Amy Jo Hunsaker

Pauline Viardot'

Pauline Viardot

Angeline Brasier

: Her

Lauren Rebecca Berman

Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon

Rachel Miller

Featuring Her Salon

Amy Damron

Suzanne Cuzick's Biography Of

Francesca Caccini

Catherine R Stimpson

Stimpson

Garcia Family Nancy

B Reich

Suzanne G Cusick

Patrick Barbier'

Michèle Friang'

Pauline Barbier

Viardot

Pauline 31 Friang

: Viardot

Miroir Au

Sa De

Correspondance

Thérèse Marix-Spire

James Radomski

Manuel Garcia

Andrés Moreno Mengibar

Los Garcia

Pauline Viardot-Garcia

Theodore Baker

Julius Rietz

Jessica McCormack, "The Influence of National Styles on the Compositions of

Danielle Roster, Les femmes et la création musicale: les compositrices européennes du Moyen-Age au milieu du XXe siècle, trans. Denise Modigliani (Paris; Montréal:

Amy Lorette DAMRON KYLE

Three operettas by Pauline Viardot-Garcia and female musical genius in the nineteenth century/ Trois opérettes de Pauline Viardot-Garcia et le génie musical féminin au XIX e siècle -for my mom, who is the reason I'm a feminist.

A world of thanks

In the years I have spent working on this dissertation I have incurred considerable academic and emotional debts to many scholars, friends, family, and mentors. This community of people have helped me to form and pursue this project. Navigating the French academic landscape has not been an easy task for me, as my doctoral degree is my first degree outside the American university system. My thesis advisor, Dr. Raphaëlle Legrand has provided a wealth of references to works that have informed and shaped my investigation. Dr. Legrand's questions and guidance, whether it was to recommend yet another amazing book on an aspect of my topic or just challenging me to go further with my questions, she was often a beacon of clarity in an foggy landscape of foreign customs and academic traditions which could be implicit but not obvious to the foreign eye. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Legrand not only for her advice and corrections but for her support of my work which often has buoyed me up in times of discouragement.

The second person in the long list of people that I must thank is Dr. Nicholas Žekulin. He introduced me to La Partie de Whist which became an integral part of my thesis. I also am indebted to him for his emails: rich in information that would have taken me months to find, he carefully and generously responded to each of my questions in incredible and helpful detail.

His was benevolent in sharing his own research, which has greatly informed my own. His academic rigor inspires me and his questions on my work have motivated me to be more demanding in the work that I produce. His candor and humility and humor have provided a backdrop of approachability in this mentor-mentee relationship for which I am deeply grateful.

My quest to understand the sociological implications of the musical canon and the word genius has been shaped by my many discussions with another mentor, Dr. Steve Lindeman. My classical music theory and jazz history professor from Brigham Young University, Dr.

Lindeman willingly accepted the role of my American mentor throughout my dissertation. His challenging questions have helped me to view my research, in multiple ways. Playing the devil's advocate, Steve has often challenged my biases and I am a better researcher for it. I am grateful for his generosity with his time, and for his curiosity. He is my Socrates: he taught me in his practical way the philosophy of curiosity. He demonstrated in his music theory classes the emotions and reactions that melody and harmony can be elicited in the human heart, which more than anything influenced my decision to become a musicologist.

My research has been inspired by scholars that I have had the opportunity to interact with through conferences and projects. Foremost among this list would be Dr. Everyone needs a trail blazer. My brother, Danny Damron was the first person in our family to get a doctorate. He has been both a source of calm and inspiration through the entire process of my doctoral candidature. From sitting with me discussing how I could structure my doctoral proposal, to helping me clarify the half-ideas in my head and draw them out, he has been my philosophical guide every step of this process. His ability to analyze and synthesize concepts has helped me on multiple occasions to go further and dig deeper into the philosophical content of my work. I am indebted to him for his knowledge, his love and support.

I am deeply indebted to my friend and editor, Pascale Useille for her generous work on editing this dissertation. She edited each chapter, calling attention to both grammatical as well as syntaxial problems with my text. Her input on the content of this dissertation has significantly increased the quality of my writing. On multiple occasions I have sought her help and she has been more than generous with her time and considerable talents. During my time as doctoral candidate at the Sorbonne, Pascale has not only been a reliable source of advice and input but a true and supportive friend. Any errors found in this text are purely my own.

For the inception and completion of this doctoral endeavor, I also thank my husband, Jeffrey

Kyle. He has helped me to overcome the negative cultural voices that inhabited my head for years. He helped me realize I was worthy in a culture that often questions women's worthiness.

His support of my work, his encouragement, and his advocacy of the importance of academic feminist contributions have inspired me and helped me keep going on many occasions. Writing a thesis with two young children has not been easy, but I have a partner that helped make it possible, for which I am very grateful.

Introduction

This thesis will be defended in Pauline Viardot-Garcia's bicentennial year. Her life, works and artistic achievements are enjoying the fresh air of an open window of rediscovery. Her operettas are slowly being brought back out of obscurity through music festivals and university performances from Canada to Spain. Harvard's librarians have scanned and provided online access to a growing number of documents in the Viardot-Garcia Papers as well as the Viardot-Garcia

Additional Papers (two official collections in the Harvard's Houghton Library Archives). This is an exciting time to be studying a female composer and to draw the world's attention to women's achievements and the importance of female historical figures.

Thesis origins

But why Pauline Viardot-Garcia, why her operettas, and why question the meaning of genius? The combination of these three ideas may seem overly complex, yet there is a reason why I chose to fit them together. In 2016, I had set my sights on studying at the Sorbonne and I wanted thesis must be on a female composer and as a performer the repertoire I feel the most connected to is from the nineteenth century. Practicality led me to investigate French female composers, since I live in Paris. Being a singer, I was naturally drawn to Pauline Viardot-Garcia. I sang her pieces, "Hai Luli", "Moriro" and "Es Corredor1 "2 . I loved the way the melody breathed life and meaning into the lyrics. The piano accompaniment for "Hai Luli" is exquisite and yet never overshadowed the vocal line. Virtuosic parts were reserved for interludes, so the song became a complex interplay between the vocal exterior expression and the emotional interior voice communicated through the piano. It was clear that the composer of these pieces knew both the voice and the piano intimately.

There are biographies already written on this musician's legacy, but they do not focus on her life as a performer, not on her compositions. April Fitzlyon's biography3 of Pauline Viardot-Garcia is a serious and scholarly work, that chronicles Viardot-Garcia's life, singing career and personal relationships, and mentions her compositions briefly. Michèle Friang's biography 4 in French is based on her correspondence, and therefore very useful in building an overall view of her character and relationships. Patrick Barbier's excellent biography 5 , also in French, compliments his earlier biography on her sister The Malibran6 . Barbier's work also focuses primarily on her pursuits and career as a singer and teacher, no mention of the over eighty letters Viardot-Garcia exchanged with her publisher regarding her compositions. Beatrix Bourchard's biography is also a formidable overview of Pauline Viardot-Garcia, accessible to those who read in German 7 also focused on her career as a performing musican. Orlando Figes' new work The Europeans: three lives and the making of cosmopolitan culture 8 is very well researched and places Louis Viardot, Pauline

Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Turgenev in the context of their culture and time period with excellent detail. Though Figes mentions some of Viardot-Garcia's works, it is hardly the main focus of the book. There are other books as well, with a more novelistic approach to the famous singer 9 , but none that focus on her creative output as a composer, nor do they more than skim the surface of the problem of aesthetic judgements focused on a male-centric musical canon. There is no analysis of her works that challenges and questions the aesthetic judgements inherent in classical analysis.

There are at least three theses written about different aspects of Viardot-Garcia's songs 10 , and two theses that focused on performance aspects of her final operetta, Cendrillon 11 . The thesis by Rebecca Bennett Fairbank, entitled "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture", helped give form to how I wanted to address her compositional voice. Fairbank takes care to delineate the cultural difficulties for female musicians in the nineteenth century, especially opera divas. Fairbank's literary exposition of the historical double-edged sword of aversion and attraction to the female voice drew me to the philosophies behind those cultural norms and interactions female artists came to expect and had learned to deal with. No one had yet addressed why Viardot-Garcia was forgotten. No one had addressed why her works, that astounded me with their harmonic and melodic balance and beauty had not "survived the test of time". For that matter, what exactly was "the test of time" and was it based on objective, or merely subjective aesthetic criteria? It seemed suspect that all the female composers I had studied had been equally 'forgotten'. I decided to study Viardot-Garcia's operettas as a means of better the understanding the cultural environment that excluded her from the musical canon.

It was upon contacting Dr. Nicholas Žekulin that I found my musicological focus of study. Dr.

Žekulin generously gave me a score to Harvard archives' newly acquired Viardot-Garcia score of the operetta La Partie de Whist, on which I based my thesis proposal. The operetta is short, however, and there are very few primary sources, except the manuscript and copyist scores themselves. I added the analysis of the only operetta to be staged professionally during Viardot-Garcia's lifetime, Le Dernier Sorcier. An operetta rich with meaning, Le Dernier Sorcier, is indicative of Viardot-Garcia's astounding ability for melodic development and harmonic complexity. Both La Partie de Whist and Le Dernier Sorcier are composed with libretti written by Ivan Turgenev. If my intention was to illustrate the composition style of Viardot-Garcia, I felt it was necessary to include her final operetta, Cendrillon making the three operettas for which we have complete scores. This allows for a fuller view of her creative development as well as her literary and musical influences since she also authored the libretto.

Choices in repertoire analysis

But why not study and analyze Viardot-Garcia's songs, of which there are plenty? Viardot-Garcia was known for her shorter works for voice and published collections of them during her lifetime.

However, not only are there several theses already that study her songs, but her operettas also present some interesting aspects that can only be found when studying her larger works. Since I am also confronting the gendered issues surrounding the canon and the term musical genius, it is important to be explicit about gendered issues that I have encountered from the beginning of my thesis. I acknowledge that part of my desire to analyze her operettas is an effort to place her in a context of larger works, works that are considered a male composer's domain. Viardot-Garcia wrote excellent songs, songs for which the accompaniment for many are pianistically brilliant and a delight for singers and audiences. But art song writing was not a forbidden domain for women in the nineteenth century, it being a principally domestic endeavor. In addition, the choice to study the three operettas is also based on the fact that they are the only three complete operetta scores that are available up to this point in time. In addition, my choice to analyze her operettas places Viardot-Garcia in an easier position, given the sociological context, to be discussed as a musician of genius and forces this thesis to confront gendered questions that could be more easily avoided when analyzing her songs.

The analysis of her operettas is meant to facilitate the question: why are we here, re-discovering yet another incredible woman's work for what seems to be the first time since her death? The fact that Viardot-Garcia is now being studied and lauded will help make a more complete historical record that will benefit everyone, but the underlying cause of this forgetting still needs to be addressed. The titles of 'great composer' and of 'musical genius' are those we inherited largely from the nineteenth century. The ideal, lone-composer genius 12 , is still touted in biographies and articles about exceptionally creative artists. This image is still predominantly male. There is still doubt in musicological circles that women can, or did, compose on the same creative level as men. Thomas Meyer, for example, as quoted in Danielle Roster's book Les Femmes et la Création Musicale wrote:

[…] when women composers are heard, it is at a 'lower' level of concert life, in a remote corner […] At the level where beginners, the ignored and the unknown abound, and where talent is perhaps also sought, women are readily mentioned, but rather it is true, as a curiosity whose value, when one rises to the the institutional level, is also readily questioned […] High-level performances judged with the appropriate rigor must, in our musical activity, be accomplished by men; women are expected at most to do basic work. 13 (MT) 14

This quote did not originate from the nineteenth century but from 1985, certainly not far enough away for anyone to claim that women's works are now fully understood and valued. This approach to inequality is through the study and philosophy behind the title of musical genius. This investigation focuses on the nineteenth century due to its lasting power and influence on issues of equality today.

The final aspect of my thesis, studying the concept of musical genius in the nineteenth century, is an effort to understand why female composers like Viardot-Garcia remain on the periphery of the history in which they were central during their own time. This study of the philosophy of genius is an effort to understand the roots of tenacious misogyny as is shown in the quote above by Meyers. It is an effort to lay bare the biases that remain, that lay under the surface of historical writing, even now. The concept of genius that we inherited must be investigated and redefined if the window of attention on female composers is to stay open. Adrianna M. Paliyenko's book

Genius Envy: women shaping French poetic history 1801-1900 15 strengthened and shaped this view through her exposition of both gendered bias and women's poetic influence that was subsequently denied and denigrated by historians and poetry-collection editors. Paliyenko's work outlines the philosophical and physiological arguments of the nineteenth century used to block, shame and discredit great literary and artistic women. To my knowledge a work of this type has not yet been created focusing on musical women of the nineteenth century. This thesis is my first foray into this field, a field in which I hope to add more research and publications following the completion of this thesis. Thus I formed my three main foci for my doctoral thesis, 1)Pauline culture myself, and experienced the discovery of my own biases as I became an adult. This research is focused on the lack I have both observed and personally felt, because of how the new and more complete view of the world changed and improved my capacity to question the social structures of the past and present.

Research into Pauline Viardot-Garcia's life has served to both modify my original thesis questions as well as clear up some perpetuated misconceptions on the woman, her circle, and her career.

Some of the common misconceptions and the chapters that address these questions are as follows:

One, it is often said that Pauline Viardot-Garcia did not have the ambition to be a composer17 .

April Fitzlyon wrote that her compositions filled the "sole desire of making her happy18 ". There seemed to be some resistance during her lifetime in calling Viardot-Garcia a composer, despite the wealth of compositions she left behind. Her obituary in The Musical Times contains no mention of her compositions; the only compositions mentioned were those in her substantial collection including Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn autograph manuscripts and the Robert Schumann compositions dedicated to her 19 . However, as we will see in my first chapter, Setting the Stage, her appetite for composition asks for a more nuanced and detailed question as well as answer. Her childhood was steeped in artistic exchange, which became the language in which she was the most fluent. Not only can we find reasons and explanations for her choices, but also anecdotes from friends and family on her precocity and talent that were harbingers of her brilliant career. Her lack of 'ambition' to become a composer seems to imply that genius must both know themselves to be so and possess a dogged determination to assure that everyone else knows. Ambition, however, is as charged of a word as genius is in questions of gender. It is quite possible that Viardot-Garcia was not the right kind of ambitious as she wasn't the right kind of genius to be remembered as such. Perhaps she didn't pursue a career because that would be the masculine response to her skill and inspiration. Perhaps her response to her own genius was a type of ambition: her collaboration, performing her works in her own social and artistic circle, her magnificent salons were all markers of ambition that are not socially seen as such.

includes social context22 . Reich carefully treads the line in her portrayal of an artist between twenty-first century ambitions of sexual equality, while acknowledging that Clara Schumann would never have called herself a feminist. Yet Clara was fully herself: she created and performed her music in the face of social prejudice, as did Viardot-Garcia. The context given in chapter one,

Setting the Stage, endeavors to add Viardot-Garcia's story to the handful of works, such as Cusick's and Reich's biographies, that acknowledge both these women's prodigious talents as well as the psychological, philosophical and physical struggle to be heard and accepted.

Balancing struggle with support

Like Caccini, Viardot-Garcia found advocates in her life who believed in her work and supported her in ways that were unusual for the time. Pauline Viardot-Garcia's marriage to Louis Viardot is one such example. Their partnership was unique, as was Louis' willingness to sacrifice certain aspects of his career to ensure the advancement of his wife's professional ambitions. In my first chapter, I address the depth of her husband Louis' role in her career as well as her creative ambitions. Louis Viardot has been sometimes portrayed as an oblivious cuckold23 , when in reality her relationship with her husband traverses different periods of affection, inspiration, and acceptance. Theirs was a marriage between two often like-minded people. Louis Viardot was not a performing artist, but he was a keen and eloquent observer. His support of his wife's endeavors speaks to a relationship of depth and affection even if Louis' romantic love for his wife was difficult for her to reciprocate.

Viardot-Garcia's relationship with Turgenev stands apart from the list of other inspirational and even intimate friendships and collaborators in her life. Their relationship was consistently emotionally influential for both Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev. Because this thesis focuses on Viardot-Garcia's musical life, Turgenev's presence here is proportionately less that his presence in her actual life demands.

Through her life, Pauline Viardot-Garcia came in close contact with many great artistic minds who helped shape her life as she helped shape theirs. Among this group are the prominent names of George Sand, Clara Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, Julius Rietz and Frédéric

Chopin. The spirit of mutual sharing, creation and artistic generosity sets the stage for the nineteenth century discussion of genius and gender elaborated in my second chapter. The myths of its solitary nature and the evidence that indicate that it flourishes in collaboration began to become clearer as I wrote and researched this chapter.

Missing person's report

The cultural assumption that musical genius as a gender-neutral and even helpful concept are addressed in both my second chapter: Genius: the word, the concept and the gender, as well as chapter six: A meeting with the myth: The Great and Powerful Oz. Through these chapters, I discuss both the problems with the cultural evolution of the title (chapter two) including how philosophical agendas of the nineteenth century muddied the waters in the perception of female genius. In chapter six the discussion on genius and gender asks the question: is the word genius useful to musicology at all or is it too biased? Pauline Viardot-Garcia again rises to the occasion to provide a model of a new view on genius and possibilities for perception of women's masterworks throughout history.

In addition to discussing various cultural, musical, and sociological questions each chapter endeavors to contribute to the overall discussion of Pauline Viardot-Garcia as a memorable and remarkable historical figure. Genius was not a benign historical term for Viardot-Garcia's legacy.

Chapter two, Genius: the word, the concept, and the gender outline the evolution of genius and the cultural surface value of the term. In addition, chapter two addresses the philosophical booby traps laid out during the nineteenth century by notable literary men and responses to these attacks by both early feminists and philosophers. Though she does not directly comment on her own genius, her easy discourse on the subject seems to imply that women can be geniuses as well. As a woman, genius was already a word with a blueprint for her legacy and how it was to be forgotten, even as it was being lauded in her time. I identify the different means by which female geniuses have been discredited, and isolated. I elaborate on the philosophical framework of inaccessibility to the musical canon for women that was solidified during the nineteenth century. The conversation surrounding this inaccessibility was addressed and debunked by some literary men and women of the nineteenth century, making both sides of the conversation dishearteningly familiar. Evolution in philosophies on gender seem to have advanced at a glacial pace, which leaves the question as to why it still seems to be a stumbling point even today. I address this question again in Chapter six.

palate. Viardot-Garcia's quiet subversion of gender norms comes out in the musical hierarchy she established in conjunction with Turgenev's libretto. The theme of female power arises in surprising and remarkable ways. All this in a comic salon operetta! This work begins to challenge the status quo of what can be considered a masterwork in the first place. Can a musical work that makes you laugh be a work of genius?

Though this thesis is certainly influenced by the work of Susan McClary and Marcia Citron, among other feminist musicologists, my analysis strides the line between McClary's demonstration of the body and of sexuality in the analysis itself and a more traditional theoretical approach. I tend to side with McClary that "Music theory has often been a more or less legislative branch of music that seeks to rationalize and prescribe the preferences of a particular dominant group [START_REF]4 La Partie de Whist m[END_REF] ", and that idea influences my work and my analysis. But to say that my theoretical analysis is purely feminist would require a change focus of my thesis, and so I will save that investigation for a later work.

There are, of course, feminist themes in this thesis, but approached in a different way, through both musical and sociological analysis. I investigate themes both in the libretto and in the music that make the operetta in some ways a mirror image to Mozart's The Magic Flute. Mozart's omnipotent Sarastro is matched by Viardot-Garcia's Queen of the Elves. Following my analysis and historical background of Le Dernier Soricer, the third chapter contains my analysis of the operetta that spurred my research in the first place, La Partie de Whist, and initially opened the door for me to begin my research at Sorbonne University.

In Chapter four, La Partie de Whist: a game of questions, I present the newly discovered operetta by Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, and the details known and unknown about the work. I have placed this operetta between two more well-known works for two reasons. The first is that chronologically speaking, it stands to reason that Le Dernier Sorcier came first, with sketches and drafts dating from the 1850's. Cendrillon was published in 1905, making it Viardot-Garcia's last operetta, and an operetta in which she wrote both libretto and the score. La Partie de Whist, though there is no definitive date on any of the primary sources, can logically be placed between these two works. The libretto for this short work was written by Turgenev, but there is very little record of the work, implying that it does not possess the same extended timeline as does Le Dernier

Sorcier. The second reason for placing the analysis of La Partie de Whist as the third chapter is because it is through composed, which was unusual for her operettas. Its unique nature seemed to lend itself well to sit in-between two works whose origins, and genealogy were clearer. This operetta is only sung by men, on a game of cards. Why include it at all in a thesis focused as it is on gender and genius? This operetta also brings something to the table in reconstructing Viardot-Garcia's compositional voice. Again, its existence asks the question: how serious must a work be to be considered a 'serious' work of musical art? This sarcastic little piece has much to say about cultural norms even if the ones it focuses on do not directly deal with gender. Harmonic study of this piece contributes, as well to a clearer picture of Viardot-Garcia's compositional style.

Dr. Žekulin again plays a part in this chapter. Dr. Žekulin first drew my attention to the work, being the first researcher to write about it since it was catalogued at the Harvard Library in 2011 [START_REF]Scene two[END_REF] .

I was preparing my dossier for entry into the Sorbonne, hoping to write my thesis about Pauline already done a great deal of work on the operetta. After contacting Dr. Žekulin and exchanging several emails, he shared with me his transcribed copy (then only accessible at Harvard) of La Partie de Whist. Before my visit to the Houghton Library at Harvard, I had hoped to find more information that could fill my thesis on this work. La Partie de Whist, though its parentage is known, remains a mysterious little work, as there is no record of the work except the holograph copy, the libretto in Turgenev's handwriting (also undated), and the manuscript in a copyist's hand residing in the Harvard archives 26 . In my visit to the archives in 2019 I discovered three pages of sketches of the work in one of Viardot-Garcia's notebooks entitled Petit Thèmes 27 . Beyond that no mention by name has been found of the work. The fourth chapter analysis is an endeavor to fill in some of the cracks of this piece and propose possible reasons and inspirations for its creation. In honor of the work's power to spur me to begin my research, it now sits at the heart of my thesis.

Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev's playfulness is emphasized in this satire. A sense of play and a freedom of melodic expression are key aspects of Viardot-Garcia's compositional style. La Partie de Whist provides another glimpse at Viardot-Garcia's range of composition styles preceding her final operetta, Cendrillon.

Chapter five, Cendrillon: the trappings of genius, addresses both external indications that clothe genius as well as internal indications found in the changes Viardot-Garcia made to this oft told, oft staged fairy tale. Viardot-Garcia's last larger work provides an opportunity for another examination of her creative influences and a brief look back on the evolution of her compositions.

Viardot-Garcia would never have called herself a feminist, but this operetta is full of beautifully feminist ideas and supported by masterfully written musical themes. The work showcases Viardot-Garcia's capacity for character development through both her libretto and her music. The musical analysis provides the framework for an investigation into Viardot-Garcia's personal philosophies on women and society. Viardot-Garcia's characters provide the framework of this chapter:

Cendrillon, her sisters, Baron Pictordu, Barigoule, the Prince, the Fairy, and the musical narration provided by the piano accompaniment, all possess individual characteristics. Each character contributes to a more cohesive understanding of Viardot-Garcia's personal philosophy as well as her creative genius.

New conclusions and new directions

In the final chapter, A meeting with the myth: the Great and Powerful Oz, I use the well-known L.

Frank Baum children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a metaphor for the nineteenthcentury conception of musical genius. The chapter reviews nineteenth century beliefs and philosophies that have influenced Viardot-Garcia's historical legacy. In the chapter I discuss both the illusions of genius as well as the reasons why they have so tenaciously remained in use when addressing female composers such as Viardot-Garcia. Though the chapter proposes possible paths to better understanding, including the promotion of the collaborative nature of artistic creation, it purposefully shies away from a sense of finality. This dissertation is an effort at contributing to the ongoing conversation on gender, genius and historical figures like Pauline Viardot-Garcia who I believe deserves to be further studied, performed, and heard.

This thesis represents a personal journey of discovery of the fluid and deep-flowing nature of words that structure our social behavior and our understanding of ourselves. The discovery of a woman whose life was not just another story of genius wasted, but a different expression of genius has changed the very trajectory of this thesis and plans for further study after its completion. This different model of genius changed the very nature of the possibilities the word presented at the beginning of this study. Researching aspects of my questions, Viardot-Garcia, her workds and the philosophy of genius are essentially all sides of the same question: what does female genius look like?

MT-My translation TB -Translation by Theodore Baker

Chapter 1 Setting the Stage

"Rien ne lui était étranger; elle était partout chez elle" 28 Camille Saint-Saëns

A unique life, an individual perspective

Most aesthetic judgement begins by comparison to other, known entities. Assumption of the solidity and immutability of the known entity is assumed to be necessary to progress in the classification process. Classification is deemed necessary in the process of creating and understanding value. This provides the opportunity to situate the work or the individual within a gamut of previous value judgements. This only works, however, when the new individual or work fits the criteria of the established nineteenth-century spectrum of musical genius. Pauline

Viardot-Garcia, the diva, the pianist, the composer, does not fit into the established spectrum:

context by comparison becomes a complex problem to resolve for someone outside of that accepted spectrum.

The other means of aesthetic judgement is one done with an understanding of the work's environment, the creator's social context and creative parkour. Before the discussion on sociallyendorsed versus ignored works by individuals of great talent in chapter two, this chapter strives to provide the context of Viardot-Garcia's creative environment and accomplishments that will be needed for an aesthetic judgement; not only of this composer's works, but of the categories from which she has up to this point been excluded 29 . To view Pauline Viardot-Garcia's possible place in the musical Parnasus one must understand what Parnassus is really, and understand its limitations. Those limitations become clearer when studying someone who is truly exceptional but due to cultural norms of women's creative capacity and social place, has been historically

28 Camille Saint-Saëns, Regards Sur Mes Contemporains (Édition Bernard Coutaz, 1990), 189. 29 Marcia J. Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon (First Illinois Paperback, 1993), 118.

women of the nineteenth century? What are some of the unexplored sociological explanations and implications for her career path and relationship choices? Through an overview of her life, observations can be made as to what extent the social constructs of her time may have promoted or limited her opportunities for artistic and creative expression on a high level.

Let's play a game

In the Viardot household, the family and any guests present would often gather around the table to play the Portrait Game, "le jeu de portrait". The game, invented by Turgenev, was perhaps as a result a compilation of multiple amusements. It consisted of Turgenev sketching an imaginary person, usually in profile, and then each person around the table would write down an invented backstory. Turgenev wasn't alone in his love of drawing, Viardot-Garcia's sketchbook and musical notebooks are filled with sketches of family, friends and imagined characters. Pauline Viardot-Garcia's observations were especially astute and often funny. As a diva, Viardot-Garcia was reknowned for her ability to physically and emotionally embody her characters. This capacity for deep character work probably informed her insights into her own ingenious and mischievous character sketches in the game. The game was well loved by the family as well as the houseguests invited to participate 43 . The game had no explicit purpose but to amuse the highly literate, philosophically curious, and yet utterly fun-loving Viardot-Garcia circle.

When piecing together a biography of an individual that has been dead for over a century, one can feel like a houseguest of the Viardot's at the table playing the portrait game. This consists of connecting the information presented, and then bridging the gaps based on one's own understanding of human nature. Pauline Viardot-Garcia died in 1910, we will never hear her voice nor fully understand why so many called her ugly and yet were at the brink of falling madly in love with her at the same time. I propose to the indulgent reader a historical and academic version of the portrait game; one focused on the words of the artist herself and the artists within her circle of influence. The focus of this portrait will be to breathe life back into the story of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and lend understanding as to of how we perceive artistic greatness. Hopefully what will emerge will be more of a real portrait than the caricatures enjoyed in Turgenev's game, with details that provide a clearer picture of the context surrounding this prodigious artist.

A family inheritance

The three Garcia children, Manuel Patricio (1805-1906), Maria Felicia (1808-1836) and Michelle

Ferdinande Pauline, were born to two musicians: Maria Joaquina Stiches di Mendi 44 (1780-1854) and her husband, Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia (1775-1832), from Seville. According to Patrick Barbier, in his book, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra romantique, Garcia was Manuel's stage name. The name he received from his father was Rodriguez 45 and according to the recent research by Andrés Moreno Mengíbar, his complete last name was Rodriguez Aguilar 46 .

