Ivan Turgenev.
Pauline Viardot’s composed her 1904 operetta Cendrillon (the French version of Cinderella) to her own libretto. This video is an enchanting semi-virtual performance by the Grays Harbor Opera Workshop of Aberdeen Washington. It is sung in the original French with English subtitles, but the spoken parts are in English.