Pauline describes her parents' personalities in a letter to Julius Rietz:

My mother, as you know, is Spanish and (which is of greater significance) was brought up in Spain. It suffices to tell you that she unites a great deal of Catholic superstition to a total lack of religion. She is not quite sure that God exists, but she would not swear that there is no Devil, and I grieve to say that from what I can see, this latter gentleman terribly engrosses her attention…

As for my father, he believed in neither God nor Devil-his personal religion was life with all its most ardent passions, it was art, it was love. He was handsome, he possessed genius, he had a passion for everything beautiful, and he never gave a thought to what might come This is to tell you that if anyone has ever told you anything about a certain marriage, don't believe it, even if it is being said by everyone. And believe in the friendship accorded to you by your friend and admirer, J. Garcia.

Remember me to Mama 51

Speaking of her father's origins, Viardot-Garcia undoubtedly passed on what she had been told by her father, who seemed adamant about separating himself from his past. Viardot-Garcia relates, what she believed to be the bohemian origins of her father, in a letter to Julius Rietz a close friend and confidant;

Even when I am perfectly happy somewhere, I cannot see someone depart for a voyage without envying them. I surely get this from my father because -this doesn't shock me anymore -he was born in Seville in the part of the city where the bohemians lived. My father knew his mother, but he never knew his father 52 (MT) 53 .

But Manuel lived with and knew his father, a shoemaker, as well as his mother, Mariana Aguilar 54 .

Manuel's version of his life story carries a clear theme; it was his story; one that was his to write and rewrite.

Manuel Garcia, as he was known, was legally married to Manuela Morales May 8, 1797, in Cadiz, Spain 55 , against Manuela's parents' wishes. The couple took with them Manuela's jewels and costumes (technically her parent's property under the law) from her already successful singing career, also against their wishes [START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF] . The couple sang and performed together in the theatres of 51 Radomski, 157. 52 Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 15.

53 Original Text: Même lorsque je suis parfaitement heureuse dans un endroit, je ne peux voir quelqu'un partir en voyage sans l'envier. Je dois sûrement tenir cela de mon père parce que cela maintenant ne peut m'effrayer -il était né à Seville dans cette partie de la ville où vivent seulement les bohémiens. Mon père a connu sa mère, il n'a jamais rien su de son père. [START_REF]A Sotte Existence[END_REF] Mengibar, Los Garcia: Una familia para el canto, 24. 55 Radomski, Manuel Garcia (1775-1832): Chronicle of the Life of a Bel Canto Tenor at the Dawn of Romanticism, 13. [START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF] Radomski, 13.

Madrid [START_REF]Par ici[END_REF] . Manuela returned to live with her parents shortly afterwards, most likely also due death of their first child combined with her husband's well documented dispute with a military guard, his refusal to sing in a contractual engagement. Radomski describes the events in the following explanation, giving further clues into the fiery character of Manuel:

Nothing more is heard of Garcia's firstborn son and it can be assumed that the child died shortly after birth. Perhaps this, together with Madrid's oppressive summer heat, worked to fray García's nerves, for in July his irascible nature got the better of him and he displayed himself as a temperamental tenor for the first -and by no means the last-time 58 .

It was shortly afterwards that Garcia's romantic attention turned to the young and talented singer Joaquina Stitches (she often went by Briones, her stage name), also in the same performing troupe 59 . Manuela was still working in the same troupe when Joaquina became pregnant with their first child. It is possible that wife and mistress traveled together with Garcia upon their departure from Spain as Patrick Barbier recounts in his biography, La Malibran:

Divorce being forbidden, he successfully hid his first marriage and remarried a second time. Garcia was thus a bigamist for some time. Once the menage à trois arrived in France, Manuela decided to return alone to Spain. Garcia never saw her again and spent the rest of his days with Joaquina 60 (MT) 61 .

The documentation for this second marriage remains inconclusive. According to the James Radomski, Joaquina Stitches and Garcia's first son, Manuel Patricio was most certainly illegitimate, which he explains in describing the place of their son's birth, Travesia del Reloj:

… Travesia del Reloj -where today a plaque commemorates the birth of the inventor of the laryngoscope. He was baptized one day later, in the church of San Martin. Although the baptismal certificate indicates that the child is the legitimate son of Garcia and Briones, [START_REF]Par ici[END_REF] Radomski, 24.

58 Radomski, 25.

59 Radomski, 28. 60 Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique, 13.

61 Original text: "Le divorce étant interdit, il réussit à cacher son premier mariage et à convoler une seconde fois. Garcia fut donc bigame pendant quelque temps. Une fois le ménage à trois arrivé en France, Manuela décide de repartir seule pour l'Espagne. Garcia ne la revit plus jamais et passa le reste de ses jours avec Joaquina."

this could not have been the case for Garcia continued to refer to Morales as his wife up until the time he left Spain. As at the time of his marriage in 1797 (when he claimed his parents were dead), Garcia once again lied to the parish priest 62

There is some evidence that Joaquina and Manuel may have married during their time in Italy while working with Rossini, which would have placed them far from Manuel's first marriage and far from people who would raise an eyebrow, knowing of his previous, and still legitimate, first marriage.

Information about Pauline's mother Joaquina is much harder to find. There is one letter from Joaquina to her "Amada hija mia" Pauline from 1847, now housed at the BNF Opera Garnier, but little else 63 . Judging by the nature of the letter it reveals an individual intimately acquainted with the details of life as a performer. Her questions and comments to her daughter mixed discussions about future singing engagements for Pauline with impressions of different singers and their potential to perform with Pauline. As both her daughter's manager and parent she mingled business concerns with expressions of affection for a daughter who was at the apex of her career. It seems that Joaquina took her role as vocal coach and artistic guide seriously, even after her daughter was married. The little information found regarding the personality of the singer, counselor and mother of the three illustrious it will be a golden year for her; but if she spreads herself too thin, as she did in Paris, you will soon see that she will be throwing her fortune out the window 64 (MT) 65 .

Joaquina was well loved by her children and dearly loved by Pauline. They lived together often during Joaquina's life, and she was a steady and grounding presence for Pauline:

My mother is a true philosopher in practical matters-all her life she had strength to support the sorest griefs and the heaviest reverses with courage and resignation. The elasticity of her nature is such that her cheery humor has always won the upper hand at last… 66 (TB) 67

Joaquina and Manuel Garcia lived a rather nomadic life blown by the winds of contracts and engagements in theatres across Europe. to sing to Rosina below her window, Io son Lindoro Rossini told Garcia to write it himself, which he did. The creative relationship between Manuel Garcia and Rossini not only aided Garcia's career, but also greatly helped both of his daughters69 as Rossini acted as a mentor for them both.

As the youngest of three children Michelle Ferdinande Pauline Garcia (the family chose to call her by her third first name) received her first educational inheritance through the observation of her family. The lives and careers already well established swirled around her infancy and formed the musical but also emotional principles she would use to shape her own life.

Born in 1821 on the 18th of July, thirteen years after her sister Maria and sixteen years after her brother Manuel Patricio. Both Maria and Manuel Patricio attest in letters and memoirs to the severity of their father's treatment. It would be easily categorized as abusive in today's world.

Pauline's childhood, however, was not marked by the same treatment, though there is at least one recorded incident when Pauline received a physical blow for a musical error. Perhaps it was her studious and precocious nature that allowed for a much smoother relationship with her father, or perhaps the difference simply had to do with her being the third, but Pauline idolized her father and deeply regretted his loss just before her eleventh birthday.

La Malibran's little sister

Like her brother and sister before her, Pauline was a child of the theatre. Little Pauline seemed to thrive in this clan of singers, easily speaking their musical family language as she did at least five other languages at a very early age. One of her first memories was watching the debut of a performance by her sister Maria, not yet "La Malibran", from the wings of the theatre at three years old 70 . Undoubtedly, watching not only her sister perform on stage, but the performances she did as the daughter of the great but explosive Manuel Garcia, must have also influenced Pauline's inner compass. Surely how well the younger Garcia daughter got along with her father was not only due to her calmer personality but her keen ability to observe others and her expansive aptitude for music. As observed by George Sand in her personal writing: "[She] is a being so complete, so well-organized, and expansive, so generous, so tender and so naive! 71 " (MT) 72

Manuel was Maria's first music teacher. With Maria as well as Manuel Patricio, Garcia was strict and often violent. Very little is written on the father's lessons with his son. In his biography of Pauline, Patrick Barbier presumes that Manuel Patricio was able to assuage his father's rage more often than not, or perhaps the violence experienced by the son was simply taken as more a matter of course than it was with Maria: perhaps explaining the lack of documentation. The self-assurance and willful nature were seen as outrageous for a proper young lady, and abuse was often justified in the nineteenth century as a means of correcting women whose characters shied too far away from the valued female attribute of docility. Regardless of the reason, Maria's education left its mark on Pauline, evidenced in how differently she behaved in lessons with her father.

In her biography, Michèle Friang says of Maria; "She learned to sing through her tears 73 " (MT) 74 .

Neighbors would reassure each other over the cries and shouts heard from the Garcia home, saying that it was just Manuel teaching his daughter how to sing 75 .

Maria, passionate and creative like her father, resembled her father too much to fit neatly into the established family hierarchy and would not be easily controlled. Maria's education was accompanied by blows and angry shouts nearly as much as it was accompanied by the piano. justify his hard behavior with his daughter, Manuel Garcia, described her fiery temperament, very similar to his, as "indocile et affirmé76 " The relationship between father and daughter remained troubled throughout their lives.

Despite this difficult beginning, Maria, quickly became a star and she enjoyed enormous success.

Her self-destructive behaviors at the end of her life (refusing life-saving treatment, keeping her injuries secret) are perhaps testaments of the mark this father-daughter relationship left on her77 .

Perhaps in observing her sister, Maria's battles with their father and the pain and anguish experienced on both sides molded Pauline to seek the path of least resistance, or at least to keep up with appearances. Being the good student came easier to the hard working and dutiful child Pauline. the worker and dutiful child. Though she couldn't deny her own passionate and contradictory character, Maria's suffering was an education of its own. Manuel Junior, too sought a different path as a vocal pedagogue than Maria after his demanding training under his father.

Before deciding to pursue his career as a vocal pedagogue, Manuel Patricio also enjoyed some success as a baritone when Manuel Garcia decided to take his family and his theatre troupe to the

United States to open the first opera season in New York in 1825. Manuel Patricio, however, did complain later that his father had ruined his voice. Manuel Patricio not only brought a scientific approach to vocal teaching with his invention of the laryngoscope but is also credited with saving the career of the Swedish super-star diva, Jenny Lind.

North American adventures

The Garcia family and Garcia's opera troupe left Europe in 1825 to travel by boat to New York to perform 78 . The captain of the boat the Garcias took to New York recorded the following anecdote, that may or may not be embellished for effect. However, it makes the Garcia's reputation for violence with his children clear:

Another day, at the close of the rehearsal, the old man spoke in insulting terms to his son, I and other passengers being present. Manuel replied in a respectful, almost submissive tone; yet he earnestly vindicated himself against the charge -of willful negligence, I think it was -which his father brought against him. This incensed Garcia to such a degree, that he suddenly struck his son a blow of his fist so violent that the youth dropped on the deck… 79

By the time the troupe arrived in New York, they were nearly ready to begin the city's first season of Italian Opera. the role of Desdemona and when she remonstrated, he promised her that if she was not perfect in it at the first performance, he would convert the death scene in the last act into a real murder. She was sure he meant what he said and learned her part. In a later performance, after a violent altercation off the stage, Garcia approached his daughter with such a murderous look in his eye that Maria, in real terror, was heard to whisper to him in Spanish: "For God's sake, father, don't kill me 82 ."

Is it at all surprising how attractive any escape from that abusive milieu would have seemed to the young artist, Maria?

After a season of twelve operas the family and troupe continued to Mexico in August of 1826, without Maria 83 , who married Eugène Malibran, a French American businessman 27 years her senior, after a rapid courtship. Maria married on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Perhaps her hasty marriage was her means of social escape from the suffocating relationship she led with her father as explained by both Friang and Fitzlyon 84 . Barbier, however, in his biography of La Malibran gives evidence that the decision was more nuanced and complex. The letters exchanged between the pair show a sincere connection, at least at the beginning of their relationship.

A few weeks after the marriage, however, Eugene Malibran lost his fortune as well as Maria's dowry in unsuccessful business endeavors 85 . Maria returned to the stage to supplement the couple's income. She performed in New York, and though a sophisticated audience in comparison with that of neighboring cities such as Philadelphia, it could not keep the diva as Europe certainly could, had, and would again 86 . Maria quickly tired of the provincial audiences in New York and 82 Rogers, F. (1915). "America's First Grand Opera Season." The Musical Quarterly, 1(1), 93-101., 18. 83 Radomski, Manuel Garcia (1775-1832) As she warned, Maria left New York two years after her wedding. The marriage may not have lasted, but her sister's career and personal choices afterwards provided a template for diva-hood as well as a list of not-to-do's for Viardot-Garcia.

Marked memories

The letters sent to Mexico by La Malibran found the Garcia family enjoying enormous successes.

Rumors swirled that the Garcias would make Mexico their new permanent home. While her family performed, Pauline Garcia had her first piano lessons (she would have been 4 or 5) with the organist of the cathedral in Mexico City.

It is most likely the law enacted by the Mexican government in 1827, that ordered the expulsion of all Spanish-born residents 89 , that motivated the Garcias to return to Europe that same year. The family and the opera troupe began the trek to Vera Cruz to board the ship that would take them back to Europe. On the journey to the port, the company was attacked and robbed by heavily armed brigands for "deux mortelles heures 90 ", in Viardot-Garcia's own words. The company was quickly relieved of all the money that they had earned in their tours of the U.S. and Mexico. Some accounts merely say that it was a group of bandits, but Radomski recounts that it was most likely a portion of the group engaged to accompany the group safely to Vera Cruz, as the bandits were reported to have continued the route with the company after the robbery 91 . During the ordeal.

Viardot-Garcia recounts the moments she remembers; being sheltered in the arms of her mother, and watching her father that evening laughing and talking as if nothing had happened. It was there, around the campfire that young Pauline witness the charisma and force of her father's character and personality. In one of her intimate letters to her friend and confidante, Julius Rietz, the conductor, she recounts the story:

…in our flight from the revolutions breaking out all over Mexico-then, near Vera Cruz, we were completely stripped of everything, down to our clothes! -well, I do not remember ever having heard more natural and infectious bursts of laughter than those of my father during the night following the loss of his whole fortune. Much more, he succeeded in bringing into jovial humor a dozen travelers belonging to our caravan, all of whom, like my father, had been robbed and ruined 92 . (TB) 93

The Garcia family returned to Europe without their fortune, depending on their reputation to reestablish their wealth and status. The Malibran, already in great demand and able to demand high fees for her performances, offered to help. The gracious offer was gruffly refused by Garcia, incensed by a daughter, who followed in his footsteps instead of social convention. Maria had fallen in love with and was living with Charles Auguste de Beriot (1802-1870) while still married.

Manuel Garcia called the offer for financial support: "une cochonnerie 94 ".

91 James Radomski and April Fitzlyon, "García Family," in Oxford Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), 3, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.45707. 92 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship) [Continued]," 527-28.

93 Original text: "…fuyant les révolutions qui éclataient dans tout le Mexique -or, près de Vera Cruz nous fûmes complètement dépouillés de tout, presque des vêtements!-eh bien, je ne me rappelle pas avoir jamais entendu des éclats de rire plus francs et plus communicatifs que ceux de mon père pendant la nuit qui a suivi la perte de toute sa fortune. Bien plus, il est parvenu à mettre en humeur joviale une douzaine de voyageurs qui faisaient partie de notre caravane et qui, comme mon père, avaient aussi été volés et ruinés." 94 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 20.

La "Bulledogue"

In my family, I was nicknamed the Bulldog because once I grab hold of a passion, a job, whatever it is, I never let it go. Manuel the father still demanded a great deal from his voice; some say he asked too much. Manuel Garcia, the son, a great voice teacher himself, blamed his father for ruining his voice 100 .

Manuel Garcia and his two daughters, Maria and Pauline, possessed an enormous appetite for opera roles coupled with an energy to match. This appetite, combined with a disregard for the needs and limits of their own instruments contributed to vocal exhaustion and wear that was noted by critics at the end of each singer's 101 . These techniques would then be developed, modified and his understanding of the vocal instrument, and his melodic gift in improvisation with more ease. However, Viardot-Garcia recounts an experience in which Garcia unleashed his rage even on his youngest daughter. In her letter to her friend and confidant Julius Rietz, she recounts the experience as a lesson to be learned as well as crediting her father for her own vocal flexibility. It is evident that the experience left an indelible mark. The story begins as her father asks her to sight read a piece he has written.

Not until now have I realized what a wonderful elasticity and charm and magnetism my father must have possessed! From him I experienced only tenderness-he loved me passionately and delicately. He, who (I am told) had been so severe and so violent with my sister, treated me with angelic kindness. Only once in my life did he strike me, and this is why he did so: One day he called me to read at the piano something that he had just written. I began rather carelessly, and in one measure was totally at fault. "Pay attention!" he said to me. I began over again, making the same mistakes. "You are not paying attentionbegin again!" Once more the same blunders assail his ears-"Veux-tu faire attention, sacr…" The oath had its effect and I emerged triumphant from the fatal measure -yes but at the same instant a formidable cuff nearly sent me to the floor-" Why didn't you pay proper attention the first time instead of the last? You could have spared both of usyourself the physical pain of receiving the cuff, and me the moral pain of giving you one."

My father was right, and since that day I have realized that as soon as one sets out to do a thing one should concentrate entire attention upon it. 102 (TB) 103

Pauline never lost that blind spot towards the cruelty her father showed her sister. Her experience with him was so different, and she loved him dearly and lost him so early.

Her father died just before Pauline's eleventh birthday-a fact that his youngest child looked on with a great deal of sadness. Joaquina would continue Pauline's musical education and Pauline's relationship with her father would rest preserved and uncomplicated by adult exchanges between the two. However, she continued to portray an image of which her father would have been proud, the hard worker, the good and obedient daughter.

Musical education; origins of a career

Outside of formal and informal composition and singing lessons by both parents, Viardot-Garcia studied piano with Marcos Vega, organist for the Mexico Cathedral while her family lived in Mexico. She studied with -(probably Jean Arnold Meysenberg), as well as Franz Liszt, in Paris.

Though she never studied under him, Viardot-Garcia's musical sensibilities were influenced by the Garcia family's dear friend Giachomo Rossini. Viardot-Garcia describes their close relationship in a letter to her friend Julius Rietz:

As for Rossini, this sort of magic lantern, all this crowd that passes through his salons as through a street, amuses him. It is my private opinion that he laughs to himself at everybody and everything-there are but very few people whom he regards with some little affection; When the family moved to Bonn, where his uncle became the conductor of an orchestra, Reicha played second flute and became friends with Ludwig van Beethoven who played the viola in the same orchestra 106 . He also became friends with Haydn (Reicha was a deep admirer of Haydn's music), Albrechtsberer and Salieri while living in Vienna. These friendships had an influence on Reicha's compositional style as well as his theories on the predominance of melody 107 . Reicha's views on harmony as secondary to melody were seen as revolutionary for his time and he certainly must have passed some of these theories and practices on to his students. Hector Berlioz, Charles 104 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 378.

105 Original text: "Quant à Rossini, cette espèce de lanterne magique, tout cette foule qui passe à travers ses salons comme dans la rue, l'amuse. Je pense bien qu'intérieurement il se moque de tout et de tous-il n'y a que très peu de gens pour qui il ait un peu d'affection-je me flatte d'en faire partie-il aimait beaucoup mon père, pour qui il a écrit plusieurs de ses principaux opéras, le Barbier, Otello, Donna del Lago, etc.-et m'ayant connue depuis mon enfance (il m'appelait sa prima donna in erba quand j'avais 8 ans) il a reporté sur moi une partie de cette affection qui remonte à ses plus beaux souvenirs de jeunesse. Je ne lui vois jamais embrasser personne excepté moi." 106 Norman Demuth, "Antonin Reicha," Music & Letters 29, no. 2 (1948): 166. 107 Demuth, 166-67.

Gounod, Franz , and Louise Farrenc 108 were all composition students of Reicha's. His philosophy on composition was remarkable as well as how he believed it should be taught:

Everything for him was music, and exercises did not exist. Fugue was a musical expression, not a mere mental musical exercise -a view directly contrary to that of Cherubini and Fétis. The composer's thought should adapt itself not only to the particular requirements of a particular work as regards to its resources, but also to the likely standard of performance. The music, therefore, must not be too difficult or too easy for those who would play it.

Rules and customs should be made to conform to the needs of the musical context, and everything must be practical 109 .

Reicha's teaching methods challenged the foundational principles of the conservatory. While the conservatory's counterpoint courses usually took five years, Reicha's was just one year long. He was careful to explain the reason behind each rule, and his application of each principle was creative and musical. He avoided the practice of rote learning, common to the conservatory, in favor of demanding the student to produce their own music in application of the theoretical rules.

This perhaps explains why his course could be shorter 110 . This all-encompassing view of creation and composition sheds light on Viardot-Garcia's own beliefs and practices regarding her own compositions and their ability to fit the requirements of the situation required. Practicality was not a limitation on her creativity but a path she followed brilliantly allowing her art to serve her needs.

Hector Berlioz, -who worked with Viardot-Garcia on several operas -including the revival of complained that there is a lack of a fixed tonic in his compositions112 . It is here that we find the roots of inspiration for the tonic fluidity found in Viardot-Garcia's recently discovered operetta, La Partie de Whist. It is also no surprise that Viardot-Garcia's music shows incredibly inventive and beautiful melodies, considering the importance her composition teacher placed on melody as a tool for development and a way to generate harmony113 .

A change in destiny

Stepping out of the shadow of the Malibran

The program for Pauline Garcia's first vocal concert was her sister's. She was accompanied musically and logistically by her brother-in-law Charles de Bériot, who was still grieving his wife's death. Even though she began her career as a living specter of her sister in the eyes of an audience missing the Malibran, she was already deeply dedicated to her art. Pauline Garcia's profound commitment to her music would soon make her a star in her own right. This commitment, of course, was combined with an abundant social network and a public eager to see the continue through Pauline. At her debut, critics exuberantly proclaimed the return of the Malibran;

the voice of Pauline Garcia, that represented a 'resurrection' of the voice now silenced 123 . But Pauline's voice not only possessed a rich lower register, but also an incredible high range for a mezzo soprano. This range was the result of a great deal of personal discipline and study. Her voice, as with all her other creations was born out of her devotion to her music was a voice that was quickly recognized for its particular qualities. Camille Saint-Saëns described her voice as:

"the flavor of bitter orange, made for tragedy or epic sagas, overall superman rather than human To speak of Mme. Viardot now, there is so much to say. Her talent is so complete, so diverse that it touches the extent of art, it brings together spontaneous and lively knowledge, that produces amazement and emotion at the same time; it strikes and moves, it impresses and persuades. Her voice, with its exceptional range is served by the skillful technique and artistic vocal phrasing of which examples are so rare nowadays. 125 (My translation) 126 .

With the spirit of her sister's voice and career ever before her and her audience's eyes, she would endure many comparisons to the Malibran. Comparison was natural, and was perhaps a strategic

Clara and Pauline, life-long friends

In their travels in Germany, Pauline Garcia, accompanied by her mother, met and began her lifelong friendship with Clara Wieck, in Dresden. Her passion for composition is evident in an encouraging letter she wrote to her friend Wieck on August 22, 1838: "Have you been composing a great deal? Yes? Then that makes me happy 127 "(MT) 128 The two artists met again the same year in Paris at the Hôtel Michodière 129 . The two women's lives and personalities could not have been more different; Garcia would live a life of relative ease with a husband that may not have been her

lover, but who would do anything to help and promote his wife's career. Clara Wieck Schumann married for love and struggled for money, spending much of her career performing pregnant or with small children at home. Both women composed and did so very well. They were united in their mutual respect for each other's artistry and passion for their art. Both women would never consider themselves feminists and yet both women chose to be wage earners. They insisted on being well paid for their work and saw the value in their own works enough to perform them 127 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 267.

128 Original text: "Avez-vous beaucoup composé? Oui? Alors cela me réjouit" 129 Reich, Clara Schumann, 67.

professionally alongside compositions by their male colleagues. Clara Wieck Schumann and Viardot-Garcia were perhaps too involved in the creation of art to be interested by the political world of the feminist movement. But based on their careers, both women intrinsically acted on a sense of self-worth and an understanding that they were masters at their craft. These qualities are all, of course, intrinsically feminist. Within the same artistic circle as Musset and Mme. Jaubert was George Sand (also Alfred de Musset's former lover), who, after hearing her perform addressed Pauline in letter as the "queen of the world" in the winter of 1839-1840132 . A deep friendship formed between the two women.

Debut in Paris

Pauline found a loyal friend as well as a matronly confidant who deeply admired her genius. In a letter addressed to Pauline Garcia, Sand wrote: "I greatly love genius but when it is combined with kindness, I bow down before it133 "

George Sand

Greetings in letters between the two reveal the depth of their friendship from "Chère Madame Sand" and "Chère fille" they became; "Chère Nignonne" and "Chère Mignounne 134 ". Ten years her senior, George Sand quickly both championed Pauline and became her artistic counselor. In the nineteenth century, women with artistic talents and ambitions were encouraged as long as that ambition remained an embellishment of their domestic domain and didn't fall into professional For us, who are used to the courageous rhythm, tenderness, to hard and soft turns in our national dance it was easy to judge the mastery of these artists. There is nothing more tender than the portamento of the melody, nothing more firm and delightful than the rhythm, nothing more swift and graceful than the expressions either joyous or sad, in 'minor' or in 'major' -as changeable as our history was changeable. One Polish lady could feel that […] She knew how to embroider our history in song 148 .

In my analysis I find similarities between the two composers' writing styles and evidence of

George Sand's Consuelo

For George Sand, Pauline Viardot-Garcia was the complete artist.

Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia and mutual inspiration

It is an understatement to say that Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia's relationship was complicated.

Based on the life events of the two a great deal of work from both artists was influenced by the other and a great amount of artistic collaboration and inspiration resulted from their affiliation.

Much speculation has already been done regarding the two artists' intimate relationship, so one must tread carefully in order to separate the fact from the inference to acknowledge this important part Turgenev had in Viardot-Garcia's life without launching into tempting sensationalism. rose to be "Paw 1;" that position was reserved for the slightly older and more worldly playwright Stepan Gedeonov, son of the director of imperial theatres, or for one of the much maturer Viel'gorskii brothers, high priests in the Russian world of music. If Pauline soon came to view her public in St. Petersbourg as the best of all, it was more for men like these than for the anonymous crowd who wrote to say she drove them mad with love, and from whom Turgenev, in the early years, was not easily distinguishable166 .

Viardot-Garcia was discrete in her sentiments towards the tall handsome Russian bourgeois wouldbe writer, but Turgenev proclaimed a love at first sight to his friends soon after they first met.

Viardot-Garcia destroyed many of her letters to Turgenev after his death. There are many details that we will never know, though the fact that the letters were destroyed is revelatory, of both her depth of feeling for Following in the footsteps of her father, yet in her own quiet and socially accepted way, she too loved freely, and her creativity abounded in these collaborations.

A diva unlike the rest

Clara Schumann, remarked that Viardot-Garcia was the" most gifted woman" that she had ever known176 . Viardot-Garcia stood apart from her colleagues in the opera world through the broad nature of her creative capacities. Her insatiable appetite for artistic creation was the driving force between her collaborations with emerging artists and composers quite often to their great benefit.

From designing her own costumes, to her depth of understanding and fluency in five languages, not counting those that she studied, she was forever learning and surrounding herself with the most profound details of her art. More than a diva, she was a composer, ran a salon, was the patron saint for creatives who attended. Writers such as Emile Zola, Victor Hugo and Gustave Flaubert, and composers such as Charles Gounod and Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré and Hector Berlioz all attended her salons with some regularity. As Florence Launay commented in her book Les Compositrices en France au XIX e siècle her "influence was of extreme importance" to these men 177 .

Her dear friends George Sand and Frederic Chopin recognized and honored her as a woman of genius. These names, those who have not slipped into the shadows as Viardot-Garcia's has, provide the context to show where and with whom her talent stood and inspired and derived inspiration.

In her thesis entitled, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar

Prose", Elizabeth Perten illustrates the degree to which Viardot-Garcia's intelligence and talent were valued by other composers:

Since music had increasingly become a commercialized venture, the idea of a composer's written score as the 'authentic' work overshadowed and diminished the idea of an artist's performance as artwork. Rutherford explains the two main measures taken to ensure the 'authority' of the written score. "The composer's ownership of the score was eventually established and protected by two strategies: by the introduction of copyright laws: and by a reduction of the singer's status from collaborate to subordinate -with the subsequent removal of the notion of a 'definitive' performance, thereby ensuring that the work was repeatable". That Viardot not only had roles composed with her in mind, but that she still worked in collaboration with several contemporary composers shows how her skills were recognized by others and that her importance went far beyond her performances on stage 178 .

To some extent, Viardot-Garcia seems to have resisted the trend subordinating the role of the performer in the creation of a new opera score. This is especially evident in her mentoring of

Quietly subversive

Her successful stage career allowed Viardot-Garcia to live a life dedicated to her art. Perhaps it was this singular dedication that allowed her to dodge certain expectations or social limitations placed on her gender. She had multiple romantic attachments (though this does not confirm Viardot-Garcia's independence in her career was unhabitual as was her influence on other gifted composers in her social circle. She had an immense appetite for artistic creation and hers is a life of a one who knew harmonic structure intimately, who had a creative impulse to match.

Viardot-Garcia the composer

Like her father before her, she was naturally a composer. Her compositions were more than a pedagogical tool, they were expressions of her own internal creative path. While in her busiest years of her career as a diva, she kept her compositions for herself and her intimate circle. In a letter to her friend, Clara Schumann, she worries for her friend who has many concerts to prepare for, knowing that it was Clara who earned the salary that supported their family:

"Dans notre siècle, on gagne peu avec la composition, à l'exception de la musique dramatique. discussed in this and the following chapters. Though answering this question could be argued as only necessary to cater to an already male-generated aesthetic of public-based ambition.

Perhaps it was this combination of social awareness mixed with the artistic inheritance from her father that shaped her certain view of composition and how it was to be used in the Garcia family she never dreamed of defining herself as a composer, no matter how much she wrote, but perhaps because it didn't seem necessary to professionally define her creativity.

Singer, composer, musician, arts patron, whatever her title, she was a complete musician; as Saint- Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910), 1.

Courtavenel, a nest of creativity and friendship

The first period of her career as an established diva, but also privately as a composer coincided with the purchase by Pauline Viardot of chateau Courtavenel. Purchased thanks to her earnings from her first season in Russia, Courtavenel was proof of the stability of her career. It was also the realization of Louis' dream to have land on which he could both hunt and enjoy nature. It was here where Viardot-Garcia would rest between engagements, and where her last child, Paul, was born.

Unlike Clara Schumann who encountered difficulty in caring for her numerous children while maintaining an active performing life, Viardot-Garcia had the support of her husband and family to pursue her career. This is reflected in the relaxed way she writes of her family life as well as her life as a performer to her friend Julius Rietz, beginning in German and finishing in French as was her custom.

I arrived in Paris the day before yesterday at 11 in the evening. My good Louis and Louisette were awaiting me at the railway station. What joy was there! Poor things, they really find it hard to live without me. The two little girls woke up as I very softly entered their chamber. What an outcry of "Mamma!" was there, and a wild dance in sheer nightgowns on small beds, and a jubilation, a kissing! Oh that was delightful. After all, that is a lovelier reception than any success on the stage, and nevertheless I have the courage to distress all these precious souls from time to time by absenting myself. -Ah! This time I have made the unspoken resolution to try to arrange in future that my absences shall be only very short, or at least that any engagement shall be of definite duration, in which case I shall take all my treasures with me 200 (TB) 201 .

Turgenev was first hosted by the Viardots at Courtavenel in 1845. This invitation would result not only in deepening their friendship between the two artists but also launch their first project (and an object for his passion) for this project but a collaborator. Together, the two reworked the opera. Viardot-Garcia's role in the production was hailed as an artistic triumph.

Though her success was definitive in Orphée, many critics observed that her voice, by the end of the 1850s had deteriorated considerably. She accepted nearly every role proposed to her and had pushed the extremities of her voice too often to sustain a long singing career. It was time to shift her focus to other activities to occupy her tireless energy now that she saw her voice's expiration date approaching. As previously mentioned, the departure from the stage was not only due to her declining vocal strength, but also the increasing political hostility the family was experiencing due

Baden, Weimar, Liszt, and the New German School

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's life in Baden was filled with the writing, refining, and staging of her operettas. In Baden Viardot-Garcia was able to concentrate her energy on her compositions that she then used to prepare her students for their careers in opera.

Their seven years in Baden was a very prolific period for both Viardot-Garcia as well as Turgenev The music is delicious. The writer of it has already proved her thoroughly deep and dramatic feeling, and her power over the secrets of musical combination and construction, […] but here, …are an ease, a freshness and a variety in the happy golden mean betwixt commonplace and pedantry-'golden' because in no point or quality trenching on vulgarity or chargeable with mediocrity[…]the simplicity of the pleasure was as unique as its perfection, the entertainment surpassing, as it did, anything of the kind I have seen at home, public or private and unpurchasable by money, being given as much for the pleasure of those who took part in it as for the very small audience of friends privileged to be present 213 . to be a poor choice of venue (the Karlsruhe press was not receptive to the work and many in the public interpreted it as a critique of their government, when, in fact, it was aimed at Napoleon).

It was

The operetta was very poorly received and, in combination with the approaching Franco-Prussian war, closed the door on the professional career of the work220 .

It is in Baden, that Viardot-Garcia's friendship and connection to Liszt, already one with a deep history, was able to flourish and influence her compositional style. Liszt's influence as her piano teacher is often cited, including in the biographies of Fitzlyon and Barbier, for her choice as an early adolescent to pursue a career as a professional pianist. Indeed, Viardot-Garcia seemed wellsuited for the career. Liszt also readily identified her compositional talent as well as her work ethic221 . When she was obliged to enter the world of opera by her mother, Liszt continued to be an influential presence. Though Viardot-Garcia never performed Liszt's works, she was an avid supporter of the New German School. Two of her operettas, La Partie de Whist and Cendrillon

show some evidence that she experimented with the principles of this style of composition.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's adherence to the principles of the New German School is evidenced by Lizst's character essay of her in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musique in 1859. The NZfM was, as Perten states in her thesis:

…the political mouthpiece for the New German School. The readership of the NZfM would already be familiar with (and sympathetic to) Liszt's and the New German School's perspective on several of the recurring themes found in this essay, such as critiques of contemporary opera, musical progress, and the modern musical audience 222 .

Collaborations and semi-retirement

Viardot-Garcia's involvement in the artistic developments of the day further illustrates the strength and power of her creativity. This artistic talent often flourished in alliances with male artists that promoted and refined a male artist's works when the collaboration was then forgotten. Viardot- Is it because of my friendship with the Queen of Prussia for almost thirty years that the patriotism of my husband has fallen under suspicion? A man who sacrificed his whole career to help mine as an artist? A man who out of love for France, because of his hatred for the imperial government, lived with me in exile in the Duchy of Baden, on the frontier of our beloved country? And for that you think what? That we chose to be Germans? Oh, that is a bad joke!224 (Translation Orlando Figes)225

The family was obliged to flee Baden and move to London in October1870 at a huge monetary loss for the Viardot family.

Flight to London

It is an understatement to say that Pauline didn't like England. She found the climate disagreeable, the audiences superficial and too frivolously demanding, lacking in true artistic understanding. In her letter to George Sand on April 8, 1841, she wrote:

I know just how to please them (the audience) and how to obtain right away their approval, but I don't want to do it; because one must go to them and flatter their bad taste: I prefer them to come to me -am I not right?226 (MT)227

Like it or not, the family was London indefinitely due to the war. She and Louis had three children to care for (Louise was in Russia) and so the "Bulledogue" went to work. She taught lessons and she sang engagements despite of her failing instrument. Though her voice had noticeably deteriorated, her talent and technique were still prodigious, and her instrument was still impressive.

Audiences were still struck by her artistry as well as her amazing ability to enchant her audiences.

Though Viardot-Garcia may have been scornful of British audiences in the past, their presence and enthusiasm was a welcome boon in a difficult time for the artist and her family.

Happily, the exile from the continent only lasted a year and the Viardots returned to France in October of 1871.

A salon at the heart of the artistic world

The Viardot's returned to Paris in 1871, Viardot-Garcia began her Thursday night artistic evenings once again. With a celebrity already well established, Viardot-Garcia continued to help other exceptional composers launch their careers. In addition to Gounod, Viardot-Garcia was a friend and counselor to Massenet, Fauré and Saint-Saëns, who often solicited her expertise. Massenet recounts a memorable meeting with the diva in his memoirs, Mes Souvenirs et Autres Écrits:

I was invited to dine at the sublime lyric tragedian, Mme Pauline Viardot: I was asked, in the course of the evening to play some music.

Caught off-guard, I began to sing a bit of my sacred drama:

Marie-Magdaleine.

In the absence of a voice, I possessed at that age a great deal of desire in the way I sang my music. Now I speak it and, in spite of my vocal faults, my artists are deeply moved all the same.

Then I sang, if I dare say, because Mme Pauline Viardot, leaned towards the keyboard and following my fingers, said to me with unforgettable emotion in her voice: "What is that?" "A work from my youth, Marie-Magdeleine, that has no hope of being produced" I told her. "What? Well, it will be done, and it will be I who will play your Marie-Madeleine" 228 (MT) 229 .

One evening, she sang an aria that she passed off as one she had recently discovered. The group was delighted. It was only when she received demands for more information on the work that she admitted it was her own. Saint-Saëns describes the event this way:

I read through this aria, the most knowledgeable would have been tricked. But one must not believe from this that her compositions are pastiches; they possessed on the contrary, an original flavor. Why where they, unprecedented as they were, so little known? Why have so many others remained undiscovered? One would think that this admirable artist has a fear of publicity 230 (MT) 231 .

In 1873, to assist her new protege, she sang the title role in Jules Massenet's work Marie-Magdaleine. Not only singing the role, but she also provided correction and council to the young composer, for which Massenet would always be grateful. He describes her artistic gifts this way:

228 Jules Massenet, Mes Souvenirs et Autres Écrits, ed. Jean-Christophe Branger (Librairie Philosophique, 2017), 101.

229 Original text: "J'avais été invité à dîner chez la sublime tragédienne lyrique, Mme Pauline Viardot; on me pria, dans la soirée, de faire un peu de musique. Pris au dépourvu, je me mis à chanter un fragment de mon drame sacré : Marie-Magdaleine. À défaut de voix je possédais, à cet âge, beaucoup d'élan dans la façon de chanter ma musique. Maintenant je la parle et, malgré l'insuffisance de mes moyens vocaux mes artistes sont bien pénétrés quand même. Je chantais donc, si j'ose dire, lorsque Mme Pauline Viardot, penchée vers le clavier et suivant mes doigts, me dit avec un accent d'émotion inoubliable: "Qu'est-ce que cela?" "Un ouvrage de jeunesse, Marie-Magdeleine, qui n'attend même plus l'espoir d'être exécuté" lui dis-je. -"Comment? Eh bien! il le sera, et c'est moi qui serais votre Marie-Madeleine" 230 Camille Saint-Saëns, L'École buissonnière: Notes et Souvenirs (Paris: Lafitte, 1913), 217-33.

231 Original text: "J'ai lu cet air, les plus malins s'y seraient trompés. Mais il ne faudrait pas croire d'après cela que ses compositions fussent des pastiches; elles avaient, au contraire, une saveur originale. Pourquoi celles qui furent éditées sont-elles si peu connues? Pourquoi tant d'autres sont-elles restées inédites? On est amené a penser que cette admirable artiste avait horreur de la publicité. Pendant la moitié de sa vie, elle a formé des élèves, et le monde n'en a rien su."

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She was a marvelous singer and lyric tragedienne and more than an artist: she was a great musician, a woman marvelously endowed and altogether unusual232 .

Viardot-Garcia nourished and inspired the creative spirits of those musicians that surrounded her.

In turn her colleagues encouraged her to compose and to publish. Camille Saint-Saëns proved to be a faithful friend and an ardent supporter of her talents as a composer and pianist. Saint-Saëns, among others "told her, when her voice appeared to fade, to consecrate herself to the piano: she During the last fifteen years of her life Viardot-Garcia guided many singers to the professional stage with a solid and strong technique and an impulse to protect their voices from wear (she used her own damaged instrument as a cautionary tale). She continued to compose as well as support the artistic lives and careers of fellow composers and musicians. Five years before her death, she saw the production of her last operetta, Cendrillon in Mme Nogueras' (her former student's) salon.

She wrote the libretto as well, which is based on the fairy tale by Perrault with some departures that will be discussed chapter five.

Following her death in 1910, Viardot-Garcia's works, brilliant career, and her artistic influence have been largely forgotten. Regardless of her being omitted from the musical history that she helped shape, her creations, and her collaborations leave a legacy of excellence that now demand our attention. Perhaps it is only society's conception of a genius that is easy to recognize.

Chapter 2 Genius: The word, the concept, and the gender

Introduction

The idea of musical genius did not originate in the nineteenth century. Composers' biographers, centuries before the nineteenth century, referred to the subject of their writing as exceptionally musically creative even if the exact word was not used. This chapter begins the investigation into the nineteenth century philosophical conversation on genius, its origins, powers, and exclusions237 .

This investigation is key to the central theme and question of this thesis, which asks why it seems so difficult to find and recognize female musical geniuses. Because Viardot-Garcia is a French national, much of the philosophical discussion centers around French literary voices from her time, though ideas and theories from other cultures will be cited as well. As much as possible, I will give voice to Viardot-Garcia's ideas on excellence as well as those of her immediate circle of friends and fellow artists. Theories and philosophies on musical genius are inextricably linked to those on any type of artistic or creative genius, thus this conversation includes voices that are not speaking specifically about musical genius but still influence the development of the concept.

Viardot's giant

In her letter to her friend Julius Rietz, Pauline Viardot-Garcia's playfully describes genius as a giant choosing their own clothing. Not included, is the fact that she is disagreeing with Lewes' assertion that genius is merely the ordering of art.

Genius is not to be confined within a ready-made mould; it is a giant who cannot don the habiliments of a man of ordinary stature. He must be clad, I admit, according to the conventions of our civilization, but it is not indispensable that his costume should follow the prevailing fashion. All the dimensions being different, one may surely leave him the choice of material and form. To begin with, he will not let himself be clothed otherwise than suits his taste. -What a delightful metaphor! don't you find it quite worthy of Homer? You will reply that fools, too, dress themselves to their liking, and by no means prove their genius by doing so238 . -Pauline Viardot-Garcia (TB) 239 Viardot-Garcia gives us a glimpse into the artist's conception of what genius meant: both from a cultural as well as a personal perspective. It seems that, for Viardot-Garcia, it was both a choice guided by an inner impulse as well as a gift that is developed. There is no "ready-made mould" as she says, but a genius's gifts are notable and as recognizable as a giant in the room. For Viardot-Garcia, a genius doesn't follow prevailing norms. Exceptional intellect and creativity must be allowed to choose their own destiny or to be clothed as "suits his taste". In a later letter, again to Julius Rietz, she speaks of the creative genius in terms of her observations on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony:

Great is the power of our divine art, and happy is he who can wholly surrender himself thereto! But, like the God of the Bible, it is a jealous god, who straightway forsakes and chastises the transgressor who neglects him to run after strange gods240 (TB)241 .

This philosophy is in keeping with her composition teacher Antonin Reicha's views on genius; it was a natural phenomenon:

…albeit fortuitous, aptitude for the musical art. Four criteria indicate its presence in an individual: (a) great passion for music, (b) an overwhelming need to create, (c) great facility to conceive and realize ideas, and (d) a deep sentiment for music242 .

Additionally, Reicha "believes that a writer's competence is equally manifest in the ability to extract all potential available in musical ideas as it is in the ability to conceive new ones 243 " Reicha's belief, in the utilization and exploitation of ideas as a manifestation of genius and talent, may have had an influence on his pupil, Pauline Viardot-Garcia.

For Viardot-Garcia genius and great art must be constantly cultivated and cared for. Based on Viardot-Garcia's commitment to her own art, both as an interpreter and as a composer, it appears she believed that the gift of genius must be constantly cultivated. This appears to be a guiding principle for Viardot-Garcia. Though she does not directly comment on her own genius, her easy discourse on the subject seems to imply that women can be geniuses as well. Genius was not a benign historical term for Viardot-Garcia's legacy. As a woman, genius was already a word with a blueprint for her legacy and how it was to be forgotten, even as she was being lauded in her time.

Genius and its gendering

Genius is a difficult word to pin down. Perhaps this is why we find philosophical contemplations of the word so filled with metaphor. But just like Viardot-Garcia's giant, the product of genius is easy to recognize in society. Perhaps it is just society's conception of a genius that is easy to recognize. So, is it Viardot-Garcia that doesn't fit into the clothes of a genius or is it the choice of clothes left to her that do not allow her to dress as such, no matter her stature? This chapter endeavors to answer that question or at the very least better understand the problem. At its heart, genius has become a categorical word. If genius truly exists, it now implies that other categories, such as normal or even below normal exist. Genius is a term that sets a small group of individuals apart from society at large, a small group that manifests an almost miraculous capacity to produce knowledge or art that this society values244 . Genius, on the one hand, is a means to contemplate and categorize seemingly miraculous accomplishments. But it is not just the production that endows the exceptional person with the title of genius. A genius, society demands, must also physically resemble the dominant race, gender, and class in order to be considered such.

This myth guided canonical choices, surrounded certain great male composers with a veneer of irreproachability, and excluded women. This investigation centers around the hope that a deeper understanding of the prejudices formed in the nineteenth century can open musical understanding to more widespread appreciation and valuation of women's works, including those of Pauline Viardot-Garcia.

Genius and Juno: One size fits all, or winner takes all?

Women have almost always been excluded or subverted in the male philosophical contemplation of genius. Even the etymology of the term reveals its patriarchal bias. This is not to say that women were not, until recently, aware of this inequality. Educated women began to record their discontent as early as the fourteenth century with Christine de Pisan (1364-1430), a medieval writer often credited as the originator of the "Querelle des femmes". Through her ideas, de Pisan provided some of the basis of modern feminism245 . It is quite possible that there are records that rest hidden or oral histories that precede her work. Women were already aware of gender as not just a biological division but a socially constructed one 246 . Even in ancient philosophical understandings gender and genius have been inextricably linked.

The life of the term, musical genius or genius at all, began well before the nineteenth century, when it became ubiquitous as a term for creative excellence. Though music for the ancient philosophers fell into the more general term of creativity in antiquity, ancient Roman, Greek and Arabic cultures all had their own version of genius as a spirit that inspired the creator. These spirits or genius ranged from being seen as a personal granter of wishes to the internal spirit of inspiration and/or madness. In Roman culture everyone, -man or woman-, had their own internal creative source:

The Roman genius, the "begetter," was the spirit of paternal ancestry; the genius was believed to reside within all men. The female counterpart to genius was the juno, she who lived within all women. Each Roman had a personal genius or juno that served the citizen as sources of inspiration and talent247 .

Plato, in his work Phaedo wrote about the soul (Phaedo 80a-80b), a description that sounds remarkably like the eighteenth century definitions of genius and its links to the sublime The soul according to Plato was a "divine-like thing", as explained in an article by Christina Mercer248 ; something that is weakened and diluted by too much control or interaction with the body. Mercer explains how a woman's body would be less able to achieve this body-soul separation according to Platonic philosophy:

A Platonist could consistently believe that all souls are equal in capacities, but that female bodies are harder for the genderless soul to escape. Plato suggests something like this in the Timaeus, his mythic account of how the world might have been created. There, the narrator spins a tale according to which the gods first created men and then punished those who lived lives of cowardice and injustice" by turning them into women in their next lives 249 .

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There is evidence, that will be examined later, that Plato's philosophy on the gender of genius can still be found in the nineteenth-century conception of the master composer. This creates a barrier not only to a female musician or composer to be received as a genius, but also difficulty in seeing themselves as such. Could this have contributed to Viardot-Garcia's choice to only publish small works and to never tour as a composer? The answer to this question has deep roots.

The concept of juno is absent from the modern lexicon of exceptional creativity. Just genius, the Roman male spirit of creativity and intuition and the derivative word ingenious remains. They have remained dominant terms to describe exceptional creativity in both art and science 250 . Why has the male term prevailed, while the female version didn't? It must be at least partly due to the philosophical influence on western society's understanding of gender. One theory arose in antiquity and the second in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Both theories, subjective in nature, played a part in codifying the misogynistic beliefs surrounding who could be considered exceptional.

Systems of hierarchy: different cut, same suit

The one-sex theory as this was called, laid forth by Aristotle and Galen, among others, cast women as deformed men: vaginas were inverted penises, ovaries were inverted testicles 251 . The one sex theory, to which there was little alternative well into the Renaissance, philosophically strongarmed women into a position of inferiority based on this malformed-man idea 252 . The idea of genius then, an extraordinary and super-performing human was implicitly male from the time in which

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the term was used in philosophical thought and writing253 . The growing concept of genius as a divinely inspired artistic creator rested solely with creative men. This presents a challenge for Viardot-Garcia as well as her female predecessors. In a society conditioned to look only in the direction of males to find creative exceptionality, just attracting positive attention becomes a tall order indeed.

When the concept of a gendered source of inspiration emerged in antiquity, the idea of women's inferiority to that of men's inspiration was justified by a mistrust of the female body and its interior and therefore mysterious genitalia. Roman and Greek philosophy used medical theories that depicted the womb as the source of women's many maladies, including the concept of the 'wandering womb' that could cause anxiety, illness and even death. Women's physical differences were observed as evidence of their 'departure' from the normal male body and was used to explain their susceptibility to both mental and physical weakness and illness 254 .

Two-gender theories became a way of creating order in mankind's industry and innovation.

Maleness became a pre-qualification for value and ingenuity. Perception of past composers was categorized and gendered as well, with Mozart and Haydn being suitable for women to play while more modern composers' music was suitable for male musicians. The epitome of this concept would be the gendering of Beethoven's image and music.

Alain Soble, from whose article Thomas Laqueur's quote above was taken, goes further by saying:

"a model of sex was employed to raise or keep the male above the female or, more precisely, to raise or keep men above women. 255 " In performance this meant women were relegated to performing past repertoire while men could perform current works.

Lacquer also argues that the two-sex model isn't an improvement over the one-sex theory. It was created before biological evidence was found to support it in the eighteenth-century. The theory stemmed from political and sociological norms and beliefs. Indeed, much like the one-sex argument of antiquity, the two-sex model was used to justify men's superior creative capacities.

In the two-sex model, the female sex was used to separate and 'other' women. Biology was then called upon to find reasons and observations to substantiate those claims 256 .

Even as the two-sex model, identifying women as fundamentally different from men rather than malformed men, was used both in arguments for and against gender parity, it had little to do with actual anatomical study 257 . If male genitalia are considered a source of creativity and power, women's genitalia were considered the lynch-pin of their physiological inferiority. Gender had two faces now, but they were in no way perceived as equal. What it did was enable more emphasis on physical difference in female and male bodies in musical performance and creation 258 .

This could possibly explain the nineteenth-century critic's difficulty in describing women's musical performances in a non-gendered way. Powerful, aggressive playing was gendered male and therefore frowned upon in female performers, while passive qualities and subtle nuance was praised as feminine, usually in a patronizing tone. Exceptional creativity, if accepted in women was often billed a departure from the features of their sex 259 . Musical criticism reflected the growing trend beginning in the eighteenth century to seek out the differences in the two genders to highlight male dominance.

By around 1800, writers of all sorts were determined to base what they insisted were fundamental differences between the male and female sexes, and thus between man and woman, on discoverable biological distinctions… there arose a shrill call to articulate sharp corporeal distinctions…[T]he political, economic and cultural lives of men and women, their gender roles, are somehow based on these "facts" Biology -the stable ahistorical, sexed body-is understood to be the epistemic foundation for prescriptive claims about the social order260 .

Gender-binary genius: a two-sided limitation

In keeping with the binary model of gender, now in vogue, genius was also considered just one side of the coin. Throughout the western world's conception of genius, it is closely linked to the illusions and ecstasies of madness. The ancient Greeks believed the two sides of genius were influenced through the supernatural. Both divinely inspired genius and demonic madness for Plato meant an actual possession of some sort261 . This idea was strengthened and elaborated in the nineteenth century, but, in the positive sense, exclusively for men.

But it is with Romanticism, of course, that the indissoluble link between madness and artistic genius comes into its own as an autobiographical experience, even as the armorial bearings of talent…To produce great art, the artist is sapped of health, mental or physical. Either way, this Romantic doctrine which saw genius and madness as doubles elevated the art into ecstasy and the artist or writer into an aesthetic analogue of the prophet gifted with other worldly powers262 .

For the romantics, gender became even more important in the understanding of genius. Men were considered the only gender strong enough to withstand the rigors and trauma of being a genius. This is exemplified in the image of the composer virtuoso of the early nineteenth century.

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Composers like Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg were able to exert complete creative power over their works:

Narcissistic and competitive, he basked in the authority of both complete control over and ownership of his repertory. He adapted and revised his works in performance and composed in such a way as to emphasize his technical strengths and mask his deficiencies. Moreover, the performer fed the composer's narcissism by providing a reflection, through the fingers, of authorial thought 263 .

Female expressions of madness in nineteenth-century opera took on a new meaning in this light.

Not just as moments of denouement, they became social cautionary tales. Scenes demonstrating assertive power of women were not usually acceptable behavior in the rest of the opera. These virtuosic displays placed Viardot-Garcia on par with her male virtuoso peers. However, the social implications of the display in the context of the opera, especially the inevitability of their destruction afterwards, again undercut this display of prowess and creativity. An operatic demonstration of power and or genius by a woman, was always followed by the character's death, such as in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1835). The demonic madness of Lucia was an example of a powerful social lesson for the observer on the consequences of feminine power. In the case of the lucky Linda di Chamonix, and Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani, madness was followed with lucidity, marriage, and a return to submissive normalcy. But both fates portray the same message that women's genius is both abnormal and not to be trusted. It would be naive to think that great women like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, who played out these roles on stage and who studied them with astonishing profundity, were not at least somewhat cognizant of this imbalance of

Musical genius: the birth of a philosophical dispensation

The mystique of genius has been linked to the mystique of artistic creation since the end of the Middle Ages. The use of the term musical genius, as we understand it, referring to a composer, was traced by Edward Lowinsky in his two-part essay-"Musical Genius -Evolution and Origins of a Concept 269 "-back to the Renaissance. This is corroborated in articles by Rob C. Wegman, as well as James O. Young 270 . Lowinsky identifies the use of the word as slowly emerging after the medieval period, when there was a departure from the belief that music was a branch of mathematics and therefore governed by logic 271 . Lowinsky cites an early distinction between craftsmanship and genius in the letter from Giovanni Spataro in 1529 to Giovanni del Lago (a Venetian musician) stating that written rules teach counterpoint but good composers, like good poets, are simply born 272 . This statement is a subtle assertion that individuals have little control over their own capacity to create great works if they are not born with the right characteristics.

Theories as to who had the right to unbridled human imagination in music, and who did it best, were then codified by prominent music theorists and philosophers.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophies on the sublime, on beauty, and the power of creation, informed the public perception of the creation of exceptional music.

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obliquely tinged with masculinity. This is certainly clear in the personal writings of Stephen Heller in 1852 critiquing a performance by Wilhelmine Szarvàdy.

Among most women musicians there is something precious that they mistake for grace, something affected which they mistake for expression, and a manner of playing specific to them which they mistake for originality. Basically, they prepare, launder, iron, and fold their talent as one would a pretty bonnet, an elegant piece of underwear, or any other piece of clothing; and nearly all the female virtuosos are only more or less competent milliners, who coif and dress and enfeeble poor authors as they please. Really, I can hardly restrain a smile when I hear all the elegant plebs of salon society expounding on the profundity, the originality, the genius of such florists and dressmakers the seams of whose style come apart, whose expression is affected and who give themselves the airs of an inspired prophetess translating the oracle of such Gods as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, etc278 (Translation by Katherine Ellis)279 .

Heller's letter identifies the gendered rhetoric used to describe a woman's performance, but also the gendered treatment of those that support female artists. Critics of female artists viewed women's compositions as not only art created by a woman, but as a sort of disease that had an effeminizing effect on those who heard the work, making it not only of a lesser quality, but dangerous virus attacking the health of society.

On the other side of the coin was the masculine, which, also identified in the Heller quote was exemplified by a few 'great composers' "such Gods as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, etc. 280 ". Heller's comment may have been a bit snide, but it identifies the gendered 'hero' status that composers like Beethoven had already achieved early in the nineteenth century. This hero status was an easy place from which to hang the musical, masculine ideal of the nineteenth century.

Undressing the myth of Beethoven: de Nora and Kivy's representative argument

Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) set the philosophical stage of our understanding of genius as both rule maker and rule breaker in musical composition, as well as confirming its masculine form. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a formidable architect of the French gendered-genius aesthetic, wrote: "women, in general do not like the arts, have limited knowledge of them, and possess no genius 281 " further preparing the field for a composer to be taken up as the masculine flag-bearer of male creative superiority. Beethoven was held up by critics such as Joseph d'Ortigue and Hector Berlioz 282 as the paragon of not only creativity, but male creativity.

In the introduction to his book Beethoven Hero, Scott Burnham highlights how the Beethoven aesthetic remains pervasive to this day in defining musical genius. These lauded qualities have much less to do with his music than his cultivated image:

For nearly two centuries, a single style of a single composer has epitomized musical vitality, becoming the paradigm of Western compositional logic and of all the positive virtues that music can embody for humanity. This conviction has proved so strong that it no longer acts as an overt part of our musical consciousness; it is now simply a condition of the way we tend to engage the musical experience. genius means and the accuracy of the current conception of historical genius. Influence cannot be conceived as independent of social conditions. An artificial separation of the two concepts distorts the historical picture and often augments an individual's personal compositional prowess. Women do not have, and never had that luxury of separation. Female composers are considered through a thick lens of social qualifiers; size of the creative work, being oft used as evidence of failure. This tends to diminish both their genius, their musical influence, and their access to the musical canon even now:

Yet to the extent that our attention to genius and its products (whether these are scientific or works of art) occurs from the perspective these cultures of appreciation provided we are blinded to visions of how music history could have been otherwise 294 .

With the Beethoven template in place, perhaps as part of the push to define female creativity (discussed later) as outside of the norm, listening to women's musical creations became a foreign experience with no models or guides in place for understanding or appreciation. They were outside of the rule, but not in a good way.

Genius as a rule breaker was one of the principal criteria for genius embraced by the romantics.

As it becomes permissible for the genius to break rules of art, so it becomes more or less acceptable that he as a person, transcends the norms of ordinary social behavior 295 .

There was a philosophical backlash, however, as artistic and talented women in the nineteenthcentury were relegated to category of skilled artists, not as a genius. With the Beethoven-hero aesthetic in place, women like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, though admired by her colleagues and friends would fit the mold of skilled artist to most historians and therefore slip in importance and historical memory.

294 DeNora, 6. 295 Lowinsky, "Musical Genius--Evolution and Origins of a Concept--II," 487. DeNora presents a compelling argument that Beethoven's economic and mythic success was due in a large degree to aristocratic contributions of the 1790's when:

Existing public forums were usually buttressed or underwritten with private means so that even benefit concerts and sometimes music publications were not nearly as 'public' or selfsustaining as they might appear to the casual observer… [ thus] Individual aristocrats stayed secure in their role as gatekeepers for public exposure304 .

The stage was set for those such as Beethoven, who were still supported by aristocratic patrons to doubly profit from the emerging free-market music. Musical promotion, in the case of Beethoven, served aristocratic patrons as subtle social self-promotion through the support of a 'great artist', Kivy identifies that qualifying line for musical genius lies somewhere between Telemann and Beethoven, with Cherubini and Humperdink just over the Beethoven-genius side 305 . This mystical view of the concept of musical genius falls in step neatly with the romantic era aesthetic. However, this lays canonization of exceptional composers at the feet of their public reception. The finger wagging pointing at those who want to peek behind the curtain of genius aligns with the social aesthetic of the nineteenth century idea of the mystique of genius. It is also in line with the male romantic indignation at any question of the criteria for being a genius.

Kivy presents the argument that knowing the physical composition of comets ("dirty ice 306 " he calls it), strips us of our wonder when we gaze at them in the sky. He uses the comparison as a metaphor for wonder, that the mystique of genius should maintain the mystery. I disagree.

Understanding of comets or genius does not make the sight of their flaming course across the sky any less wondrous, it just prevents misunderstanding, fear, and misdirection upon viewing the phenomenon. Understanding the method, on an intimate level, and even discovering the seed of artistic greatness in ourselves need not reduce the wonder at presently accepted geniuses. DeNora's deconstruction of the mythic Beethoven persona can be used as a tool in rehabilitating the mystery and aggressive inaccessibility of Kivy's idea of genius into something comprehensible and gender inclusive.

Dressing the dead: the philosophical imperative of the past

Advising caution to all in making judgements while reviewing the heady writings of philosophers on the concept of genius, Tia De Nora warns:

…in retrospect, influence is conceived as independent of the local often mundane conditions under which composition occurs. This misconception of influence leads to over idealized and musically imperialistic conceptions of the compositional process, which sidestep the issue of social circumstance 307 .

In 1848, La France Musicale published a story titled "Le Démon de la Mélomanie". The story relates the consequences of a professional woman's ambitions and gives a glimpse into the social mores of the day. The woman, whose dreams of fame and a successful piano performing career, end in poverty, after an unsuccessful attempt at a performing tour. She is then rescued by a considerable inheritance and a forgiving fiancé. This cautionary tale gives the author the chance to issue this warning:

It is the laudable perseverance amongst the elite, that takes on a deplorable obstinacy with those of ordinary intelligence. This truth should be seriously considered by women who desire to make a profession in the musical arts. 308 (MT).

Obviously the "ordinary intelligences" refers to the lesser talent in some men, and all women, as they are the ones invited to consider this cautionary tale. Genius, as a tool to maintain patriarchal superiority, became a philosophical barrier to gifted women both in their perceptions of themselves and current and historical reception of their accomplishments. The clothes of genius remained out of reach for women from many critics' point of view.

Dressing an existential threat: centuries of debate

Plunging even deeper into the nineteenth-century psyche reveals the patriarchal social imperative that developed with the growing industrialization and emergence of capitalism. To counterbalance the demands of a ruthless and often ethically questionable marketplace, men felt the need for a counterbalance to all 309 the evils of the world. The obvious choice for a counterbalance was the wife. To be a proper caretaker for the male soul, ideal women were meant to be the pure, submissive, and the silent extension of the man. This image of the wife's innocence balancing out the husband's world-weary soul recalls the one-sex theory, with the man's needs of a subservient guardian of his salvation 310 . This image of the silent submissive ideal woman, willing to give 308 C.V., "La Démon de La Mèlomanie," La France Musicale, January 9, 1848, Gallica. everything for the happiness of a man, even her own life, was transmitted through socially instructive fairytales like Hans Christian Andersen's (1805-1875) The Little Mermaid. The fairy tale draws the picture of an ideal woman through the mermaid who sacrifices first her voice, to be worthy of her beloved's company, and then her life, to facilitate his happiness with another woman.

Women's silent passivity was praised and encouraged through artistic comparisons to objects with the same qualities, like flowers. The ideal woman conflicted of course with real women demonstrating genius at high levels such as George Sand and Germaine de Staël, Jenny D'Hericourt, and Pauline Viardot-Garcia. These women openly expressed themselves creatively and gained unusual autonomy and manifested their exceptional abilities openly that posed consternation to the social norms of the era:

The high Victorian bourgeois wife, myth would have it, was the true personification of the dolce far niente, the sweet indolence appropriate to the existence of a creature who, if it were not for her decorative and reproductive tasks, would have no function at all in this world311 . These women's relative obscurity (except for George Sand) today can possibly be explained by the dominant philosophies of their day that perceived their contributions as not only an anomaly but a threat to the social fabric of the day.

Exceptionally creative women were also reprimanded for possession of something that didn't belong in the female body: genius. Critic Charles Maurras (1868-1952) equated women's genius with chaotic degeneration; a theft of the rights of the male gender and the over sensualisation of art 312 . The critic Paul de Molènes (1821-1862) in an 1842 issue of the Revue des Deux Mondes makes this abundantly clear when he equates the existence of breasts as the reason why a woman cannot generate great ideas: "What do you call a creature whose breasts, destined to nourish children and to hold maternal joys, when they remain sterile and work only for egotistical emotions?313 "(MT)314 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), an anarchist and prominent advocate for citizen rights, had no such ambition for women. He spent considerable time to place women in a place of their own, apart from men's power and abilities; "genius, then, is the virility of mind, its abstract power, of generalization, of invention, of conception, hence the child, the eunuch, and the woman are left equally wanting315 "(MT) 316 . The imagery of the passive ideal woman of the nineteenth century may have motivated what was seen as a real threat to male dominance in politics as well as the arts. In their article on French women opera composers, Jacqueline Letztler and Robert Adelson point out that the French Revolution "brought an unprecedented level of female participation in public debate318 ". Women's active participation in the political arena contributed to the backlash against creative women that was philosophical, physiological, and sexual. Olympe de Gouges, an active feminist and author of Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen (1791),319 who was a participant in this political debate advocating for women's right to citizenship in the new republic. She declared: "Woman is born free and equal to man in rights. Social distinctions cannot exist except for the benefit of all320 "(MT)321

Women engaged in the argument

Responding directly to Proudhon's criticisms of women's intelligence and creative capabilities, D'Hericourt uses his own words against him in which he claims that inequality of ability in men, when it isn't caused by vice or congenital defect, is merely the result of ignorance and a lack of education322 . D'Hericourt then reminds the reader of how little access women have to education.

To refute his claims of male superiority linked to their physical strength, she reminds Proudon of how many weak men still have the same rights as strong ones 323 .

Julien Joseph Virey (1775-1846) believed (as did other philosophers after him, such as Schopenhauer and Proudhon) that the male sex organs were the source of creative energy in humans, thus women would naturally be excluded from having access to this capacity:

If there exists a physical principle in the universe that can impart the whole capacity of expansiveness and daring to our intelligence, it is the sperm without a doubt the new impetum faciens, a source of vital vigor. By it, genius is illuminated …music, all the fine arts are lit by this torch of life324 . (MT)

From Proudhon to Virey we can see the dominant patriarchal philosophy of the creative power both literal and figural of the male sperm, rendered women's creations simply not viable.

Adrianna Paliyenko, in her book Genius Envy: Women Shaping French Poetic History 1801-1900, wrote,

Under the French Third Republic, intellectual fertility remained tied to procreative infertility in literary analysis that measured women's deficient as well as excessive creativity against normative femininity325

There were responses from women to these baseless and pseudo-scientific claims, like that of Jenny D'Hericourt: "You say: only men produce physical seed, anatomy responds: It is the woman who produces the seed, the organ inside of her, as in other woman, fills this function, it is the ovary326 "(MT) 327 . The understanding of women's physical anatomy that contributed to the creation of life was already known in the nineteenth century, yet baseless claims still found receptive audiences in those hoping to hold on to men's claims of creative dominance.

According to Schopenhauer women could have great talent but never the lofty title of genius because they could never be objective, nor did they have the required anatomy for genius.

According to Schopenhauer, genius could only exist in the male body328 .

As Julien-Joseph Virey wrote in 1823: "femininity and creativity are mutually exclusive" and "nature wishes to make women inferior to men 329 ". D'Hericourt responds to these claims with the following:

Women can't be artists. And yet all the world knows that the greatest literary artist of our time is a woman, G. Sand; and the whole world bows before Duchesnois, Mars, Georges, Maxime, Ristori, Rachel, Dorval; and everyone has paused before Rosa Bonheur's beautiful canvases; and from the beginning of the beaux-arts, each century has its female celebrities330 (MT)331 .

To justify this subjectivity, women's works were characterized as too emotional or too sentimental.

Puzzlingly, women's creativity was also critiqued for not being emotional enough or even 'cold' as J.J. Rousseau put it. Germaine de Staël in her 1788 writing Lettres sur les écrits et le caractère de J.J. Rousseau outlined this contradiction of eighteenth and nineteenth century thought. Staël uses the phrase "une femme de génie", a woman of genius, a term that was often given to talented women of her age. She points out the contradiction in Rousseau's argument: how can a woman be preoccupied with her own feelings so much that she thinks of little else and yet write coldly332 ?

Making sense of the impossible

Exceptional women were seen as such an anomaly that Diderot, referred to his mistress but also his intellectual correspondent, Sophie Volland as a man333 . In the next century, Jules and Edmond de Goncourt surmised that George Sand, Germaine de Staël and Pauline Viardot being geniuses, or having "original talent 334 " must have actually been hermaphrodites.

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[I] would say bluntly that I am persuaded that if we had the autopsy of women having original talent, like Mme. Sand, Mme. Viardot, etc. one would find on them male-like genitals 335 (MT) 336 .

Women were essentially barred from the musical canons of the nineteenth century because their bodies were not men's bodies. This physiological inaccessibility to an all-male canon was compounded by the bestowal of universality given to those entrants who coincided enough with the lone-male-composer ideal.

Cross-dressing: composing while female

For women to compose music is and was a social risk. the young female protagonist's passage from subservience to expressing free-will through melodic development. Viardot-Garcia's compositional techniques in this operetta will be discussed in detail in chapter three.

Given the prevailing norm of genius as male rule-breaker these women's professional trajectories, have broken the social rules merely by being an exceptional artist and a woman. A quest for the same societal status as that of their male peers seemed unattainable and may have been one of the reasons Viardot-Garcia had no desire to pursue composition as a second career. The risks, weighed in comparison with the rewards must have been overwhelming. One must look more carefully at the more subtle signs that merit attention. Perhaps historical female composers' understanding of their own social context should not be underestimated. To view musical creation that did not produce the same anxiety of authorship for women, because they didn't have the same access to the professional and public arena, inevitably produced works that took a different shape. But how do we see these works for what they are instead of comparing them to works born of a completely different social aesthetic? There was not even an available vocabulary to appreciate and evaluate works created in a woman's typical nineteenth-century environment (thus the gendered and patronizing critiques). The other possibility was to use the anomaly of the gifted female composer as a means of risk-free notoriety by approaching it as a miracle or a once-in-a-blue-moon phenomenon.

338 Amy Lorette Damron Kyle, "The Tale of Two Queens: Flipping the Script on the 'princess Culture' in Opera,"

The Conversation, décembre 2019, https//:theconversation.com.

Isolationist praise and its repercussions

Sir, a woman's composing is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all 339 .

When discussing a phenomenon, discovery of the first occurrence is more valued, more remembered than the second or third or even a consistent line of events. Perhaps it was in service of the ego, partially, that Viardot-Garcia was often spoken of by her male peers as the first female of genius. But far from being a simple compliment, this statement is a symptom of an ongoing othering of female composers and female musical genius. Not only does the 'only one' or 'first one' type of praise set these women of genius apart, but it makes them seem even more of an anomaly. Presenting a woman of talent and musical training as the first woman to do something is to draw them in the context of something that has never happened before, making the woman of genius a phenomenon outside of her gender limitations. This praise operates on the social context of women as inferior, instead of serving to break down these stereotypes, serves to strengthen them by defining exceptional women in terms of their so-called 'masculine strengths' or in their rarity.

The qualities of the 'first' or 'only' in the category of female musical genius sets her apart from her fellow female artists in a way that casts doubt that the phenomenon could ever happen again to someone of her gender. This praise, more than raising the possibilities for the gender, isolates the individual and creates a chasm that the 'only one' was lucky enough to cross.

When looking at the self-portrait of a later composer, that of Ethel Smyth, one can see that this practice was perceived as a necessity for success in a patriarchal society. Even Smyth, who had close associations with composers such as Augusta Holmes, often portrayed herself as the 'first'

or the 'only female composer' of larger works. Her myopic self-portrayal could be seen as an effort at self-promotion and self-preservation. What benefit could she see in billing herself as part of the next generation of female composers in a line of barely known predecessors? It seems daunting at best to first must establish the worth of the preceding work before even approaching the marketing and propagation of one's own work. This is perhaps why isolating praise seems so attractive, effectively masking the danger to the female composer's legacy. Virginia Woolf, who must have known of the many female composers who preceded Smyth, wrote in her letter to the composer: "Now why shouldn't you be not only the first woman to write an opera, but equally the first to tell the truths about herself? 340 " Perhaps as Christopher Wiley, in his article "Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf and 'The First Woman to Write an Opera'" from which this quote is taken, one can assume that Woolf was informed mainly by her friend's accounts of music history which rarely included praise or even identified her female predecessors. From the same article by Wiley, we find this quote from Kathleen Abromeit who furthers the woman creator as anomaly concept praising Smyth's operas as: "an almost unbelievable accomplishment for a woman composer of the day 341 " Of Ethel Smyth, Tchaikovsky stated upon their 1888 meeting:

"Miss Smyth is one of the comparatively few women composers who may be seriously reckoned among the workers in this sphere of music. 342 " Ethel Smyth propagates the idea of the "pioneer" and isolationist praise for Augusta Holmes (for whom she had complicated professional opinions) in her essay "Augusta Holmes pioneer 343 ". Liszt, in his essay on Viardot-Garcia in 1859, praised her as a woman who offered a "rare view" of a woman whose talents and "finesse would be enviable by more than one famous composer 345 ".

Composers that she mentored found her an exception, or perhaps the exception. Massenet for example, praised her musical ability and called her a "woman marvelously endowed and altogether unusual 346 ". It is inconclusive as to whether the source of Massenet's astonishment is purely directed at her musical talent, or rather that this talent sprang from a woman. Allowing for female genius would change the nature of their understanding of musical creation forever and can perhaps partly explain the reactions of past that ranged from revulsion, to fear, to avoidance and occasionally advocacy, among literary and philosophical tables. Instead of ensuring her legacy, this perceived difference in Viardot-Garcia was not seen as representative of the possibilities within her gender but ensured the promotion of the myth of the average woman's incapability.

A patriarchal inheritance; science versus the mystique of genius

There is no denying the sociological pull of a word like genius. It sets apart musical creators whose work fits and surpasses the cultural aesthetic enough to be publicly praised. At the same time, those accepted as geniuses show that they know the social and artistic rules of engagement well enough that they can bend or break them to create the novelty society craves. Here lies the problem of a gender-exclusive concept of genius. Female composers of the nineteenth century were both unconsciously forced to break the rules of engagement, when it came to composing at all, but also not allowed to know the rules. The supremacy of large forms, which meant orchestrated works, 344 George Sand, ""Le Théâtre Italien et Mlle. Pauline Garcia," Revue Des Deux Mondes 14 (février 1840). 345 Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 171. 346 Massenet, My Recollections, 81.

were the calling cards of musical genius: instruction on orchestration was rarely accessible to women composers until the twentieth century. Thus, we see a vague invitation to play the game of creating while imposing such monumental handicaps as to make it near impossible to compete.

Breaking the rules in the 'right way' is a sign of genius. But which rules? Only the rules of counterpoint? What about the rules of gender roles, the rules of collaboration, the rules of masculine sonata form? Does a small form work of genius not exist? Though rule-breaking is a genius-criterion artificially placed on composers of merit by historians and biographers, it is one that must be investigated to counterbalance this historical myopia. Just as Jenny D'Hericourt pointed out, the nineteenth-century social expectations first disarmed women by denying them education and then accused them of being incapable of genius 347 .

Florence Launay highlights the struggle laid out for creative women given the precedent that has been set for centuries:

For young women, rebelling against their future as a wife and mother isn't supported in any positive fantasy of success. On the contrary, a female composer, as all women with intellectual ambitions, is more often victim to gibes of 'learned woman' or the 'bluestockings', etc. which for a long time have been means of ridiculing them 348 (MT) 349 .

New ways to see genius

Knowing the hurdles nineteenth century female composers had to jump in order to be considered artists, it makes sense to closely inspect their works for signs of merit that may be outside of the gendered aesthetic. Tia de Nora suggests a possible means of understanding unknown works in a new way would be by making reception and construction of meaning a stage for examination on 125 what and how we judge great works350 . After so much hero-worship and social conditioning on how to appreciate the music of composers like Beethoven, the result is resistance to new perspectives and broader context. These factors could broaden our musical historical view and move some emphasis away from the restrictive archetype to highlight the accomplishments of others. To fully understand the accomplishments of musicians and composers who do not fit within the Beethoven archetype requires abandoning the imperative of that archetype for a more holistic view. This presents a challenging paradigm shift. As DeNora puts it: "to contextualize-genius is to elide the moral and political character of many or most quarrels over what counts as 'valuable work' 351 ". Music history appears to have been anesthetized to any sensitivity to its own biases.

The over emphasis of independent genius robs musical genius of the context of their artistic circle, often involving the salon for women like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, making a lasting place in the canon impossible for many whose works should be considered.

In the case of critical reception of Viardot-Garcia works we encounter not only a foreign auditory experience, having not been conditioned in the criteria or reception of such music, but also the lack of a social reference and context. It is interesting to note that Viardot-Garcia did have many of the social promotions necessary to champion her notoriety. Her fame was already established in her dazzling career as an opera diva, her social circles were the musical elite and the aristocracy of Europe, and her creative circle of friends was a veritable who's-who of the romantic period. But fame as a female singer, and notoriety for maintaining a brilliant salon and friends in high places,

does not liberate a woman from the creative constraints of her day. These markers in the face of the aggressive push to disqualify women's art from the highest accolades was too prevalent and 126 ensured that the part of her celebrity linked to her creativity was not sufficiently durable to extend her influence much past her death nor beyond her influence as an interpreter of other's works. This lack of durability of the notoriety of women's works through history, as we have seen, is directly due to the philosophical views on female creativity and creative output, highlighting that this argument is symbolic, representative, and tenacious.

A patriarchal inheritance; consequences for the 'modern' canon

The present concept of genius is still formed using nineteenth-century philosophical and social values. Marjorie Garber describes how society still forms its ideal: "The genius was, and to some extent continues to be, the romantic hero, the loner, the eccentric, the apotheosis of the individual…We prefer the myth.352 " Given only these touchstones, steeped as they are in ideals of masculinity, finding female musical geniuses past or present could be a challenge. As Vaughan Schmutz and Alison Faupel observe:

The exclusion of women from Victorian literature and Viennese music had longstanding consequences for the gendered distribution of cultural legitimacy and consecration as it limited opportunities for female writers and musicians and diminished the likelihood that they would be included in the canons of their respective fields353 .

Though literary women of the nineteenth century did enjoy more visibility and success than their predecessors, the expectation of abandoning creative pursuits following marriage, was still a social imperative for women, and made great achievements intensely difficult. Women of talent were still recognized despite their gender. Even Elisabeth Barrett Browning, in praise of George Sand, wrote that the peak of her creativity would come after death, having been freed from her gender:

We see thy woman-heart beat evermore Through the large flame. Beat purer, heart, and higher, 127 Till God unsex thee on the heavenly shore, Where unincarnate spirits purely aspire! 354

Though one may be able to list a few literary women whose names have endured, it does not change the fact that these women were viewed as the exception to the gender rule. This gender rule seemed even more lasting when considering musical compositions. Exceptional creativity was socially accepted as a male domain even for the creative women who challenged the expectation.

Marketing male ideals

With the growing market for printed music and the freelance culture of composition, ideals of originality as well as solitary creation took hold in the nineteenth century 355 . Collaborators, often women, lost any chance at authorial status or recognition. This loss of collaborative credit for creations further closed the door to cultural acknowledgement of women's influence and contributions to the musical creations of others. Marketing concerts relied increasingly on a composer's persona during this time, leaning heavily on the idea of the 'lone male genius' 356 . Loss of acknowledgement of female creativity in the creation of great works, such as operas, to which women contributed, was a sign of the growing male-centered aesthetic of musical creation. Divas especially often played a crucial role in the creation of a new opera, up through the mid-nineteenth century. These women often contributed melodic content as well as structural suggestions and constraints that shaped the way the composer worked. One such example was the mezzo-soprano Célestine Galli-Marie, who created the title role in George Bizet's Carmen. Galli-Marie rejected the first drafts of Carmen's aria and suggested instead: Not only did Galli-Marie suggest the emotional tone of the piece, but suggested structure as well:

a havanaise centered around a dance-like theme 359 . The musical canon, however, lacked a collective context. Perception of great works was based on criteria of solitary masculine effort, then judged and affirmed by the same small group of male critics and historians. It is that continued lack of context which perpetuates and prolongs the myth that women had little influence on musical developments and styles.

The anecdotes circulating in our contemporary society of moments of supreme genius displayed by male composers are legion, the moments based on collaboration are not. Collaboration, in an age of increasing focus on the marketability of a work, saw no use in a complete origin story.

Origin stories, instead focused on the romantic, heroic, masculine, ideal. The mechanism of social teaching and promotion displayed in these stories not only serve the purpose of justifying the publisher and historian's praise but also confirm male composer's incontestable superiority. It is no surprise that these stories, though present in historical documents have not cleared the road for societal remembrance of exceptional musical creativity by women. Chaminade or Fanny Mendelssohn it is that they were composing while being female. This is as far as the miraculous moment goes for them. Their origin story includes their departure from traditional female roles, which perhaps is perceived in a positive light for some but has negative consequences for them within their society.

Modern echoes of nineteenth-century philosophies

In 2018, the gender gap between performances of music by male and female composers in 89 of the largest symphony orchestras in the United States was enormous: 98.3% male to 1.7% female.

Of the most performed composers the top three are still Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms360 .

Recordings of the Year awarded by Gramophone from 1977 to 2017 haven't changed much either; not a single winning recording features a contemporary or historical female composer 361 . This appears to say that the classical music world has not followed the social evolution of the last half century. It is no surprise, then, that this genre is struggling to stay relevant. But can audiences really still be expected to accept an art form where the male standard is presented as the only standard? The social movements of 2020 reflect a mounting cultural desire for inclusivity and for the understanding of previously marginalized groups. Yet in classical music, women composers still occupy a tiny portion of public stage time, at least in the symphonic sphere, though it is hard to imagine that the ratio is much different with chamber music; the male standard is still handed to the public as gender neutral. The study of music is still mostly divided into mainstream music history, followed distantly by women in music. This distinction forms a barrier between the present and the past and propagates social norms and values that have long since been abandoned.

Prima donnas and the double-edged sword of celebrity

Professional female singers of the nineteenth-century had to navigate the complicated social connotations of a woman using her voice on stage. Though women used their voices, it did not, by any means imply gender parity or even progress towards it. There is a reason why Pauline Viardot-Garcia chose to marry a man twenty years her senior at the dawning of her career; for the safety of her person and her career both socially and physically. Women's voices were still demonized well into the nineteenth century for their sensuality and women who performed on stage were still looked upon as having compromised the purity of their femininity. Rebecca Bennett-Fairbank states the heavy responsibility of the nineteenth-century diva in this way:

The prima donna inherits attitudes toward women in general because she stands as a spokesperson of the female sex. Given the public nature of the prima donna's existence and public use of her literal voice, she represents all women. thus historical, social and literary attitudes towards all women, not just singing women, come under consideration362 .

The collaboration between Viardot and Gounod as well as other prima donnas with other composers, has presented both evidence of the diva's power and the annoying nature of said power in approaching the great 'musical genius' with comments, suggestions and changes to their works.

The assumption that a composer's all-powerful capacity was disrupted by the diva just doesn't play out in the primary sources. Often profusions of gratitude and acceptance of the work as 'ours' instead of 'mine' are professed by the composer himself. Such is the case with a letter to Viardot- regarding the history of French poetry translate easily to the history of music: "Women's absence, like their presence, shapes understanding of the French poetic past 364 ". An understanding of the way in which the canon stays the same, and the way in which composers were admitted to it, allows for change and growth. Classical music can reach a public hungry for diversity by adding much needed relevance and relatability through inclusive context. There is, then, much more to be said on how and why the musical canon dictates the endowment of the titles "great composer" or "musical genius."

What to wear? Further concerns

Some may suggest that the age of musical geniuses is so problematic that it is best abandoned. But would rejecting the term genius accelerate the welcoming of exceptional female composers into our historical memory? Shall we take away the highest honor, which would certainly remain for those already established in the canon, at a time when women like Viardot-Garcia are finally beginning to receive some of their due for great works created? The canon and its accolades need not be erased but should be scrutinized. How do we remedy the unbalanced memory of men's and women's creations? How do we allow for 'great' works, which have been judged so based on a structure accessible only to men, to continue to be great while making room in the mainstream for women's compositions? The question I frequently receive is, is there even room for women like Pauline Viardot-Garcia or Clara Schumann to stand in the same circle as Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, or even Beethoven? In this context, the creative process is neither important nor seen as the necessary basis for strokes of genius. Masterworks become the sole product of the celebritycomposer. This myopic view further leads to the mystique and inapproachability of the all-male genius.

Accepting the idealized image of members of this all-male canon as exemplary symbols further sanctifies the present musical canon and blinds the observer to the underlying bias that informed its formation. Thus, the canon is not seen for what could have been: an elastic result of social values that change. While the persona of the 'solitary male genius' is reinforced, the canon continues to alienate new and unknown works. This could change, if context and an understanding of the inequalities of the system that canonized men, and excluded women, were recognized. Does the admittance of the latter harm the accepted canon? A canon of limited capacity reveals its prejudices without even trying. An expansive canon does not have mean a substandard one, it can also mean one that regularly checks societies prejudices. An evaluation of the criteria inherited from the nineteenth century is a critical step in opening the path towards a more inclusive canon and a clearer view of musical genius.

Collaborative masterworks

Viewing Viardot-Garcia were not at the periphery of the creative milieu of their day; they were at its heart.

Context brought to bear on the lives of established great composers as well as of forgotten ones adds a layer of complexity, introduces multiple authorship, and normalizes the enjoyment and understanding of women's compositions.

Seeing value in women's compositions

Including historical context means opening the understanding of a work's reception to the impact of its social provenance. This path must comprise recovering documents of historical reception 134 that do not exclude women or gloss over their work in gendered terms. These types of documents could be seen as unpublished critical reviews. Using letters, unpublished journals, and memoirs, for example, not only give insight into the genius manifested by female composers, but also gives us first-person accounts by those that heard their works, bringing them from the periphery to the inner circle of creation. Valuation can be complicated, and its complexity must be acknowledged.

Looking past public critical views to other written records of reception allows for value to be seen in women's works as well 366 .

The reception of Viardot-Garcia's compositions by both her male and female contemporaries is an example of genuine historical context in contrast to our perception of the terms on which the works of nineteenth-century women were received. Viardot's success and influence were subject to social prejudice and slowly erased over time by those that recorded our music history.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's accomplishments and works were hailed during her lifetime (1821-1910) as those of a great artist. Liszt praised her as the first female composer of genius he had ever known. He wrote of Viardot-Garcia as a person being in possession of truly exceptional sensibilities:

…this possession upon which she builds all of her tone shapes; this heart is seized by all music which it draws into her own charm and magic; it composes itself with a feeling of great tenderness, expresses itself through harmonic subtleties. More than one famous composer could envy her these fine points 367

Clara Wieck Schumann said of her friend that she was "the most talented woman" that she had ever known 368 . Adolphe Adam described her as one who 366 Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 206. 367 Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 171. 368 Jesensky, "The Life of Pauline Viardot: Her Influence on the Music and Musicians of Nineteenth Century Europe," 268.

…sings in, and speaks five languages, who plays the piano like an angel, is as good a harmonist as anyone, who sings like her sister and who composes things that we would have been proud to have written369

Perhaps society has vanquished the idea that a certain set of genitalia opens or closes the door to possible creative genius. In a time when Beethoven and Mozart still appear instantly in the mind of the general public at the mention of the title 'musical genius', ignorance of the substantial array of musical creations by gifted women composers, however, is still the norm. Proving the merit of female composers in musicological texts is not enough. A glance at popular consumption of classical music paints a much starker portrait of where society's expectations and estimations of female composers truly lie.

A limited scope means a limited wardrobe

Gender parity in programming is still viewed as a financial risk to most large symphony orchestras.

Why? Because the philosophies of the nineteenth century may seem outdated, but their influence is far from gone. The canon still presents the gold standard, and there are few public rewards in selecting anything outside that accepted male-dominant standard. In their article reviewing revenue sources and concert programming of U.S. symphony orchestras, Pompe Tamburri and Munn describe the difficulty orchestras face in choosing unfamiliar music such as music by female composers because their ticket sales drop when performing unfamiliar works by as much as 20%.

They state: "There is evidence that SOs [Symphony Orchestras] have an affinity for a small number of composers from classical and romantic periods which are representative of the standard repertoire 370 " The canon not only tells an audience what they should like from their first experiences in the musical classroom 371 , but whom they should pay to hear. This is done without revealing its implicit biases.

Understanding the depth of the meaning of musical genius that we have inherited from nineteenthcentury aesthetics can serve us now in our strivings for inclusion, for a richer comprehension of women's musical creations, then and now. Musical genius is part of how the musical story is told, half modern mythology, half social norms personified. With deeper, more meaningful context, that story can continue to evolve along with the social needs of our time. Revising historical context to include great female composers can inspire future generations and engender better understanding of how great music is made and who the 'great composers' really were and are. By questioning the criteria built into the current canon, a culture of curiosity can be championed in the musical classroom and the concert hall. Curiosity invites an audience that includes the newest generations to participate in discovery and evaluation. Modification of the canon does not exclude already accepted great works but merely brings great women into focus, into the concert hall, and into the ears of a generation longing for equality. So that those giants of genius, past and present, may dress as they please.

Chapter 3 Le Dernier Sorcier: A sociological and musical analysis

Introduction

Composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia and librettist Ivan Turgenev, created Le Dernier Sorcier over the span of some twenty years. This chapter features an analysis of the lyrics and music and how they combine to create a brilliantly creative manifestation of female strength. I chose to analyze this work chronologically because doing so allows me to show the ascent of feminine power and the fall of the (tyrannical) masculine. This is done in part through a theory that I developed in my analysis that uses Viardot-Garcia's use of the 4/4 meter as a way to signify power and hierarchy.

But before beginning the analysis, two things must be addressed: Viardot-Garcia's role as composer, as well as the process of the operetta's creation and its crucial place in Viardot-Garcia's works. Le Dernier Sorcier among other purposes, was specially crafted to reduce the gap between the repertoire developed and cultivated for learning singers and opera roles they would later encounter and may have been the reason for the work's inception 374 . The operetta contains important elements for an opera singer; character development, cadenzas, and duos and perhaps the most difficult: comedic timing and execution. Viardot-Garcia was a serious musician and lived music in everything she did. But the composer and musician was wise enough not to take herself too seriously and was far from pedantic or overly sober. Even while recounting her astounding triumph in her portrayal of Orphée, she doesn't hesitate to mention the funny or ridiculous moments:

Le Dernier Sorcier: A collaborative creation

The Duo with Euridice (a lovely, untrained voice) also made a great impression, but the number which marked the culminating point was the air 'J'ai perdu mon Euridice.' I think I have discovered three good ways of delivering the motif. The first time, sorrowful amazement, almost motionless. The second, choked with tears (the applause lasted two minutes, and they wanted an encore!!!). The third time, outbursts of despair. My poor Euridice remarked, as she arose: "Mph! I thought that would last forever! 375 (TB) 376

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's operettas were masterworks as well as teaching tools for her students preparing for a career on the opera stage: a marriage of form and function that didn't scorn or shy away from the joy of comedic performance. Far from reducing the importance of these works, this pedagogical context opens a rare view of works written by a singer for the education of younger singers. Viardot-Garcia's operettas are documents of not only aesthetic beauty but embedded expectations and observations on social norms and how she felt about those expectations. The genius of these works lies in both their instructive musical and social power as well as their beauty and theoretical mastery. Viardot-Garcia, in her subtle way presents a new way of looking at musical creativity by flaunting the norms of "serious" music to create an operetta at once pedagogical, humorous, meaningful, and full of musical motifs that return to weave a complex

A creative partnership: The birth of Le Dernier Sorcier

In Russia where she was: "attendue comme le Messie 383 " in November of 1843 Pauline Viardot-Garcia met Ivan Turgenev 384 . This meeting, between the then-unknown Russian writer and the brilliantly popular opera star began as one of friendship and broadened in depth and importance for both parties partly due to the dogged devotion bordering on obsession for Turgenev. Viardot-Garcia's feelings, of course, for Turgenev were sincere and complex. But it was the writer who was, from the beginning, openly enamored with Viardot-Garcia. The resulting relationship, which has been observed and analyzed by scholars studying both artists' lives and vary in their conclusions, there is still much to be said and discovered. The two artists obviously were drawn to each other and the long years in which their lives became increasingly entwined would see the production of other works where the influence of the other party is clear. Le Dernier Sorcier is possibly the best positioned work of Viardot-Garcia to document this creative and spiritual connection as its evolution stretches nearly as long as their relationship.

Manuscripts and edited scores

My analysis in this thesis is based on the manuscript rehearsal score written in Pauline Viardot-

A creative haven

In 1847, from Courtavenel, a chateau purchased with Pauline's earnings from her successful season in Russia, that Viardot-Garcia wrote Count Matvei Vielgorski: "J'ai beaucoup composé, un peu dessiné, pas du tout chanté 386 ". We can assume that it was during moments like these in Courtavenel that she began to compose this first operetta. The first found musical sketch from the operetta is a 1851 draft of Krakamiche's aria, "Ah Sotte Existence" -from Viardot-Garcia's sketchbooks, found in the Houghton Archives at Harvard University 387 . A sketch of Lelio's Stornello, "Pourrais-je jamais aimer une autre femme", dated in Viardot-Garcia's hand-Courtavenel 1857-can be found in the Harvard archives as well. This Stornello was not initially composed for the operetta but was included later. From these sketches of the stornello to the Baden-Baden and Weimar versions there are no changes in harmony, melody or rhythm except that the last two measures are repeated 388 .

Another sketch found by Nicholas Žekulin in Viardot-Garcia's sketchbooks has no date but is believed to have been produced during the same period as Krakamiche's aria (the sorcerer's name).

According to Žekulin the version found in the sketchbooks is a second draft, perhaps from 1859.

This piece is the elves chorus, entitled, "Par Ici 389 ". (double entendre intended). On the other side we find a band of female elves, led by their queen, from whom Krakamiche stole their land to build his own domain. The Queen explains her position clearly in the first pause for dialogue:

Baden

But I cannot let this old wizard live in the greenest clearing in our forest…I will not rest until I have made this vile human habitation, that was so rudely erected in our beautiful kingdom. I have sworn a war to destroy Krakamiche, he would do well to leave the forest 402 . (MT) 403

The forces at war, as with most fairy tales, are symbolic. Nicholas Žekulin calls Turgenev's personal philosophy, which is made manifest in the story, that of the triumph of "nature and will over man and reason". The manifestations of power and control of the queen of the elves, and her final victory can be easily seen in this context as the embodiment of 'nature and will' while Krakamiche represents man and reason. Viardot seems to support this dichotomy musically with her use of re-occurring themes, metric hierarchies, and word painting through the use of consonant and dissonant intervals these musical devices will be discussed later in my analysis.

Krakamiche's palace, built on the elves land, with numerous servants is now reduced to a ramshackle hut on the stage. The operetta opens with the entrance of the elves carried by an unstable passing tonality and minor seventh chords before establishing the tonality of e minor at the first entrance of the elves. Viardot-Garcia then begins to present many of the themes that will come to represent both people and themes of power, playfulness, and struggle. Though the operetta The elves call to each other forming a sustained diminished C# chord, perhaps signaling their own destabilizing presence in the story and the status quo of Krakamiche's dominance. The elves, singing in three-part harmony, seem to give chase as their chords rise ever higher to meet and make Krackamiche surpass his B flat.

As Krakamiche ascends ever higher, with descending octaves to try and reclaim his dominance, the elf Verviene interrupts his efforts with: "c'est bien! c'est bien" to which the elves taunt the Krakamiche with "mais tu ne peux plus rien!" (You cannot do anything anymore!).

409 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 15.

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claim. Krakamiche, like the Queen of the Night, is the biological parent. The Queen of the Elves, much like Sarastro, is the spiritual parent, which is made clear a few lines later: "I repeat -I do not want to harm Krakamiche. I care for his daughter, and she is like us … 413 " (MT) 414 The parallels or rather, the mirror images of The Magic Flute continue as the Queen of the Elves and her female subjects (much like Sarastro and his priests) continue to guide the events of the story and the actions of the main characters. Those mirror images will be discussed as they arise in the story and the analysis.

Lelio enters the scene with "Dans le bois frais"

In the following piece, "Dans le bois frais" sung by Stella's future love-interest we find allusions to the call of the hunting horn.

Ex. 3.7 "Dans le bois frais" p. 24 415

The prince Lelio enters the wood on the hunt. The young suitor on a hunt may also reference the key pastime that brought Turgenev so quickly into the lives of the Viardots.

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and remains in F major throughout, a stark contrast to the water-like tonal shifts of the chorus of the elves. Not only is the tonal color different, but the meter, moving from 2/4 to 6/8 establishes a different mood altogether. Allusions and references to themes on love, using ternary meters, will be made throughout the operetta.

The Melodrama and Romance that follows presents another means by which Viardot-Garcia establishes the power and dominance of the Queen. The Melodrama is where the Queen instructs the young Lelio on exactly how he will interact with her: "Do not move… do not question me"

and "Young mortal, you must be silent and obey… 416 "(MT) 417 all of which is in 4/4. The most common of meters of 4/4 is reserved in this opera for the Queen, and references to her. In this manner, Viardot-Garcia takes the strong female character written by Turgenev and removes her from the 'other' category by musically giving her the meter that is considered the norm.

The chromaticism that one finds in this aria is used to foreshadow Lelio's role in the problem to be solved, ridding the forest of the old sorcerer, Krakamiche. In the second verse Lelio alludes to the inevitability of his role as he sings "Alas, the struggle is in vain -like a wounded deer I can feel my veins run dry. I try to flee but I linger. The arrow has pierced me!" 418 (MT) 419 . These lines are accompanied by descending chromatic chords in a nod to the entrance of the elf Queen in the following piece.

Romance and Melodrama -"Ramasse cette Rose"

"It's me, do not be afraid" 420 (MT) 421 , the words Lelio sing to Stella in their duet, are first given to him by the Queen as she sings "come forward and do not be afraid! 422 "(MT) 423 in the beginning of this piece. This gives context and genealogy to a phrase that otherwise might seem bizarre in a love duet, and once again alludes to the Queen's role as the couple's protector and matchmaker.

As the piece moves from the melodrama, and an assertion of the Queen's position, to one of melodic instruction with the young mortal, the meter changes to 3/4, a meter that is also used by Krakamiche in his efforts at magic, which fail. 3/4 in this context seems to represent the mortality of man and could be seen as part of the presentation of this philosophy of nature and will versus man and reason; Lelio being subject to the Queen (man subject to nature) in following her instructions. The piece again takes on an ambiguous tonal feel -centered around G minor-with the reappearance of the Queen of the elves. The Queen commands in a melodic line that will be repeated in her duo with Stella: "Obey, go forth, obey! 424 "(MT) 425 each word a step up from the last, starting with D. Viardot-Garcia elaborates further on the theme of descent with a descending sequence that repeats the original melody of "A Sotte existence" twice, each time a major second lower. The sexual innuendo of lines "When it lost its power [his wand], my life became hell. I am not made of iron, I can barely stand it443 "(MT)444 is underlined by another sequence that repeats each time a major second lower, drawing an image of the sorcerer's manhood and perhaps even of his sexual dysfunction.

the beginning, that his powers are failing, he is selfish and unpleasant, but he is never viewed as the epitome of evil as his unfortunate counterpart, the Queen of the Night, is in The Magic Flute.

Stella's coming of age

Viardot-Garcia's gift for melody is on display in "Coulez, coulez, gouttes fines". Not only melodically beautiful, but the harmony also reveals Stella's character transformation from girl to woman. The piece begins with a sweet and charming melody of ascending intervals and runs in the key of D major. The undulating accompaniment of the opening theme underlines the heroine's youth and innocence.

Ex. 3.18 "Coulez, coulez, gouttes fines" m. 1-11 p. 42 447

Viardot-Garcia musically calls attention to the theme of water, yet another sexual double entendre, this time in reference to Stella's sexual maturity. This is achieved by pausing the forward motion of the song on an F diminished seventh chord on the word "ruisseau" (little stream).

163 Ex. 3.19 "Coulez, coulez, gouttes fines" m.12-21 p.42 448

The middle section of the piece represents Stella's transformation as she expounds on the falling water: "The falling water makes a flowing curtain, a flower that sparkles like a diamond 449 "(MT) 450 .

To accompany this reference, Viardot-Garcia continues the theme of ascension as the dominant harmony of A major gives way to B major and then C# major as the heroine draws closer and closer to self-realization. The middle section ends with a preparation for the return to D and a fermata on Stella's high G# before the release back to D major and the original theme. The melodic theme is the same in its first presentation and at first glance the accompaniment is similar. But there is no longer the cradle-rocking up and down arpeggios from the beginning. The ascension theme continues in the piano and ends the first theme similarly on a diminished seventh chord, highlighting once again the word "ruisseau".

451 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 43.

Stella's melodic line grows in complexity for the second presentation of the melody as it becomes more and more improvisational and complex, ending in a full cadenza and the original tonic in second inversion:

Ex. 3. 21 "Coulez, coulez, gouttes fines" m. 62-78 p. 45 452

The musical transformation is underlined by the change in the intervals sung of the word coulez (flow) from a question in the form of an ascending fourth to that of a command in the descending third at the end of the piece. The growth of the heroine could be summed up in these two presentations of the same word, at first coulez? to finally, coulez! Stella has come into her sense of self, her adulthood, and realized what she wants.

The Queen claims Stella as her own

The Melodrama and Romance, "Sur les yeux" in which the Queen tells Stella of the rose and again promises "ne crains rien", as she did to Lelio, is much like her melodrama with Lelio. Though the melody and harmony are less complex, they follow the same harmonic and rhythmic scheme of beginning in 4/4 and switching to 3/4 as the key, Bb in both, is established.

Perlimpinpin has his moment

The piece that follows the Queen's assurances to Stella is one by Perlimpinpin, the disobedient and sardonic servant to Krakamiche who sings "Quand j'étais gros et fort". The sorcerer orders his servant to bring him his best hat, that he might prepare for the delegates' (the elves in disguise) imminent visit. Perlimpinpin instead complains of his master's constant demands (are all masters like that?) and insists that he finish eating the sausage that he stole from Krakamiche, and that he sings to help whet his appetite. "Quand j'étais gros et fort 455 " (when I was big and strong) is a simple strophic piece in the key of C that highlights Turgenev's comic lyrics for Perlimpinpin. When the work was staged in Baden-Baden, Perlimpinpin was played by Viardot-Garcia's tenyear-old son, Paul, who according to many observers, played his part brilliantly. Clara Schumann called him a "true comic genius456 ". Though the tonal center of the piece is never cast into doubt, Viardot-Garcia uses chromaticism throughout to emphasize the humor of the lyrics such as the Ab in the vocal line "Voila que j'oublie la fin de ma chanson!" (I just forgot the end of my song!) just a few measures before the end457 .

Turgenev's libretto is not the focus of this thesis, however in instances when it intigrates with important musical moments in Viardot-Garcia's composition, it is highlighted as well. Nicholas

Žekulin has already thoroughly researched the Turgenev text, on which he has published several papers that I reference in this and other chapters. Because the following scene had bearing on the stage career of Le Dernier Sorcier it is important to mention the context of Turgenev's work here.

References to power in the Elves' Marche

Turgenev was known to insert allusions to, and critiques of political figures, particularly Napoleon III. This can be seen, as highlighted by Nicholas Žekulin, in the words of Krakamiche to the elves disguised as an eastern delegation come to honor and bestow gifts on Krakamiche.

You are silent, it is true -but even in your silence I am pleased to see the fervent respect of your devoted feelings, heh, heh. I am not surprised to find that my name has lost nothing of its prestige among you -I am just as strong as always-strong like a Turc, ha ha!458 (MT)459

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The march itself is very tonal and harmonically simple; it stays in C minor the entire time and uses rhythms, such as the grace note below the following note to imply the magic and separation between the elves and Krakamiche 460 . The piece ends with spoken words as the elves There has already been a connection established between the meter of 4/4 and the Queen of the elves, so it is consistent that the entrance of the 'delegates' (the elves in disguise) accompanied by a 4/4 meter. Though disguised, the Queen is present and will soon be addressed when the elves reveal themselves.

Turning Krakamiche around in the "Ronde des Lutins"

The Elves' round in D minor is a celebration of nature and the otherness that they represent. The introduction, contrary to Krakamiche's aria, is about ascension, beginning with the chromatic sequence in the first measure and ending on the leading tone in the ninth measure:

460 Grace notes that precede a higher note can be found only in parts of the first act that involve the elves or the queen, or Perlimpinpin: another magical creature.

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Ex. 3.23 "Ronde des Lutins" m.1-9 p. 51 461

There are arguments to be made for and against keys having definitive characteristics for composers. However, it is possible that the choice of D minor for the Elves' Round was intentional. rival Sarastro who follows with a piece in E major. The Queen of the Night aria is not only a moment where this Queen asserts her power it is also a defining moment for her character. This aria erases any doubt as to whether the Queen is good or bad. Suddenly the fact that her messengers were dressed in black fits, and she is placed squarely in the camp of a villain. The round as well, is a defining moment for Krakamiche, one of defeat and vulnerability. The elves have easily won not just the moment, but the day. It is obvious that Krakamiche can no longer hide his weakness and must come to terms with his loss of power.

Krakamiche, in his solo aria sings in the key of C minor. Though D minor is a higher key, it is still in minor, removing some of the more obvious hierarchy and calling into question the idea of any binary (this versus that) contrast at all. Hierarchy is asserted in this piece in the mere fact that the elves are dominating Krakamiche by forcing him to dance. The fact that the finale ends with the Elves and their Queen singing in E major may be another reinforcement of that hierarchy.

The frequent chromatic scales ascending over multiple octaves propel the piece forward squarely in the ethereal realm of the elves. In Le Dernier Sorcier the elves assert their growing dominance over Krakamiche, caught in a defenseless moment without his magic wand and they force him to dance. Once again in measures 55 -65 Viardot-Garcia seems to evoke a reference to Chopin with choppy half step descents and a melodic turn that seems to evoke his waltz Op. 64 no. 2 in C# minor 463 .

Viardot-Garcia's musical compositions have kept company with some of Chopin's before. The two artists were known to be friends having been in considerable contact especially during Chopin's long relationship with George Sand. Viardot also transcribed twelve of Chopin's mazurkas for voice and piano, set to poetry by Louis Pomey (1831-1901) and originally published six 469 . Viardot-Garcia's composition style, however, is distinct from that of Chopin's irregular phrasing and only periodically takes on a "rhapsodic quality 470 ". Viardot-Garcia's compositions style, as evidenced in this piece as well as the entire operetta is narrative and takes on the personality of a character in the story, at times foreshadowing, at times alluding to aspects of different characters personalities. This seems natural as it was often Viardot-Garcia who would often take her place at the piano in performances of her operetta if she wasn't singing. These

Chopinesque moments in the ronde, and in Krakamiche's aria are indicative of her narrative compositional style. It represents another color in her musical palate to draw attention to Krakamiche's weakness, but perhaps also to his contradictions; he mistreats the elves, yet dearly loves his daughter, he is weak, but doesn't seem to accept that weakness. Halfway through the Ronde comes a lovely moment of comedic writing as the piano and orchestra makes a chromatic descent and transition from D minor to D major and the piece becomes a breathless waltz.

Krakamiche huffs and puffs: trying to maintain his dignity as he dances: The piece ends after vacillating between major and minor tonalities and again the piano accompaniment makes a commentary by means of quoting and varying the melodic line theme of "quel état me voila" from "Ah la Sotte Existence" in measures 145-148:

The first act draws to a close

The elves return to their forest as Krakamiche retreats to his hut and the elves sing one last Ronde before retiring for the day (the elves are nocturnal). The piece stays close to its original tonality of C major, though there is a section in F major (mm. 47-64) 473 which leads to a reaffirmation in G major before the recapitulation and the end. The 6/8 meter, an augmentation of the 3/8 meter from the Ronde with Krakamiche, is used to create a rocking rhythm and to maintain the light and playful nature of the elves. In the second half of the piece Viardot-Garcia employs Db and Ab augmented chords both to emphasize the dream-like quality of the finale as well as serving to glide the piece back to the original tonic and dominant of the piece as the elves sing their reasons for 472 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, 57.

473 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 117-19.

tormenting Krakamiche: "The sprite has a good and faithful heart, but in the ears of the wicked, it buzzes its clever song, light and fine, like a gnat. 474 "(MT) 475

Lelio's Stornello

The stornello is defined as another term for ritornello, a strophic song or poem, usually with "threeline stanzas, the first and third of which rhyme" and often referred to as an aria during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 476 . The piece is short but carries some interesting information in its form and harmony. Lelio's previous aria was in 6/8 and the Stornello is in 9/8. There seems to be some connection between the triple meters and themes of love and magic. The pieces in 6/8 include Lelio's first aria, "Dans le bois frais et sombre" (in the dark cool woods), the finale of the first act, sung by the elves, and Krakamiche and Stella's duo "Si tu ne sais pas" (if you do not know). The "Duo de la Rose" with Stella and Lelio, is marked as 3/4, however the ostinato bass rhythm makes a case for 6/8. If meaning can be drawn from this group of pieces in triple meter, again it would be a case for the accompaniment taking an active part in the narration of the operetta, using even rhythmic structure to influence, foreshadow and hint at more complex relationships than float to the surface.

The stornello, though clearly marked as the first piece of the second act, is found at the end of the holograph rehearsal score. The accompaniment for the melodrama that follows the stornello is marked "following Lelio's romance 477 ", which indicates the intended placement of the stornello, but could suggest that there were other options for this aria that were considered. There is a copy of the Stornello, almost identical musically and lyrically, found in the Harvard archives of the Stornello which is dated October 1857. There are a few changes made from this sketch to the accompaniment, which is fuller in the rehearsal score, but the melody remains the same. This seems to indicate that the piece was written before it was intended to be a part of the operetta.

The contrasting section in between the two A sections moves harmonically through G major and a minor before ushering back in the original theme with a half-diminished D-seventh chord. This iteration of the theme remains more harmonically fluid with chromatic passing notes and a D diminished chord superimposed over the tonic C chord. This oscillates in and out of the tonic as Lelio sings of his hopes and fears as he embarks on this new love "-Do you believe you could find a heart like mine. Who will love you, my soul, and who will love me, my own?" (MT) 478 The piece ends with ascending chords taking on the same constant sixteenth-note rhythm as the melody that recalls the beginning of the operetta: perhaps suggesting that Krakamiche's descent from power was evident from the beginning. The ascent ends with one last effort and failure by Krakamiche and an ending of harmonic suspension and ambiguity on a B major dominant chord.

Stella's journey continues

Signs of a shift in power and dominance from Krakamiche to his daughter can be found in their duo, "Si tu ne sais pas485 ". The character portrait of Stella, who in earlier versions was quite superficial, gained depth of character, notably in the addition of this duet for Krakamiche and Stella, which was added for the Weimar performances in 1869486 . Turgenev's capacity to give his protagonist more depth, is on display on this later addition to the score and Viardot-Garcia musically underscores this aspect of Stella's character.

Krakamiche could express tenderness for his daughter, but through the words and music his ambition and desire for control are clearly his first priorities. The duo is a dispute for dominance over Stella's destiny as father and daughter present their view of what happiness really means. The separation becomes evident through the contrast in musical style and mode changes with the person singing. Since Lelio has already claimed 6/8 (as well as other compound triple meters) it seems his influence on Stella is already present in this argument between daughter and father.

However, in the original rehearsal score, the piece begins in 3/8 and then changes to 6/8 with Stella's entrance487 , the fact that it ends in 6/8 could be significant. This discrepancy between the meter of the rehearsal score and the orchestral score explains the difference in measure numbers noted for the musical examples. The orchestral Žekulin version is used when legibility seems difficult in the rehearsal score but there is no observed musical difference. The piece then stitches between the two meters Krakamiche singing his melodies in 3/8 and Stella in 6/8. Krakamiche begins with a plaintive melody in A minor in "Si tu ne sais pas" but already the accompaniment makes a running commentary on his grasping and greedy character with a disjunct and angular accompaniment.

Ex. 3.38 "Si tu ne sais pas" m. 1-8 p. 73 488

Increasingly strident melodies underpin an obvious desire for his daughter to want what he wants: domination and prestige. The ascent of a tritone followed by a descending melodic line on the words: "Les plus grands seigneurs" makes Krackamiche's assertions cloying and petty.

Ex. 3.39 "Si tu ne sais pas" m. 18-20 p.73 489

Stella's vocal line is lighter and more melodic than Krakamiche's. The contrast between the two is made starker by the transition to E major. Krakamiche's assertion that "ton bonheur est mon seul souci" (your happiness is my only concern) seems too aggressive to be true, with the words "bonheur" (happiness) the vocal line descends by a fourth, as does the end of the phrase on "souci" (problem/concern). From this final line from her father, Stella's vocal line on the word "bonheur" ascends. Her vocal line continues with ascending leaps and runs that finish with a rising line:

showing a sincere hope, and a slow realization of her own role to play, in contrast with the angular and descending vocal lines of her father:

489 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, 73.

The piece ends with each in their own corner, Stella proclaiming her dreams of independence and love while Krakamiche is lost in his thoughts of a spell that could restore his powers. Krakamiche gets the last word with a line which, unbeknownst to him, prophesied his own defeat: "Tout s'écroulera" (everything will collapse) and a change in meter to 2/4. Underlining this line, however, is Stella's tonality of A major, giving the daughter the final musical word.

Stella's emerging personality is not only remarkable for its power but also for how it had developed over the course of multiple drafts. Nicholas Žekulin explains this development in his second installment of "The Story of an Operetta II" from 2018 497 that previous drafts show Stella's character (as well as others) as flatter and more passive. The development of this strong leading character, in addition to the strong Queen of the Elves can be traced partly to Viardot-Garcia's influence, as she was a strong woman herself with profound understanding of character development from her years on stage. This character can also be understood as in line with

Turgenev's penchant for writing strong women and weak men in his novels which most likely contributed to this break from the submissive female roles of most fairy tales.

Stella's character in "Quand bien la saison fleurie"

Viardot-Garcia chose a binary meter for this spinning song. However, like Schubert's "Gretchen am spinnrade", Viardot-Garcia uses the spinning wheel as an extension of Stella's thoughts.

Schubert's spinning song is in 6/8 with sixteenth notes that accent the movement of the wheel and her deteriorating mental state. This binary meter is contrasted in the orchestrated version with constant triplets in the viola. It is not clear how much influence Viardot-Garcia had in this musical choice, but the accompaniments contain rolling arpeggios that imitate the wheel in both versions. 497 Žekulin, "The Story of an Operetta II: The History."

We find again in this piece the theme of Stella's sexual awakening in both the lyrics as well as the music. Here is the first stanza:

When the flowering season comes

Where everything awakens at once

The stream in the meadow

The nightingale in the wood

In the heart of the pretty girl

In secret sings a voice This voice is sweet and tender

And every time it hears it

The heart can't help itself

To beat lightly,

It would like to understand

But it doesn't know how! 498 (MT) 499

The literary water theme from her aria "Coulez, Coulez" returns with references to the "ruisseau" (the stream) that now nurtures the meadow. These images are musically underlined by the accompaniment that rocks back and forth from bass to treble, invoking not only the wheel, but the rippling movement of water. The melody of the first two lines in measures 11-15, is composed of two ascending melodic lines, in keeping with Stella's theme of ascension and growth, which strengthen her increasing sense of her own individuality.

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Stella's confusion and inner conflict (beginning in measures 18-20) is found in her interjections as she tries to navigate this space between wanting to be with her lover and her loyalty to, and fear of her father. In keeping with her character, however, the melody begins in an ascension. Her interjection rests on Lelio's starting note for his entrance, an F#, perhaps invoking the duo's growing connection, despite Stella's lyrics.

Ex. 3.51 "Duo de la rose" Stella's entrance. M. 13-15 p. 86 506 This conflict sits squarely on Stella's shoulders as both men seem at present to be more-or-less ignorant of the other, it is in Stella's music that we find traces of both Lelio and Krakamiche, as seen in "Si tu ne sais pas" in the meter, as well as the "Chanson du rouet". The reappearance of the elf theme provides a reminder of Krakamiche's fading power and the growing influence of the elves and their queen.

Krakamiche's melody, now ascending fourths, becomes more insistent and pleading as he sings "appare! appare!511 " (appear! appear!) to no avail. The meter changes once again, now to 2/4 and the elves' theme in the piano accompanies Krakamiche's last desperate effort at an incantation:

"Schibbola! Loupola! Baba Yaga! Lux! Fux! Trix!". One can only imagine the mirth that line must have evoked in Viardot-Garcia's salons and at the Weimar theatre! The piece ends in its original key to an explosion of laughter from the invisible and emboldened elves. Power is diffused through laughter and mischief!

Melodrame Act 2 No. 7: Nature triumphs

Once again, the return of the queen of elves is hailed by the meter 4/4 and a soft and undulating accompaniment to her declaration that the conflict is at an end:

Listen Krakamiche! You know that I have been your enemy for a long time. I could not suffer that you came to take possession of our beautiful forest. But I believe that I have erased all the wrongs I could have towards you, and all the sorrows I could have caused you in giving your daughter such a husband, and to you such a son! Grant prince Lelio Stella's hand and go settle down in the royal palace where he offers you a home. You will live your last days in happiness 512 . (MT) 513

The queen of the elves, the embodiment of nature, once again affirms victory over man and will, but does so while personifying the nature of the elves, the lightness of their character and the playful melodies that characterize them.

Quattuor -unaccompanied, and unusual

The Quattuor that follows the melodrama is unusual for several reasons. It is the only piece completely unaccompanied, where chromaticism only appears as passing notes and not as chordal harmonies. There is reason to believe that the quattuor was composed at the request of Richard The couple sings for a few measures thanking the queen and the piece draws to a close with an effusion of arpeggios ending on B, the dominant of the key of the next piece, the Finale. The focus now is not on the couple, but on the queen, and her role in the story of the operetta. As the dialogue and music turn towards her, a possible message emerges, strengthened by the meter and music of this march and the Finale.

Finale: a message in meter

Like the march that precedes the Finale, the finale is in 4/4. To continue the comparison to the beginning, the finale is in E major while the operetta started in E minor giving the work a sense of completion, without subordination to a separate tonality. Lelio's love for Stella that opens the second act with the lines that refer to them dancing in "des nuits amoureuses519 ". Lelio's "Pourrais je jamais aimer" illustrates with both Lelio words, but also an augmentation from 6/8 to 9/8 the depth of his commitment and love for Stella.

The 3/4 meter, though its association is not quite as clear as that of the queens with 4/4, is used to underscore Krakamiche's arias. His arias: "Ah Sotte Existence520 " and "Loupola, Shippola, Trix521 " are two musical and poetic efforts to reclaim his power. His melody is underscored by falling intervals, the main theme ending with a descent of a fourth and other references to his loss of power gaining momentum through a fall of an octave, such as on the very word "puissance" and "quel état me lá".

The strongest break from the traditional dictates of the fairy tale format is the Queen of the Elves

Next steps and new ideas

Within the beautiful melodies and irreproachable harmonic technique of her operettas, one can find intriguing manifestations on feminine power in Le Dernier Sorcier and later in Cendrillon. 522 Žekulin, "The Story of an Operetta II: The History," 14.

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Her operetta Le Dernier Sorcier provides a window into the evolution of her composition style over decades of development.

The analysis of the newly discovered Partie de Whist, which will follow this chapter, will take the context provided by this chapter to better understand the work and its place in Viardot-Garcia's oeuvre. Viardot-Garcia's use of melodic themes that reappear throughout this work, could be an indication of possible forays into the compositional style of the New German School. This idea presents interesting possibilities for avenues of study following this thesis.

What is Whist?

Whist is an onomatopoeia for the sound one makes when trying to silence another person such as shhh … or hush; it is listed as having both English and Irish origins. In the Oxford dictionary, to "Hold your whist" meant to hold your tongue 529 . Whist, or Whisk, Trump or "Ruff and Honors 530 " as it was also called, is a 4-person British card game. Two teams of two players each sit opposite 208 their partners at a table. In the 1839 French treatise on the game's origins, it was described as a game that tongue-weary members of the British Parliament would play after a long day of talking at work:

Whist was created and brought into the world to amuse the members of the British Parliament, by allowing their tongues to rest; thus, we can imagine having the game in France as there are two chambers of Parliament 531 .(MT) 532

An article from 1895 contests these lofty origins by stating that Trump, or Whist identifies a more varied history:

a gambling game of taverns and low resorts; but about 1730, it was raised from its low associations to a higher plane and has since that time been a source of great intellectual amusement. Lord Folkstone and a party of friends at the crown Coffeehouse in Bedford Row, tried the game and saw at once its merits. They began to study it, and shortly, definite principles were formulated … 533

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, when travel between France and England became more and more accessible, Whist soon replaced the rowdier, popular, French game of Reversis, as the card game most played amongst elegant circles.

Whist is a trick-taking card game (cards are won in each round), with a trump suit that is determined by the last card dealt after each player receives their cards. The word 'whist' refers to the fact that playing in silence is one of the rules of the game. For infractions such as talking or not adhering to the rules of play, there are even suggested punishments for the player in the manuals of Whist that became popular in the second half of nineteenth century. By the mid-

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nineteenth century, the card game was "the game and the style of the moment; it's the game of high society 534 "(MT) 535 . wrote that once he is finished with the libretto which he is working on for Louise Heritte-Viardot,

Where in time is

Viardot-Garcia's oldest daughter, that now: "I will think about a libretto for mother 537 "(MT) 538 . It is possible that unlike other operettas the pair wrote together that this work may have not been for

Viardot-Garcia's students to perform. To understand why the work was written, I have investigated the game itself, and its potential social observations and the role it played in the Viardot-Garcia circle.

Why did Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev write an operetta about Whist?

In researching this game and its meaning to both Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia, I admit I was hoping for the same hidden meaning found in Barbey D'Aurevilly's short story "Les Dessous de cartes d'une partie de whist." from his book Les Diaboliques, in which we find that "its final pages reveal what has been developing under the surface of events 539 ". My interpretation of this work is just that: an interpretation. As there are no writings yet found on Viardot-Garcia's feelings about the piece, there is no definitive answer for the moment and thus there will be no grand reveal at the end of this chapter. Primary sources surrounding the work are extremely rare. Until my visit to the Harvard Library archives in July 2019, there was only the autograph score and the copyist score that had been catalogued. I found three additional pages of sketches for the work, Viardot-Garcia's notebooks, but it is not, as far as I know of, mentioned in her letters or personal documents 540 .

Viardot-Garcia's family, like many others in the mid to late nineteenth century, played the game of Whist as one of the household amusements in the evening. Perhaps the game's popularity caused the game to find its way frequently into illustration of a pastime for bourgeois society, a set of norms and codes that everyone follows without question or representing superficial cultural expectations; there are multiple possibilities.

The piece could be mocking the culture from whence the game came. Though Viardot-Garcia received much praise from the English and fled there during the war of 1870, the country and its people were never kindred to her. Not only did she hate the damp, grey climate, but she saw in the same society that had produced Whist, a superficiality and very little discernment:

I remembered that this evening's concert was the first of forty-eight, and therefore abstained-not without some difficulty. ... for it delights me to sing when I feel that it gives the audience pleasure. However, it must be admitted that this reciprocal pleasure is never as complete in England as elsewhere. The audience this evening, for instance, knew that I am a 'celebrated singer' so it applauds everything that I do with equal warmth. Had I sung not quite as well, it would have been no less well satisfied, and had I sung better, it would not have been better satisfied! and that is what puts a damper on the artist's enthusiasm. Yes, decidedly, in matters of art, the English are great-speculators 541 . (TB) 542

The fact that the work was in French, not English, however, could imply that the French, and the high society that had so jubilantly adopted what Viardot-Garcia viewed as a vapid game, were equally a target of this critique as well.

There is also the possibility that the work was in some way a reaction to the works of Wagner.

The Viardot artistic circle on Whist

The game of Whist seems at the very least to be symbolic of societal expectations. The specific codes of conduct to follow, including playing in silence, imply a certain amount of status is given to the person who conforms the best. Given that Le Dernier Sorcier, a mocking portrait of gender roles and power mongers, was written by this same pair, it seems likely that there was both overt and covert satire woven into this work. A careful look at how the libretto and the score interact help outline some possible meanings behind the work, things that could be whispered in the placement of harmonies and the actions of the players. Perhaps there is some hidden meaning in the work, for, as the Whist-expert James Clay wrote in his manual on the game in 1850, "Whist is a language and every card played is an intelligible science 548 ".

Though they may have played the game themselves, the superficial seriousness of the game was surely an easy target for mockery for Viardot-Garcia who was never seen playing the game. Berlioz wrote Viardot-Garcia in 1859 with some derision that when he pictured Courtenevel, he "visualized it as a place where neighbors, whist-drives, and the natural elements would quickly send a sane man running back to Paris 549 ". For Eugene Delacroix, another close friend of the Viardot's, whist was a symbol of a pastime of the uncreative, a foil against which he could compare truly enjoyable intelligent artistic company:

There is nothing at my age, that gives me more pleasure than to find myself in the company of intelligent people who understand everything at a word.…It is with these men, thinking and judging for themselves, who are good to find oneself with …The people call themselves sectarians of society par excellence hardly know how much they are deprived of true society, that is the social pleasures. Take away their rain and sunshine, the neighborhood gossip and their friends, and there is nothing but whist that could console them in the middle of the long hours they pass just looking at each other … 550 (MT) The game of Whist took hold of bourgeois society in France around the 1820s and 1830s, its foreign flavor making it even more popular in cultivated circles: "Son caractère étranger le fit admettre dans la plus haute société, selon la galanterie française 552 ". Whist was treated with increasing seriousness and game-playing became as much a science as a pastime; seen among enthusiasts as an art as well as a skill. The Almanach de jeux published in 1850 announced soberly:

Every gesture in whist should be studied, and, in addition, all hints at the nature of one's play should be forbidden 553 . (MT) 554 .

The Petit traite du jeu de Whist, published in 1854 chimed in, quoting M. Deschapelles :

However, we have leisure hours that get longer as life goes on. How to fill them?

Play agitates the blood by its alternations; it opposes its thickening; which is for your good health.

Play makes you useful and mixes you with pleasures, which are often business, which is for your interests.

Those who do not know how to play seek for things that are beyond their reach: to talk incessantly is to be avoided like a plague; to remain calm is to become drowsy. I speak for the majority and not for the artistic exceptions or those with a job to do; still, one knows Knowing this background, it seems plausible that the work in question was meant to satirize such a superficial game that exhibited so cleanly a striving for profundity where there was none to be found.

Let the game begin

La Partie de Whist appears to have been performed at least twice, as there are three lists of singers' names on the two archived scores. The operetta, when staged, requires very little staging. Four men (the "4 Joueurs" as Viardot-Garcia indicated on the autograph score) sit at a card table for four and play the game of whist throughout the operetta. A deck of cards is the only needed prop.

The players are not named in the autograph score, but there are four singers listed in pencil with numbers (copied exactly as they were written the M. as well as the Mr. of the second list are both abbreviations for Monsieur) next to their names:

1) Mesr: Lefort -2 tenor 2) M. Robert

3)M. Auguste

3)M._ de la Tour

A note in pencil of 'M. Filibert 2eme basse' is on the first page of the manuscript copy.

First encounters

After a flourishing introduction in 4/4 with melodic ascensions over a bass G and then G7 pedal, the only sign of transition is that the score abruptly changes to A minor and 6/8 to introduce the second theme which reappears again eleven measures from the end of the operetta, once again in A minor.

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Ex. 4.2 La Partie de Whist, final measures m. 181-192 p. 24 The voices enter as each player in their turn announces their complaints and their poor luck:

The comedy continues

The game continues and as the first tenor protests on the stupidity of the game: "With this silly game, I defy anyone to score a point, I am just saying that", the other players respond by telling him what to do ("you must lay down hearts") as the Tenor I continues his protests until the three players remind him that it's forbidden to talk during a game of whist. The repeated line: "speaking during Whist is forbidden 570 "(MT) 571 is in itself an irony and is underlined by a series of mounting 569 Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist: Autograph Manuscript Libretto Drafts with Autograph Manuscript Corrections, Undated." 570 Turgenev, 5-6.

571 Original text of the three quoted lines: "Avec ce sot jeu que voilà, moi je défie, Qu'on puisse faire un point, je ne dis que cela"/ "il fallait jouer coeur"/ "Parler au Whist est défendu".

diminished seventh chords (D#dim7, A#dim7, Bdim7, Edim7) accompanying the mounting tension in both the solo Tenor 1 as well as the other three voices singing in chorus. Agrément can be interpreted multiple ways, I have translated it to mean pleasure, but another meaning is that of approval which seems to be the goal of the game: social approval. The lyrics and the music support the possibility that the players believe that by showing your passion in the game, you will gain social approval 577 . This possibility could strengthen the argument that the piece is a lighthearted jibe at the whims and fads of popular society and even at some of Turgenev and

Viardot-Garcia's friends and family. The last two pages of the piece seem to also be a nod to Viardot-Garcia's old friend, Rossini. Much like a first-act finale of one of his comic operas where chaos abounds on stage to the amusement of an audience who is much more aware of what is going on than the players themselves 578 .

Conclusions and next steps

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performed. Hopefully clues and documents will continue to surface that will provide more pieces to this puzzle of a piece.

La Partie de Whist: Lyrics

Dressing genius in an operetta: props and costumes

Simplicity and complexity are often reduced to opposite sides of valuing a work. The same can be said for comic versus 'serious' works. But Pauline Viardot-Garcia shows a combination of simple structure and dramatic complexity in Cendrillon that is both compelling and entertaining. She challenges her performers with nuance and grace. Cendrillon, Pauline Viardot-Garcia's final operetta serves as a reminder that valuation is found in subtleties and genius can be elegantly funny. Cendrillon also provides glimpses of Viardot-Garcia's literary and musical influences as an expression of her own artistic and philosophical sensibilities. Cendrillon was composed after fifty years of performance experience on the stage and decades of preparing singers for the stage.

Much like the Le Dernier Sorcier, this last operetta is both a pedagogical tool and an act of creative expression.

Analysis structure

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's libretto is agile and lyrical and shows a natural ability to write for singers.

The comedy in this operetta is carefully written and the singers are guided to develop their dramatic timing and expression through the construction of the score. Since this time the libretto is also written by Viardot-Garcia, this opens a wider view of the composer's ideas on gender roles. This makes the study of this piece a fitting final analysis before revisiting the idea of genius. I will not be analyzing the work in a strictly chronological fashion as I did with Le Dernier Sorcier. To highlight melodic differences and character development, the characters themselves will guide the framework of this chapter and my analysis: Cendrillon, her sisters, Baron Pictordu, Barigoule, the Prince, the Fairy, and the choral and piano narration all contribute to a cohesive understanding of this work.

References and scores

My analysis uses the published 1904 score with piano accompaniment which can now be found at the Hector Berlioz library at the CNSMDP 579 . There are several notebooks in the Harvard archives at their Houghton library that contain sketches and drafts of the pieces in Cendrillon, that are just beginning to be digitized 580 . There are some notable changes from the drafts to the final score and the melodies for each character, especially in the parts for the sisters which contain more daring interval leaps than the sketches 581 . The composition period for her last operetta was probably shorter than that of Le Dernier Sorcier seeing as the only found sketches in her undated notebooks are found in the archive of the Harvard Library 582 . This is in keeping with her compositional style, which was to write quickly, perhaps to preserve the ideas as they came. She discussed this idea with Gabriel Fauré, when she said: "a composer should know how to work quickly…they are less polished, but one stays active! 583 " (MT) 584 . This short quote gives a peek into Viardot-Garcia's drive to write and create. Without the pressure of a career in composition, perhaps her works were less polished, but her ideas seemed to flow easily, and their natural depth and beauty are evident.

There are several theses written about this operetta to which I will occasionally make reference including Rachel Miller Harris' "The music salon of Pauline Viardot: featuring her salon opera

Literary and musical connections

Viardot-Garcia demonstrates her own personal philosophy with its ties and departures from Turgenev's in her final operetta, Cendrillon. The operetta provides glimpses of her literary and musical connections to artists in her circle of friends: George Sand, Ivan Turgenev, G. Rossini, Chopin and Massenet.

Without the anxiety of authorship that often comes from a professional career as a composer,

Viardot-Garca was free to stride two worlds: the compositional world of the past as well as the future. Her harmonic palate sometimes took on Rossinian characteristics with sweeping flourishes and simpler harmonic structures, and sometimes romantic, harmonic, ambiguity with nods to the harmonic structure of Chopin. That composer, as previously mentioned was a close friend of Viardot-Garcia and the two friends often played music together when Viardot-Garcia and her family stayed at George Sand's estate, Nohant. Rossini was a friend of Viardot-Garcia's father, 586 Berman, "Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon and Its Relevancy for the Developing Opera Singer."

her sister and of course, herself. Rossini shared Viardot-Garcia's worshipful awe of Mozart and both composers reflected this respect and reverence in their writing 587 .

Cendrillon was published by the editor G. Miran in 1904. This Parisian editor also published other compositions composed in this decade of her life 588 . This final operetta was dedicated to Mademoiselle Mathilde de Noguieras, a former voice student of Viardot-Garcia and the owner of the salon where the work was first performed. Mlle de Noguieras took over Viardot-Garcia's teaching school following her death 589 . Patrick Barbier wrote this about the opera:

[It was] the operetta entitled Cendrillon; besides the nod to Massenet's opera of the same name, created in 1899, it seems to have been a final tribute to the fairy character she had so often sung in the Rossinian work of the same name. Dedicated to her former student Mlle de Nogueiras and premiered at her home on April 23, 1904, Cendrillon may have been written over the course of several years before a final hand was put on it in the months preceding being crowned with success 590 . (MT) 591 Viardot-Garcia adapted her libretto from Perrault's fairy tale, but there are some significant departures that make the story her own. Perrault's Cendrillon is a sweet, passive, and childlike woman, much like the Cinderella from the Disney movie. This traditional Cinderella's societal value is exhibited through her ability to manifest traditional femininity and domesticity. Viardot-Garcia's Cendrillon resembled more closely the Cenerentola of Rossini:

Cinderella's reversal of fortune comes about not through any test of her physical beauty or delicacy -the fact that she can wear a tiny glass slipper -but thanks to a bracelet given to her by the Prince, who wooed her at the ball while disguised as his own servant. Cinderella's acceptance of this simple gift bestowed upon her by a supposed servant proves The Prince, Magalonne, Ab maj 6/8 Armelinde Cendrillon's unaccompanied, strophic melody sets the stage for this operetta. Cendrillon mocks the prince of her tale as she questions why a prince must marry a princess, since a woman becomes a princess anyway upon marrying the prince. Her song then becomes an opportunity to disdain wealth and scorn society's over-emphasis on a woman's "embellishments", much like the Rossini version of the tale. These superfluous decorations are seen in her sisters' vocal lines, full of runs and large-interval leaps. Viardot-Garcia's Cendrillon may be just under an hour in performance time, but the simple structure and brevity of the work is deceptive. Through the harmonies and thematic assignments, Viardot-Garcia presents an array of characters of surprising depth accompanied by a harmonically adventurous score.

Cendrillon is harmonically simpler than the work from Viardot-Garcia's Baden years, which allows for a clearer view of Viardot-Garcia's complete ownership of the creation of the work.

Viardot-Garcia draws a more complete picture for the observer of her artistic sensibilities in this operetta. Cendrillon enters the stage alone and sings without accompaniment, giving her the advantage of generating her theme; unaided by instruments, her song becomes the center of her strength and her character, making the singer not only the source of the drama but the source of melody itself. The character of her theme, lyrical and gentle, also sets the stage for generating melodies she will sing, including those in the following trio with her two stepsisters.

Cendrillon stands up: the Help fires back

Following a moment of musical sympathy for Cendrillon, when the sisters' dialogue takes a nasty turn, they tease her for singing her song. But in a surprisingly un-fairytale like moment of female femme…à queue…Bah! tant pis! cela ne fera jamais de mal qu'à moi! (pliant les épaules) (elle chant) "Il était grincheux, colère, Et quelque peu contrefait" (Elle parle; "Ah pauvre homme!") "Outre ça goûteux, ma chère, Et de lui l'amour fuyait" 250 Stella, a character written by Turgenev. Where Stella demonstrates modesty and fear at being discovered, caught between family loyalty and her new lover, Cinderella is openly jubilant at the discovery of love. In both stories this is not a love at first sight, however, the declaration of love

Cendrillon's entrance and the denouement

Cendrillon's successful shoe fitting is accompanied by simple arpeggios again in Ab major.

Following her contrite family's declarations that they always loved her, including from the Baron who declares "Appelle moi papa!" (Call me dad!) Cendrillon seems nonplussed by this reversal in family closeness -another departure from the standard fairytale versions 613 .

611 Pauline Viardot, Cendrillon, 51-57.

612 Original text: "C'est lui! Quel bonheur!/Dieu si ce n'est qu'un rêve/ne me réveillez pas !/Ah s'il était sincere/De mes rêve voeu serait comblé!/Depuis que je le vis/Je lui donnai ma vie /Est un rêve mon Dieu!/Je ne sais que lui dire…/un trouble m'a saisi…/Mon âme ravie, rayon de bonheur/Je voudrais le lui dire/Je lui donnerai ma vie/Pour toujours Réunis /Réunis à jamais" 613 In the Brothers' Grimm version, the sisters end up attending their wedding only to have their eyes plucked out by magical birds.

The Baron Pictordu: imbalances and balances of power

Cendrillon's father in Viardot-Garcia's operetta carries the interesting name of Baron Pictordu.

The Baron Pictordu's existence in this operetta is revealing in several ways of Pauline Viardot-Garcia's personal philosophies and influences. In her thesis, Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture 627 , Rebecca Bennett Fairbank notes that the bad stepfather in the Viardot-Garcia version is not socially balanced out by a good man, as he is in the Rossini version, but by a good woman. Traditionally the gender of both the wicked parent figure and the savior are both male, or both female in the Cendrillon story as is the case in the Brothers Grimm version (the step-mother is canceled out by the magic tree growing out of Cinderella's mother's grave), as well as the Perrault version (this time the step-mother's efforts are overcome with the help of a fairy god-mother) 628 . Through this imbalance, Viardot-Garcia turns her back on the social codes of her own era so propagated by popular stories and fairy tales. A woman being able to correct and undo the actions of a man, implies female strength and sexual equality.

The secretive and deceptive stepfather character, the Baron de Picturdu, reveals additional information about Viardot-Garcia's influences through his title. George Sand, a close friend and mentor to Viardot-Garcia, plays a part in both the title of the Baron, as well as its significance. The honorific title, chosen by the character in an effort to escape his past as a crooked greengrocer, is another clue to the subtle changes that Viardot-Garcia made to the original story. The "Château de Pictordu 629 " was a story written by George Sand that recounts the dream-like experience of a young 627 Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture." 628 Charles Perrault, Cendrillon (J. Wentzel, 1868); Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition (New Jersey, United States of America: Princeton University Press, 2016). 629 Georges Sand, "Le Château de Pictordu," in Contes d'une Grand-mère (Paris: Michèle Levy Frères, 1874).

girl as she meets a ghost, a maternal figure, in the ruins of a castle. This experience awakens her to her artistic calling or in Sand's words, it shows: "how her spirit [the young girl] was taught and awakened in Pictordu castle 630 " (MT) 631 . The castle Picturdu was owned by a man who: …had fallen on hard times, [and] had no means to have it repaired. It once belonged to a rich lord who used to go to balls, comedies, gambling, feasts, what do I know? He lost his fortune there 632 . (AK) 633 Pictordu evokes the journey of Diane Flochardet, the young artist, who like Cendrillon, has long since lost her mother. Perhaps in such a short work as her operetta, Viardot-Garcia is trying to cover more ground. By presenting the imagery of Pictordu, Viardot-Garcia distances her character Cendrillon from the Perrault tale and allows her a moment of awakening and selfhood.

While in Perrault's work, the Princess' liberation, quickly followed by a wedding, symbolizes the exit from childhood and the awakening to sexuality, in George Sand's work, Diane Flochardet's dream symbolizes an initiation to art which can be translated, as the return to waking life, by the manifestation of a love of drawing and revealing colors of a calling as a painter 634 . (MT) 635 With the domain of Pictordu as an image of failed fortune as well as female empowerment, Viardot-Garcia leads her audience away from the expected social model of the traditional fairy tale, to one of subtle differences and feminine power.

630 Georges Sand, 21.

631 Original text: comment son [the young girl] esprit fut éveillé et travaillé dans le cháteau de Pictordu 632 Georges Sand, "Le Château de Pictordu," 5.

633 Original text: "commençait à tomber en ruines, [et] n'a pas le moyen de le faire réparer. Ça a appartenu dans le temps à un riche seigneur qui y faisait ses folies, les bals, les comédies, les jeux, les festins, que sais-je? Il s'y est ruiné" 634 Pascale Auraix-Jonchière, Ô saisons, Ô châteax: Châteaux et littérature des Lumières à l'aube de la Modernité, (1764-1914) (Presses Univ Blaise Pascal, 2004), 267.

635 Original text: "Tandis que chez Perrault, le réveil de la Princesse, rapidement suivi d'un mariage, symbolise la sortie de l'enfance et l'éveil à la sexualité, chez George Sand le songe de Diane Flochardet symbolise une initiation à l'art qui se traduira, lors du retour à la vie éveillée, par la manifestation d'un amour du dessin puis de la couleur révélateurs d'une vocation de peintre."

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Perhaps Viardot-Garcia also saw the need for a duet for two of her male voice students. This revelation of Pictordu's fraud is the moment of truth for the distant and unkind father. His punishment is rather mild: revealing his false identity just before the Prince arrives with the lost slipper. This seems like an intentional move by Barigoule, who becomes the foil for social justice both by switching places with the prince to fool unsuspecting superficial ladies at the ball, and by unveiling and humbling a father who could be an obstacle to Cendrillon's happiness. Perhaps this duo is social counterbalance to the distant father for isolating and mistreating Cendrillon, or perhaps Barigoule's revelation and debasement of Pictordu creates space for Cendrillon's social ascension. Preventative actions are in keeping with the brevity of the work: allowing for possible dramatic problems to be avoided rather than resolved.

The vocal lines in this duo provide ample evidence of both Viardot-Garcia's skill as a pedagogue and a singer/composer. The vocal lines for both singers are demanding and yet very singable with long runs on syllables easy to sustain (especially in the higher baritone range), like the melismatic ending of the duo for both singers.

other characters) for that of his chamberlain, Barigoule, in order to invite the members of the household to the ball. He is accompanied by his heroic theme in C major to ensure that the audience recognizes his identity.

At the beginning of the ball, the prince, disguised again as Barigoule, announces each new guest, and presents them to Barigoule, disguised as the prince. The music in the key of G major follows a similar rhythmic pattern to the introductory music that accompanied the prince's first visit to the Pictordu estate when he was first disguised as the chamberlain (Barigoule), with sixteenth note flourishes and a striding chordal left-hand accompaniment. The music never strays far from the tonality of G major, but as is her style, Viardot-Garcia still includes two diminished chords for drama towards the end of the piece 655 :

Hidden thoughts on display at the ball

The ensemble reacts to Cendrillon's entrance with a chorus. Baron Pictordu, Magellonne, Armelinde and Count Barigoule all sing together (except for a musical aside by the Baron who, taking his self-centeredness to ridiculous heights, cannot seem to recognize his own daughter).

Cendrillon and the Prince sing a duet within the ensemble as their words and melodies compliment or parallel each other.

It is possible, judging by the melodic pairing of Cendrillon and the Prince within the ensemble number, that the Prince quickly recognizes his love, though his words do not change. This difference is highlighted by the melodic difference of the other members of the (oblivious) ensemble.

655 Pauline Viardot, 42. program is left up to the performers 658 "( MT) 659 . As Rachel Miller Harris points out in her dissertation on Viardot's salons and her composition of Cendrillon, the concert within an opera is common in nineteenth-century opera tradition as found in Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow and La Rondine 660 . Viardot-Garcia deliberately places an opportunity for personal choice and collaboration between her work and the creativity of future performers of her work.

In recent productions, such as the Fundación Juan March in the Theatro Musical de Cámera in Madrid, in 2014 and the production of Cendrillon that accompanied Miller-Harris' dissertation in 2005, Chopin's Mazurka arranged by Pauline Viardot-Garcia and entitled Le Fete was chosen as the piece to be sung by the Fairy. The lyrics talk of seeing one's beloved at the ball from afar, of the festivities and preparations for the ball and makes a fitting choice for this moment 661 . Cendrillon is also asked to sing, and a common choice is "Aime moi" or "Coquette", two mazurkas by Chopin set to lyrics and arranged by Viardot-Garcia 662 . This is a moment of personality development for the composer/librettist in her work. Viardot-Garcia was known for her memorable choices of pieces to sing in the lesson scene in Il barbiere di Siviglia 663 . While in Saint Petersburg, she sang popular Russian songs at that moment in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Russian to thunderous applause from her appreciative audiences.

The concert is followed by a simple minuet in C major in 3/4 and a trio in Eb major in 6/8. The pieces are short yet technically demanding for the pianist in range and flexibility of tone. The 658 Pauline Viardot, 42.

659 Original text: "Le morceau d'ensemble ci-après est suivi d'un concert don't la composition est laissée au choix des exécutants" 660 Rachel Miller Harris, "The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot: Featuring Her Salon Opera Cendrillon," 26. 661 Rachel Miller Harris, 26. 662 "Aime moi" was heard in the Madrid, Spain production by the Fundación Juan Marche version in 2014, and "Coquette" is found in the Opera Rara recording of Cendrillon released in 2000 in London in cooperation with La Fondation France Telecom, Track 14. 663 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 98.

Through her ingenious and inventive melodies that underscored and elaborated her characters in her operettas, she demonstrates her somewhat hidden personal social philosophy through her compositions. She was not striving to prove anything with her work, but her consummate artistry, her inventive creativity and her wit all point to her remarkable ingenuity and genius and her conception of herself as a woman. She was, as Liszt said of her, a complete who possessed a rare full array of both interpretive and creative skills that set her apart from her contemporaries 665 . 665 Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 155.

chapter will attempt to answer that question with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the musical canon, and Pauline Viardot-Garcia as central players.

The yellow brick road that this thesis has been following has been leading to the reclamation of genius for Pauline Viardot-Garcia and thus opening the door for groups of exceptional creatives not traditionally mentioned or admitted to the musical canon, especially women. There have been significant advances, but is it a concrete step forward or an illusion? Is this like reaching the Wizard of Oz's throne room; full of illusions and built on societal expectations? The simple division between musical genius and non-genius seemed clear, just as the separation between Dorothy and her companions was from the Wizard at the beginning of their journey.

Those familiar with the narrative of the L. Frank Baum novel know the moment of revelation for the four travelers (five if you count the dog) who seem to represent different societal expectations and needs for binary divisions. Oz is great, they are not, they have needs, he has gifts and answers.

The way is as clear as a road paved in yellow bricks and the solution is as obvious as the city built of emeralds at the end. The seekers pursue qualities they believe they do not already have and approach the throne of the Great and Powerful Oz. Dorothy and her friends found, just as I have, that simplicity disappears with closer inspection; and yet humanity reappears in all its complexity.

The Great and powerful Oz upon which they have hung all of their hopes and fears is great, but just not in the way they have built him up to be.

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," said the little man in a trembling voice. "But don't strike me-please don't-and I'll do anything you want me to." Our friends looked at him in surprise and dismay. "I thought Oz was a great Head," said Dorothy.

"And I thought Oz was a lovely Lady," said the Scarecrow.

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"And I thought Oz was a terrible Beast," said the Tin Woodman.

"And I thought Oz was a Ball of Fire," exclaimed the Lion.

"No, you were all wrong," said the little man meekly. "I have been making believe." "Making believe!" cried Dorothy. "Are you not a Great Wizard?" "Hush, my dear" he said. "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard-and I should be ruined. I am supposed to be a Great Wizard. 670 "

The wizard is discovered to be human and yet, there is still plenty of room for wonder; he saw each traveler's innermost fears and transformed himself to meet their needs. Perhaps he was never what they thought he was, but the reality of his ingenuity is clear. He created a dream world, he gave the citizens of the Emerald City, as well as the travelers what they sought: magic.

The yellow brick road is paved with sources

There is a timeline of sources that have paved the path of understanding the limitations, the magic, power and the excitement behind not only the term musical genius, but also genius as it applies to creative and artistic pursuits. recognized as a 'great composer', and the political and social actions and ambiance that lead to his status. Though Kivy disagrees, I believe that DeNora's book is not antithetical to appreciation of great art or even using the term genius. The third book in my list of influential texts that influenced my research is Marjorie Garber's Loaded Words. Her chapter, titled "Our Genius Problem", targets with laser-like precision the inherent dangers of calling anyone a 'genius'. My understanding concept of genius in the nineteenth century is also indebted to Adrianna M. Paliyenko's book:

Genius envy: women shaping French poetic history, 1801-1900. I found numerable crossovers from the field of women poets to that of female composers and the supporters and detractors seemed to be similar or the same. Several articles as well were of great help to this chapter including these four: "On the Enshrinement of Musical Genius" by James O. Young, "Musical Genius -Evolution and Origins of a Concept" parts I and II by Edward Lowinsky, "Modernist Composers and the Concept of Genius" by Anna Piotrowska, and "The idea of Prima Donna: the History of a Very Special Opera's Institution" by Vlado Kotnik 672 . Young and Lowinsky's articles both provided crucial details that were left out of Kivy's book on the evolution of musical genius just before and during the nineteenth century. Piotrowska and Kotnick's articles both provided me with a sense of the global definition of musical genius that the nineteenth century formed and how the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have received and used that inheritance.

Mythology's unintended consequences

Composers with exceptional creative output, and their social reputations to match, such as Mozart and Beethoven, had lives filled with events and actions that fall on both sides of the division between genius and non-genius. 'Musical geniuses' produced masterworks. Except when they didn't. There were also failures, failed attempts, and mediocracies which have come to be perceived as the antithesis of genius. Of course, none of the current members of the accepted canon are without fault but the mythology of genius demands a cleaner, simpler story 673 . More importantly, none of their accomplishments were the result their solitary efforts: a detail that is often overlooked in a biographer's own quest to preserve wonder 674 . To the general public, there is very little said about the work's history and parentage outside of the composer who signs his name to the score. Each work seems to be treated as if it were born by immaculate conception, by one person alone. The work is orphaned from birth, or at least half so.

The clothes and the illusions of greatness

Viardot-Garcia's observation that genius must be 'clad according to the conventions of our civilization' brings us back to the Wizard of Oz for another look. His arrival was part happenstance (the wind) part his abilities and talents: as a balloonist, as a leader, and quick thinker. Chance and the Wizard's ambitions and talents filled the needs of the inhabitants of Oz for a leader. But the societal need in Oz was not just for a leader, but one that would take on the appearances that matched their expectations in their magical world. Musical genius, too, was 'clad according to the conventions of our civilization' and filled with the romantic need for a hero, one with intelligence and creativity in almost mythical proportions. Considering that need for the hero, Viardot-Garcia's involvement in the launching of Charles Gounod's career and the creation of his first critical operatic success, Sapho, seems unnecessary to mention, even by Gounod himself or by his biographers; perhaps it was an un-needed layer of complexity for the lone-composer model.

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Viardot-Garcia's collaboration with Gounod on the opera Sapho is downplayed, if mentioned at all.

The omission of collaborators from the narrative further promotes the mythology of the lone composer genius, one that we can clearly see as we look at the compositional process, simply what really happens.

Talent will and genius are just as much natural phenomena as lakes, volcanoes, mountains, winds, stars and clouds 675 .

George Sand

Sand brings the conversation back to the original definition of the word genius as an innate aspect or spirit in all humanity. Sand's words above are a response to her friend Gustave Flaubert's confession that he is not a man of nature. Sand expounds to her friend, her philosophy that there is a natural force of creativity in everyone. How do we reconcile these varied measures of creative exceptionality? Can we unveil the wizard as a humbug and still honor him for his wit and leadership? What does the weight of genius do to the genius himself or herself?

The social burden of genius

The title of genius could imply an expectation that only winners in the societal hierarchy are to be rewarded. As Ray McDermott points out, social groups that are the target of discrimination and bias: "can be noticed, monitored, targeted and crushed for learning too much. Looking learned in a cultural portrayal can make a person the mark in a cultural betrayal 676 ." Creative women not being received as genius is a symptom of a social problem, not of any lack of creativity or exceptionality found in that social group. McDermott points out: "No long engagement, no 675 Harlan, Elizabeth, "The Art of Loving," in George Sand (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2004), 286. 676 McDermott, Situating Genius, 249:290.

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genius 677 ", meaning it was not only the creator's achievements, but their environment, longstanding reception and the audiences whose enthusiasm created the phenomenon of 'genius'.

If this is the case, it seems evident that more than just a recognition of great female composers is needed: being limited as they were through gender norms for education and social roles. An understanding of how a social environment helps or hurts creativity is necessary. Genius answers a societal question, but with condescending simplicity. Uneven distribution of recognized exceptionality is a symptom of a social philosophical error in logic, not a sign of cognitive or creative dominance of the recognized group. The Wizard entered a naïve, and uncurious society and easily became their leader. He even pretended to possess superhuman abilities to meet the deep cultural desire for the safety and security of magic. Our cultural reception of 'great composers' is not that different from the Emerald city's reception of the Wizard. This adolescent view, easy to digest, but far from the whole picture, limits the exceptionally creative as well as society. Traditional genius theory reduces human accomplishments to single numbers and either/or dichotomies 678 . It is time to give creations back to their full genealogy and thus begin the eulogy of society's adolescence.

Bringing an artistic work back to its genealogy helps to alleviate the damage caused by the lone genius model to both those who hold the title and those who are denied the title. Context isn't just important to the understanding of exceptional works, it is imperative.

The hidden hierarchies of the musical canon

In the beginning, as I understood it, women would gain semiotic power (power relating to the outward signs or symptoms) when they had accumulated the critical exposure. As Marcia Citron states, For it is men who have been canonized through the various processes involved in canon formation and it is men's names that presently signify quality and universality. Those whose names are not known, including many who are women, are then considered wanting in those desired qualities 679 .

The study of female geniuses contributes to the semiotic power of women's compositions in present day culture. The means in which I hoped to do it, however, must be re-evaluated.

Perceptions of both gender and genius involve ideals, not reality, making the actual characteristics hard to separate from the archetype. For example: descriptions of male works often include being strong, aggressive, and powerful, while women's works are described as charming, soft, and emotional 680 . Between reality and ideology, things get blurry and subjective, leaving room for valuation based on social norms, not necessarily on objectively determined superiority. As Lydia Goehr puts it, any division or classification of a work is done with a certain goal in mind "thus, no property is essential by nature 681 ". What that means for this thesis, is that understanding the goals of the present canon is the only way to understand why certain qualities of works were valued and why works by women seemed to be systematically excluded. Sometimes as in the formation of the musical canon in the nineteenth century, inscriptions of value reinforce ideologies instead of questioning them 682 . These inscriptions are hard to define, because they do not disrupt, they go with the flow of 'normal' perception 683 . Stories attached to great works fill a societal need for the 679 Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 118. 680 Ellis, "Female Pianists and Their Male Critics in Nineteenth-Century Paris," 357-61. 681 Lydia Goehr, "Writing Music History," History and Theory 31, no. 2 (May 1992): 189. 682 Ellis, "Female Pianists and Their Male Critics in Nineteenth-Century Paris," 362-63. 683 Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 120. magical, and for a mythology to explain greatness, and great works of art. But why must we question mythology at all? Why can we not keep the comfortable status-quo? What does a more complex story give us? Part of this complex story, as covered in Chapter 2, involves the nineteenthcentury concept of genius and what needs it met, as well as the intended and unintended consequences.

The romantic ideal

The change in the use of the word genius was the nineteenth-century's answer to the question of how to put value on exceptional creative output. A combination of the rising commercial market for printed music combined with the composer-as-genius marketing strategies for major European concert halls made the title of genius a way to set apart the composer: a means of communicating value to the public 684 . Immortalizing the male composer with the title of genius fixed societal values on the individual's creative output by giving them superhuman status 685 . This set the creator apart from his environment. As Marcia Citron states, the title composer carries a very specific weight to it. Within this title, there lies the high ideals of humankind, the aspirations of art and the authority that comes with high art. Perhaps this is why speaking of a composer's sexuality is such a taboo touch point. Sexuality implies the natural world and with it, the ordinary and the human, which would imply a denial of the divine. With that denial of the divine comes the risk of destabilizing the canon, and with it, its tenants of genius status of the mythological framework of the canon. Canon connects the secularization of the musical patronage system with a societal search for moral authority. Its partial fulfillment in the composer-as-genius fills the role of a deity: the poster children in the cult of originality 686 . This binary division between genius and the ordinary creative expression clearly placed the work of art as the pinnacle achievement of the creator genius, but also made it stand alone. The work, now seen as a product the prodigious capacity of one individual for creativity, was essentially orphaned from its environment, from the collaborators who inevitably advised, collaborated, and in short, provided the ambiance in which the work could achieve the heights that it attained. A masterwork, now wrenched from its parentage of the musical community from which it sprung, now needs an artificial origin story that contributes to its glorification but also its isolation. The addictive tendency of historians to flirt with biographical metaphors that point to immortality and solo authorship change and modify a society's norms and expectations for creative greatness. Historians may feel justified in the need to maintain society's focus on the 'best' music, however, extra-musical criteria are often used to determine who and what is 'best'. Human understanding of art and creativity bend and shape itself around the individual artist in a way that confirms the prowess of the individual male composer while downplaying or forgetting altogether to mention the role of the individual's education, mentors, and those works used to develop a compositional style. "As a result of the concept of the superiority of the artist, the qualities of the artist were closely connected with those of alienation and separation from mundane problems… The artist became the destined one -often writing for the future and aware of his task 687 ". With the example of Beethoven, his image, and creative process is often used to describe a move from the classical period to the romantic period as if the composer himself were aware of this category division. 686 Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 184. 687 Piotrowska, "Modernist Composers and the Concept of Genius," 233.

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Genius is a title developed by society to explain great and exceptional creative human output, but the word closes the door on investigation on the multiple recipes for 'inspiration'. It forgets where creative exceptionality comes from. If someone is said to be a musical genius, the title begins a path of binary exclusion: the haves and the have-nots, the gods and the mortals. Titles like these do not invite questioning or understanding the creative process. A label gives a sense of arrival, of finality, not of a path of discovery. Thus, the general public is discouraged from accessing their own creative potential. Musical genius, as a state of being, transports the mystical and mysterious elements of the title beyond investigation, approaching religion, encouraging a blind faith in a supreme being or force 688 . The philosophical exclusion of musical women in the nineteenth century from possessing the title of genius seems easier to understand given this philosophical, mystical light. Like women's historical exclusion from positions of power in religion and government, no curiosity is needed; it was the will of a supernatural creator or power to do so. The title being both fixed and mystical in nature made the subjectivity of the criteria as unapproachable as the Great and Powerful Oz. Sources of inspiration evolved with the changing social expectations but were systematically viewed as out of reach for women. If women had something in common with the mysterious idea of genius, it was that they were both only vaguely understood, and that ambiguity invoked mistrust and fear.

Composer biographies: when correlation and becomes causation

As is seen the case of Mozart's changing personality strengths in biographies through different times and social value periods, values expressed by composers' biographers moved from divine and external to inborn (still arguably a gift from the divine) and unteachable. Mozart's genius ranged from being portrayed as an idiot savant, to talented hard worker and back again 689 . Clearly there are some inherent problems with how we perceive and conceive genius if it is so easily recognized in past white male figures but seems so far away for women and everyone else, past, and present. The nineteenth century took the emerging form of the composer's biography to new heights and new mythologies. The composer-genius became more inapproachable and mysterious, as clearly seen in the case of Rossini in M. de Stendhal's biography Vie de Rossini, where Stendhal triumphantly declares his subject's near-immortal powers of creation:

Napoleon is dead; but a new conqueror has already shown himself to the world; and from Moscow to Naples, from London to Vienna, from Paris to Calcutta, his name is constantly on every tongue. The fame of this hero knows no bounds save those of civilization itself 690 "(Trans. Richard Coe) 691 . Ernest Renan's controversial book Vie de Jésus, first published in 1870, illuminated the phenomenon of the ever-expanding circles of hero-worship inspired by excellence; "So lived a superior person who, by brave initiative and by the love that it was able to inspire, created the object and formed the beginning of the future faith of humanity 692 "(MT) 693 . Rossini's biographer as well as others illustrated a growing penchant for apologetics, using their subjects' failings as examples not of their humanity but as benevolent acts of connection with their audiences. Most biographies of female composers didn't address their genius at all but focused on their failure to write large form works, and their affection for past styles as a sign of their mundane and pedestrian talent or their lack of originality. 693 Original text: "Alors vécut une personne supérieure qui, par son initiative hardie et par l'amour qu'elle sut inspirer, créa l'objet et posa le point de depart de la foi future de l'humanité."

Women composers found another difficulty if they were also performers and were viewed as less capable and rebuked to 'stay in their lane'. Critic Maurice Bourges took the opportunity upon hearing Pauline Viardot-Garcia perform her composition, Le Chêne et le Roseau at a concert given by Frédéric Chopin, to give a mild compliment to mask a scolding for having forgotten her social place:

Decidedly, madame Viardot desires to follow in the footsteps of her noble sister … who also composed charming things. That madame Viardot marches along the same path where she [La Malibran] began with success; but not let the delights of the composer make her forget her true calling. 694 (MT) 695 Bourges' critique of Viardot-Garcia's music comes out like a warning for Viardot-Garcia to stay in her own lane and not to stray into what (given the emphasis on the male gendered title of composer) is decidedly not "her true calling". The quality of the work is of secondary importance.

No wonder she never sought a second career as a composer.

Female composers' biographies seem to have skirted this problem due to the fact that there are no accepted female genius composers in the current musical canon. Therefore, the biographer is free to write about the entire person as she is accepted as a mere mortal to begin with. The astounding facts of their often-precocious childhood as well as their failures and setbacks comfortably sit side by side.

Composers' biographers seem to be required to perform mental gymnastics to prove that their subject was a genius. But at what cost? Once we peek behind the curtain, genius seems as much of a humbug as the Great and Powerful Oz. The illusion remains, however, to perhaps stem from 694 Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de Pauline Viardot 1839-1849, 136; Maurice Bourges, "Soirée musicale de M. Chopin," Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, fév 1842, 83. 695 Original text: "Décidément, madame Viardot veut nous rendre sa noble soeur… aussi composait de charmantes choses. Que madame Viardot marche donc dans la même voie où elle est entrée avec succès; mais que les délassements du compositeur ne lui fassent pas oublier sa propre vocation." the deep social need to justify the division between the extraordinary and the ordinary and eliminate the messiness of (the inevitable) crossover. It fills a need, we cannot deny exceptionality, can we? Genius, as a state of being, seems to present an incredible burden for its holder as well. If one is a genius, then one's failures must have been other people's failures. If one struggles financially as a genius, it is the society's failure to recognize and support their extraordinary talent, not the individual learning and honing their craft. This colossal idea of the mantel of genius, left by Beethoven's legacy, contributed to Brahms' ten-year rumination before completing (especially the finale of) his first symphony. Brahms claimed the weight of footsteps of the Colossus Beethoven was a legacy too heavy to bear: "I shall never compose a symphony. You have no idea how it feels to be continually dogged by his footsteps 696 ". The legacy of Beethoven's genius for Brahms seems to have been more of an obstacle to great talent than an inspiration. My insistence on Viardot-Garcia's right to be admitted was based on the observation that the title remains important and even necessary in our culture for valuation and system of social organization. If women are excluded from the musical canon or only gain access as a part time 696 Michael Musgrave, "Brahm's First Symphony: Thematic Coherence and Its Secret Origin," Music Analysis 2, no. 2 (July 1983): 118; Max Kalbeck, Johannes brahms, volume 1 ..., vol. 1 (Wiener: Wiener Verlag, 1908), 165. 293 member, or with great difficulty, it must be because we have not defined these women as geniuses.

Re-dressing Genius

Perhaps the evolution of genius included hidden misogyny. It is possible that the vehement sexualization and hierarchy that was codified in the nineteenth century was more prevalent and tenacious than I had previously thought.

Sources of inspiration, roots of insanity

This mystique that has swirled around genius as it transitioned from a quality or aspect of creativity to the actual person, of course implies a dark side, that of insanity. Garber invokes Francis Galton's words in his 1869 publication Hereditary Genius:

If genius means a sense of inspiration, or of rushes of ideas from apparently supernatural sources, or of an inordinate and burning desire to accomplish any particular end, it is perilously near to the voices heard by the insane, to their delirious tendencies, or to their monomanias. It cannot in such cases be a healthy faculty, nor can it be desirable to perpetuate it by inheritance697 . This mysterious fear of exceptionality succeeds only in keeping the seeds of creativity too far away to examine. Equating exceptionality with madness is just another means of separating it from the general public. The holy, the devilish, whether referring to women or geniuses are one and the same; they remain untouchable and other-worldly. This may give society its gods, or its angels, if referring to women, but it also gives its demons. But it does not lead to better understanding, and therefore does not provide ways to nurture exceptional creativity.

The holy order of genius

So ultimately what is genius? Up to the nineteenth century, there were composers already identified as geniuses.

The genius was, and to some extent continues to be, the Romantic hero, the loner, the eccentric the apotheosis of the individual. The further our society gets from individual 294 agency-the less the individual seems to have real power to change things-the more we idealize the genius, who is by this definition the opposite of the committee or the collaborative enterprise. Indeed, some of the resistance to the idea that Shakespeare wrote his plays in collaboration with other playwrights and even actors in his company comes from our residual, occasionally desperate, need to retain this ideal notion of the individual genius. We prefer the myth 698 .

The nineteenth century created its own religion of the arts with the canonization of great works.

Mozart, or the 'Sublime One' as Viardot-Garcia called him, became superhuman and therefore untouchable 699 . But Garber asks one of the questions upon which this investigation turns.

There's no doubt that such individuals have lived among us throughout history and have bequeathed to us the legacy of their art and their ideas-but do they constitute an actual class called geniuses 700 ?

In the order of genius, or before the Great and Powerful Oz, where can we put the flaw of these 'great men' but in a trunk far away from the eyes of the world? What can we do with the many creative women and their gifts to the world but shrug our shoulders and admit that their difference isn't the right kind of difference? What can we do but maintain this illusion of male dominance and creative superiority? This is the crux of the problem. Genius is an illusion and has been called into service to reinforce patriarchal ideals. But in the face of beautiful art, where we are beyond words to grasp and capture the magic that we behold, we reach for the word as a word of gratitude, of reverence, and of worship. The problem with genius is not that we use the word, but it is what it has become 701 . The issue is not with the word itself and its present-day overuse, but that it is opened up, like a suitcase with a secret weapon when talking about gender. Garber calls genius 698 Garber,Loaded Words,25. 699 Thérèse Marix-Spire and G. R., "Gounod and His First Interpreter, Pauline Viardot--Part I," The Musical Quarterly 31, no. 2 (1945): 201. 700 Garber, Loaded Words, 125. 701 Garber,124. "the post-Enlightenment equivalent of sainthood 702 ", I would add to her list of modern saints such as "Saint Einstein, Saint Newton, Saint Darwin", Saint Mozart, Saint Beethoven and Saint Brahms.

As we can recall from the second chapter, the origin of the word genius was that of a spirit of sorts that resided in all humans (though for women it was called juno). Garber elaborates on the word's origins giving a fuller understanding of what the word used to mean.

One's genius governed one's fortune and determined one's character, and ultimately conducted one out of this world into the afterlife…Through the Renaissance and well into the eighteenth century the most familiar meaning of genius in English was something like 'temperament' or 'disposition' : people were described as having a 'daring genius' or an 'indolent genius'…despite Thomas Edison's oft quoted adage 'Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,' it's the inspiration that we dote on 703 .

We can see in Viardot-Garcia's reluctance to call Gounod a genius, and yet her praise of the 'Sublime one' (Mozart), as well as in Sand's vacillation between the two definitions how much of a defining change this word represented for the nineteenth century artistic aesthetic. The concept in its modern form of a title is once again called upon by Garber to illustrate the elusiveness of the genius title (in reference to Shakespeare as praised by Coleridge and Shelley):

The cult of genius inherited from these Romantic writers, one that still has enormous force today, tells us that ordinary mortals can achieve many things by dint of hard work, but the natural effortless gifts of a true genius (like Shakespeare) will forever elude the diligent over-achiever. By this logic, genius, and geniuses, cannot be made, only born 704 .

Viardot-Garcia and a new look at creative genius

A look at Viardot-Garcia's creative life invites a new look at the genius idea that the romantic era has left us. She seemed to be the antithesis of the traditional male-genius model. She often collaborated with other artists, she was a mother of four children whom she often taught herself, she was neither flamboyant in her lifestyle nor eccentric in her behavior. She freely shared her 702 Garber, 125. 703 Garber, 128-29. 704 Garber,131. gifts with others. She wrote and published not to establish a career as a composer but to use her works as teaching and performing tools, not to mention that she had confidence in her own work. She married young but was quietly subversive of traditional expectations of her gender705 . But her circle of influence was vast and her creativity constantly changing and growing. Viardot-Garcia seemed to be the model of a new type of genius, a new type of exceptional creative.

Traditionally accepted members of the musical canon worked and studied their craft obsessively.

Anyone who created at a high level was highly trained and deeply fortunate individuals in their social milieu who sought inspiration with an insatiable hunger. Mozart was not born an accepted genius in the canon. His father's precise and tireless training, Mozart's natural attraction to music and the arts, and his father's access to the artistic world and all the knowledge and intuition that can be gained by observation clearly combined to give this talented and trained composer the exposure he needed to have his works valued in music history. These same resources were available to Viardot-Garcia. Her father's vocal training, the fact that she not only sang, but was ever present in his lessons as an accompanist from at the latest ten years old, means her world was music. She had all the elements in her environment that provided the fodder for an exceptionally creative life, added to which she was doggedly determined and obsessively committed to her art.

It seems that Viardot-Garcia could be considered in the genius arena, but the weight of the title invites us to look deeper at what genius was and is.

A genius versus of genius

If we can get out of the habit of thinking that labeling something is the same as possessing it, or understanding it, or putting it to work-if we can move beyond this kind of intellectual résumé, this c.v. for the achievements of the mind-we can, perhaps, take the first next steps toward reclaiming the processes of knowing and believing. Such a reclamation will depend, crucially, on our willingness to tolerate four other D words, four equally legitimate descendants of knowledge and belief: doubt, dissension, disagreement, and debate706 .

Garber elegantly identifies why the question of what a true genius is, is elusive. The question looks in the wrong direction, the direction of aligning Viardot-Garca's gifts with social norms. I had been asking the wrong questions. Genius in the nineteenth century was used as a means of organizing an artistic/ intellectual hierarchy of societal ideals. A genius composer has been shown to have various characteristics that society values. Such was the case with Mozart, whose biographers emphasized different aspects of both his work ethic as well as his sense of play to highlight their culture's changing sensibilities towards certain social values:

For about twenty years, stories about how Mozart composed made for a plausible transition from the baroque and rococo segregation of pleasure from labor into a bourgeois aesthetic of their united purpose… In the thirty years or so from the late eighteenth century into the Restoration era, the values of sobriety, inwardness, work, civic virtue, and learning found at least equal status, in the discourse of the arts and aesthetic sensibility, alongside the earlier celebrations of natural grace beauty. It is the sensibility, not the social change, that interpretations of Mozart reflected707 . This hierarchy, part of the foundation of the musical canon, is immune to doubts and discussion because of canonization. The 'musical genius' once endowed with the title could then move with impunity through society with even mundane details being used to add to their mystique and superhuman power. Roland Barthes' "The Writer on Holiday" an essay in his collection of essays entitled Mythologies, outlines how the celebrity and mythology of the famous writer are untouched from details of their very human outings on holiday where they create nothing of great importance.

These banal details often do the opposite of humanizing the individual. He explains the purpose behind the journalistic penchant of reporting these humdrum details about famous writers:

The techniques of contemporary journalism are devoted more and more to presenting the writer as a prosaic figure. But one would be very wrong to take this as an attempt to demystify. Quite the contrary. True, it may seem touching and even flattering, that I, a mere reader, should participate, thanks to such confidences, in the daily life of a race selected by genius. I would no doubt feel that a world was blissfully fraternal, in which newspapers told me that a certain great writer wears blue pyjamas, and a certain young novelist has a liking for 'pretty girls, reblochon cheese and lavender-honey'. This does not alter the fact that the balance of the operation is that the writer becomes still more charismatic, leaves this earth a little more for a celestial habitat where his pyjamas and his cheeses in no way prevent him from resuming the use of his noble demiurgic speech708 .

Originality: making orphans of great artworks

Pauline Viardot-Garcia approached the canon as an outsider. She provides a new picture of what a great composer could look like. Collaboration as well as creation provides an alternative to promoting the myth of originality.

Who does genius belong to? Who possesses the right to bestow the title and once bestowed, can it be taken away? Is genius for the exceptional few or is it everyone's game? Originality, an accepted philosophical marker for genius, is a quality harder to find than it looks. No composer, save one who has been raised by wolves, far from civilization, can claim that their works are without precedent and claim no influence, that their works are not built on others' works. Collaboration, inspiration by other artists, and collective creation is the elephant in the biographical room of musical composers' origin stories. A departure from the common and the known was a nineteenth century aesthetic value, and acknowledgement of collaboration would not strengthen one's 'original-ness'. Which is possibly why collaboration in creativity is rarely celebrated. Why would composers like Gounod and Wagner deny credit to their collaborators and influences? Because it would hurt their reputation of their works as 'original'.

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But as Roland Barthes suggests, originality could be a false concept; one that masks and hides a deeper value: relationship structures.

Originality is replaced by intertextuality… originality itself is bogus and holds little or no aesthetic validity because every work is a product of highly interconnected social structures and stylistic relationships709 .

All works are influenced and connected to other works. No one creates in a vacuum. Barthes' ideas on originality contribute to a conversation of questioning the assumption of composition occurring in isolation, and therefore pulls down the curtain on the myth of the lone composer genius, our great and powerful Oz. We will never know what Gounod's Sapho would have sounded like had he been locked in a tower to write it in its entirety instead of seeking Viardot-Garcia's approval, advice and even ideas, but it is safe to say that it would not be the same. Interconnectivity and collaboration are messy concepts; they remove the extra sheen from the single composer model that has taken hold in music history. But they give each work of art back their genealogy, a family from whence they came. With that genealogy, the overlooked truths of the interconnectedness of musical creation can once more enrich musical history. Complexity may be the enemy of a clean and simple origin story, but simplicity and the single composer model creates a barrier to understanding the artistic process and a wholistic understanding of the origin of great works.

Viardot-Garcia's talent, ingenuity and genius are anything but simple. Understanding the myths of originality also allows for a new view of female composers, previously criticized for not being different or avant-garde 'enough', therefore excluding them from the traditional view of what constitutes a genius. Tendencies observed in female composers by Marcia Citron include compositional flexibility between the dominant culture's expectations and muted cultures such as femininity. Citron observes a lesser need to deal with the anxiety of influence since women might not know much of their (female) predecessors, thus there is little need to destroy the past to provide an image of creating something completely new 710 . As Citron puts it, "Originality is not fetishized, but rather subordinated to the total conception 711 ". Returning originality to an aspect of building on works by others, rather than the all-encompassing criteria for greatness, allows for clarity in biographies of both great male and female composers and allows space to focus on curiosity and experimentation; both successes and failures as marks of great creative capacity and marks of inspiration, signposts on the constant road towards works of genius.

The importance of a work's complete parentage

Originality, as a quality of genius, implies isolation, and an absence of artistic influence, past or present, and a separation from advice or input from colleagues 712 . Achievements of the individual grow in depth and breadth when reunited with their rich genealogy. Environmental influence, the luck of special friendships and parentage, collaborations with other highly trained and curious artists, and the audiences whose reception of their works, ensured that artists named as geniuses received recognition for their creations. We see this recipe in many gifted composers' lives, including Viardot-Garcia's. Complete context of a composer's achievement, of excellence and yes, of genius, should include the full spectrum of their environment and education that contributed to their creative excellence. 710 Citron, 160. 711 Citron, 160. 712 Bauman, "Becoming Original: Haydn and the Cult of Genius," 339.

Viardot-Garcia: a woman of genius

Although she has studied a great deal, and this facilitates a deep knowledge, it seems that she is like the kind of people who know everything without ever having to try 713 . (MT) 714 -Alfred Musset For the traditional definition of a genius Viardot-Garcia's eccentricities and skills provide all the necessary markers. Her fluency in over five languages, her obsession for over-studying her roles, and constant composition, combined with her profound understanding of harmonic function and theory are all indicators of great creative potential. In addition, her understanding of music was penetrating and astounding. After returning from her tour in Germany and England, Gounod showed her the completed score of Sapho with "great anxiety 715 ". Upon hearing her play the opera accompaniment in its entirety almost exclusively from memory, just a few days later Gounod commented: "It is perhaps the most extraordinary musical feat that I have ever witnessed, one that gives the measure of the astonishing faculties of this prodigious musician. 716 "(MT) 717 These markers of ability and of discipline are of course part of the picture when regarding an ingenious person but present only a portion of who they are. If one is to truly move past the adolescent view of someone who is a genius, these stories present part of a picture that should invite more investigation, questions, and curiosity, but not finality. Finding true context involves, as Berlioz highlighted, much more study and context: Speaking of Mme Viardot, there is a whole study to be done. Her talent is so complete, so varied, it touches so many facets of art, it unites so much knowledge in such an exciting 713 Alfred de Musset, "Concert de Mademoiselle Garcia," Revue Des Deux Mondes, January 1, 1839, 112. 714 Original text: "Bien qu'elle ait fait de longues études, et cette facilité une science profonde, il semble qu'elle soit comme les gens de qualité qui savent tout sans avoir jamais rien appris." 715 Marix-Spire and R., "Gounod and His First Interpreter, Pauline Viardot--Part I," 202. 716 Charles Gounod, Mémoires d'un Artiste (Paris: Calmann Lévy, Éditeurs, 1896), 183.

717 Original text: "en quelques jours, elle fut si bien au courant de la partition qu'elle l'accompagnait presque en entier par coeur sur le piano. C'est peut-être le tour de force musical le plus extraordinaire dont j'ai jamais été le témoin, et qui donne la mesure des étonnantes facultés de cette prodigieuse musicienne". spontaneity, that it produces astonishment and the emotion all at once; it strikes and moves, it imposes and persuades. 718 . (MT) 719 Viardot's incredible ability to improvise with both virtuosity and fidelity to the themes from the opera's she performed in, is demonstrated in Berlioz's account of her cadenza at the end of the Orphée. It is not only a sign of a moment of genius, but the embodiment of who Viardot-Garcia was, a musician who demanded much of herself and others, and a creator of works of art in more than one sense of the word. Berlioz relates her abilities as an improvisor in her role of Orpheus as the character descends into hell:

He goes to bring back Euridice. To say what Mme Viardot did with this bravura piece is almost impossible. One does not think, while listening to it, of the style of the piece. One is seized, carried away by this torrent of impetuous vocalizations motivated by the situation... It was a challenge for the great artist to reach the height of the Virgilian poetry, and she certainly she succeeded 720 . (MT) 721 In a letter to her friend Clara Wieck Schumann, Viardot-Garcia writes about her own creative work in a very frank and human way; its importance and the interdependence of different types of creative artists and how they are inspired by one another: January 1848 You don't know what work each different role carries within it; the dramatic artist must constantly create, he must imagine human figures, alive, sensitive, passionate, complete, natural down to the smallest details and present them to the spectator. Above all, I venerate the master creator, alongside him is the artist creator. Both are inseparable, because each 718 Hector Berlioz, "Pauline Viardot." 719 Original text: "Pour parler maintenant de Mme Viardot, c'est toute une étude à faire. Son talent est si complet, si varié, il touche à tant de points de l'art, il réunit à tant de science une si entrainante spontanéité, qu'il produit à la fois l'étonnement et l'émotion; il frappe et attendrit, il impose et persuade" 720 Hector Berlioz, "Pauline Viardot, Original text: "Il ramènera Euridice. Dire ce que Mme Viardot a fait de cet air de bravoure est à peu près impossible. On ne songe pas, en l'écoutant, au style du morceau. On est saisi, entraîné par ce torrent de vocalisations impétueuses motivées par la situation…Il s'agissait pour la grand artiste d'atteindre à la hauteur de la poésie virgilienne, et certes elle y est parvenue." one separately remains mute, and together they create the most noble pleasure of the man, art 722 .

(MT) 723

There is the description of ingenuity, and of Viardot-Garcia's capacity to access, recognize and create genius in herself as well as in others. If a new nineteenth century model for ingenuity and a person of genius could be held up, certainly the woman who advised and collaborated with Berlioz, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Turgenev, and

Viardot-Garcia and her circle on genius

I have had enough of great men …Let their effigies be cut in marble, let them be cast in bronze, and let us hear no more about them 724 . George Sand's complaint about 'great men' came in a letter responding to Viardot-Garcia's effusive praise of Charles Gounod's works of genius. For the writer and the receiver of the letter, genius presented different elements, and awards differing degrees of status to the subject; an array of definitions on which genius stood in the nineteenth century. Both women drew some of their understanding from the past as well as the present. Viardot-Garcia and Sand observed the complex nature of identifying and labeling talent, but in keeping with their culture, they used the word to describe artists whose works they admired and wished to honor. Genius was used in two ways to describe greatness; an aspect of the person, or the person; a genius, or someone of genius. The discussion between Sand and Viardot-Garcia seems to point to both, to a period of transition in 722 Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 156.

723 Original text: "Tu ne sais pas quel travail chaque rôle différent porte en lui ; l'artiste dramatique doit créer constamment, il doit imaginer des figures humaines, vivantes, sensibles, passionnées, achevées, conformes à la nature jusque dans les plus petits détails et les présenter au spectateur. Avant tout, je vénère le maître créateur, immédiatement à côté de lui l'artiste créateur. Tous deux sont inséparables, car chacun séparément reste muet, et ensemble ils créent le plus noble plaisir de l'homme, l'art." 724 Marix-Spire and R., "Gounod and His First Interpreter, Pauline Viardot--Part I," 201.

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how we qualify the producer of great works. In the above quote, Sand seems to be venting her annoyance at the already-labeled 'great composers' whose egos seem to overwhelm their persona, and the one-sided nature of the title of 'great man'. This "aristocracy of talent 725 " had its roots in the Renaissance and seemed to reach full expression in the nineteenth century. Yet these words: great man, genius, great composer, implied general greatness, which made it harder to refute and harder to separate from a sort of religious fervor. Sand valued great talent, but not the untouchable, sanitized, literary version of it. Her oft-quoted lines in one of her first letters to Viardot-Garcia (then Madmoiselle Garcia) makes this clear:

Queen of the world… If I had millions, I would spend them on an oriental rug to put at your feet… I do love genius, but when it is combined with goodness, I kneel at its feet. 726 (MT) 727 In these lines the le génie Sand seems to be referring to is Garcia, not the spirit of inspiration.

But then Sand would go on to take another stance. Her view of genius and the genius of then Mlle.

Garcia switches sides as she writes about the genius residing in Mlle Garcia in her 1840 article simply entitled Mlle Pauline Garcia:

The appearance of Miss Garcia will make a brilliant mark in the history of art made by women. The genius of this musician, both consummate and inspired, shows a progress of intelligence which had not yet been manifested in the female sex in such a conclusive manner... It has often been said and written that women artists could rise to men's level in production, but that in the conception of works of art they could not exceed a certain range of talent. It has been said less frequently perhaps since the efforts of a few of them have shown a more or less estimable aptitude for musical composition...But here is a girl of eighteen years of age who writes music with beauty and strength, and of whom very competent and most demanding artists have said: 'Show us these pages, and tell us that they are unpublished by Weber or Schubert, we will say that they are worthy of being signed by either of these great names, and rather by the former than the latter' This, it seems to us, is Miss Garcia's first title to undying fame. 728 .(MT) 729 Whether we take Sand's definition of a genius or someone of genius is not the question here.

Sand's comments only pass judgement on the critiques and barriers voiced against women's works that prevented women from attaining greatness. To place Viardot-Garcia in contrast, Sand puts Viardot-Garcia in the context of other great male composers, subconsciously displaying the cracks in the gendered-creative-hierarchy. Sand's observation that if Viardot-Garcia's works had a male name affixed to them, they would be "worthy," is telling. Here it appears that Sand was referring to Viardot-Garcia's talent, not her person, as she placed her works ("these pages") amongst Schubert and Weber. The fact that both beliefs are implicit in Sand's writings, the letter and the article, both from the same year of 1840, implies just how difficult this title is to sort out, and has been for a very long time. Sand vacillated between the claim; "le génie n'a pas de sexe 730 " (genius has no gender) as Germaine de Staël did, and "asserting intellectual inequality between the sexes 731 ". Sand's exploration of the title of genius and its contrasting aspects and characteristics is understandable, given the depth and the breadth of the term. On both sides of the definition Sand diverges from the social norm 732 . However dizzying this vacillation may seem, it can be viewed in light of the transition between the aesthetic of a person of genius, something that logically could 728 Sand, ""Le Théâtre Italien et Mlle. Pauline Garcia." 729 Original text: "L'apparition de Mlle Garcia sera un fait éclatant dans l'histoire de l'art traitée par les femmes. Le génie de cette musicienne à la fois consommée et inspirée constate un progrès d'intelligence qui ne s'était pont encore manifesté dans le sexe féminin d'une manière aussi concluante…On a dit et écrit souvent que les femmes artistes pouvaient dans l'exécution s'élever au niveau des hommes, mais que dans la conception des oeuvres d'art, elles ne pouvaient dépasser une certaine portée de talent. On l'a dit moins haut peut-être depuis que les efforts de quelques-unes d'entre elles ont montré une aptitude plus ou moins estimable pour la composition musicale…Mais voici une fille de dix-huit ans qui écrit de la musique vraiment belle et forte, et de qui des artistes très compétents et des plus sévères ont dit: 'Montrez-nous ces pages, et dites-nous qu'elles sont inédites de Weber ou de Schubert, nous dirons qu'elles sont dignes d'être signées par l'un ou l'autre de ces grands noms, et plutôt encore par le premier que par le second' C'est là, ce nous semble, le premier titre de Mlle Garcia à une gloire impérissable." 730 Paliyenko,Genius Envy,16. 731 Paliyenko,16. 732 Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture," 36-37.

be accessible by all humans, to the nineteenth and twentieth century belief in a genius, implying a state of being that one is born into and over which one has little or no control. Sands sometimes questions male dominance and at other moments asserts it, the sams as she at times praises someone's possession of genius and sometimes labels them a genius733 showing the nineteenth century effort at investigating the true nature of exceptional creativity. This transition excludes women and their creative works (especially in the nineteenth century) either explicitly or implicitly. Sand's letter, where she unabashedly expresses her awe of Garcia's musical mastery, is an endowment of a title of honor. Sand's article implies a title that strides both definitions; Mlle Garcia is covering relatively uncharted ground, it is her talent: an aspect of herself, that takes her there. What does seem clear from Sand's view is that genius was a battle ground for the sexes.

Genius for Viardot-Garcia, was both the source of high quality, awe-inspiring music as well as a trait she found, among others, so easily abiding in her admired friend and musical colleague Gounod. Viardot-Garcia's mentorship of Gounod makes this even clearer. Though for Viardot-Garcia, in her letter to Sand on Gounod, genius seemed to be a fixed characteristic that is to be searched out and found in artists who work alone, blithely turning out masterpiece after masterpiece. This clearly falls under the category of a genius. It is notable, however, that Viardot-Garcia comments in this same letter to George Sand on the problem of constantly turning to past masters for great art.

I have been very happy for some time. We have met a young composer who will be a great man as soon as his music is known. He won the Prix de Rome ten years ago, and since that time he has been working alone in his study, without knowing that every sentence that leaves his pen is a stroke of genius. In truth, it is consoling for art to have a great musical future to admire in front of it, without having to always give oneself a stiff neck looking back to the past 734 . (MT) 735

Viardot-Garcia: a home for the spirit of genius

With philosophical and biographical praise of the musical geniuses whose works build on the canon, the "stiff neck" from looking to the past had already been achieved in the nineteenthcentury. But Viardot-Garcia provides a template for possession of another kind of genius: one whose circle of influence is wide and who employs their talents to the betterment of great art: their personal works as well as the works of others. In this paradigm of genius, all great creation, personal and collaborative, can be an expression of the finest hours of one's creative legacy.

Viardot-Garcia's mentorship of the young composer Gounod, however, tells another story of her genius. It was at her suggestion not only that Gounod write an opera, but also giving Gounod the means and the tools to accomplish his task. But she also instructed him to go to Êmile Augier on her recommendation, promising that she would play the lead role if Augier agreed to write the words 736 . Her sympathies aligned with a movement and group called the Saint Simonians 737 , who valued helping others develop their craft and promoting art for art's sake. Viardot-Garcia may have even been inspired by Liszt's affiliation with the group for a short time. Her concept of genius, even as she observed Gounod as a genius, was both open to change and growth as well as it was approachable making it closer to the concept of someone of genius. Viardot-Garcia may have viewed Gounod's genius as a given, but she never hesitated to correct and collaborate with him.

734 Marix-Spire and R., "Gounod and His First Interpreter, Pauline " 195. 735 Original text: "Je suis bien heureuse depuis quelques temps. Nous avons fait la connaissance d'un jeune Compositeur qui sera un grand homme dès que sa musique sera connue. Il a eu le prix de Rome, il y a 10 ans, et depuis ce temps il a travaillé solitairement dans son cabinet, sans paraître se douter que chaque phrase qui sort de sa plume est un trait de génie. En vérité, c'est consolant pour l'art que d'avoir un grand avenir musical à admirer devant soi, sans avoir besoin de se donner toujours des torticolis à regarder un arrière dans le passé." 736 Marix-Spire and R., "Gounod and His First Interpreter, Pauline Viardot--Part I," 194. 737 Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 176.

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Her philosophy is seen in the re-working of the final scene of Sapho, among other parts of the opera. She wrote in her letter to Turgenev, upon her return to her estate Courtavenel where Gounod was staying with her family, that the scene would have to be entirely "reworked738 ". She recognized that artists needed a chance for their works to have the public audience required to build value through reception. Perhaps she recognized that her own creative genius would not be recognized and received in the same way as her male counterparts. So Viardot-Garcia offered her own celebrity to promote Gounod's works, just as she used her famous voice to sing her own works, and she gathered the aristocracy around her to perform her operettas and music. Viardot-Garcia created the receptive ambiance that she wanted surrounding her works, not needing the critical acclaim of a famous composer. Thus genius, for Viardot-Garcia, remained to a certain extent a malleable entity, something recognizable but that must be polished, changed, and modified. This concept of genius seems to be more flexible and open to context and collaboration as well as an acknowledgement of environmental influences on the perceived 'greatness' of both the individual and the work. A work of genius was the result of inspiration and multiple edits and was ratified by public reception.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's comments on genius show the inherent difficulty in bestowing the lofty title as well as its resistance to staying the same. I will repost, for context, her letter to Julius Rietz with her thoughts on genius as someone who dresses how they please:

Genius is not to be confined within a ready-made mould; it is a giant who cannot don the habiliments of a man of ordinary stature. He must be clad, I admit, according to the conventions of our civilization, but it is not indispensable that his costume should follow the prevailing fashion. All the dimensions being different, one may surely leave him the choice of material and form. To begin with, he will not let himself be clothed otherwise than suits his taste. -What a delightful metaphor! don't you find it quite worthy of 309 Homer?-You will reply that fools, too, dress themselves to their liking, and by no means prove their genius by doing so-739 (TB) 740

Better together: collaborative genius

Collaborative salon culture, artists' colonies, the practice of apprenticeship among composers all point to a more complex community of artistic alliances. The ill-fated mentorship of Wagner by Meyerbeer is a strong example of both collaboration and then denial of the collaboration for the sake of reputation 741 .

Collaboration is a vastly unexplored field in the understanding and rebuilding of the concept of musical exceptionality in creation. But collaboration between artists has always taken place, especially in the world of opera 742 . Isabelle de Charrière (1740-1805), a writer and composer of the melodies for nine operas, which she would then pass on to famous composer Niccol Zingarelli (1752-1837) for orchestration commented on the shared genius in their collaboration: I think we work quite well together, for it seems that I have fire and a wealth of ideas when I compose, while he has restraint and master in his art. It is likely that I would put six fingers on one hand, as I do not recall which painter did, and Zingarelli might leave the face of his principal character without sufficient expression. Why would not two musicians work together as two Flemish or Dutch painters used to work on the same painting? 743

Collaboration comes in multiple forms, including patrons who provided the materials, environment in which creativity could flourish. Before becoming the lofty (yet mostly underpaid) vocation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, those seen as 'great composers' were still championed by 739 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 374. 740 Original text: "Lewes est ouvert devant moi et mes yeux tombent par hasard sur cette phrase anti Weimarienne "Die Kunst ist Nichts als Gestaltung!" Ceci n'est pas non plus tout à fait juste, car la part faite (!) bon Dieu est trop petite dans cette manière de voir. Le génie ne peut pas contenir dans une forme toute faite déjà, c'est un géant qui ne peut entrer dans les vêtements d'un homme de taille ordinaire. Il faut qu'il soit habillé, j'en conviens, d'après les règles de notre civilisation, mais il n'est pas indispensable que son costume soit à lui [?] de tout le monde. Puisque toutes les dimensions sont autres on peut bien lui laisser le choix de l'étoffe et de la forme. D'abord il ne se laissera pas habiller autrement qu'à son goût. -Quelle jolie comparaison, elle est digne d'Homère, ne trouvez pas?-vous me direz que les fous aussi s'habillent à leur goût et qu'ils n'en ont pas plus de génie pour cela-" 741 Figes, The Europeans, 130-40. 742 Letzter and Adelson, "French Women Opera Composers and the Aesthetics of Rousseau," 79. 743 Letzter and Adelson, 80. 310 highly influential aristocrats. These privileged few enabled composers to both garner the notoriety required to make a career of composition, as well as build their name as a genius. Beethoven had Baron von Swieten and a host of other Viennese aristocrats that promoted Beethoven's work as a means of defining and elaborating their own social identity. Mozart's fame was built in part by using his talent to promote German values of industriousness combined with German musical aesthetic744 . As Tia DeNora states:

The social resources that make the identity of genius possible (beyond practical and material conditions) include such factors as what an audience will accept as legitimate and when, from whom it will accept certain types of work. to ignore these issues is to mystify genius and to take it out of historical and interactional contexts745 .

Returning to the origins of a work is necessary to compile a complete picture of what genius is and how to use the word. It must begin with the musicians that built the environment in which the work grew. The contributions of the nineteenth century prima donna to the creation of a new opera, for example, has largely been ignored or downplayed in composer biographies. Their contributions often included alterations to the work they were performing to fit the musical needs of the moment, or their perception of what the dramatic role required. Vlado Kotnik's article on the prima donna cites the style of performing Bellini's Romeo "alla Malibran" by substituting the tomb scene for the matching scene from Vaccai's Guilietta e Romeo. Divas often had the right (or insisted upon the right as did Guiditta Pasta) to choose their fellow cast members, control staging elements, and make important changes in the work they were performing. Divas' considerable role in opera creation in the mid nineteenth century was a collaborative partnership that molded the creation of new musical works 746 . Composers and opera houses were rewarded for these women's creative ingenuity with greater public success 747 . But a prima donna's role was increasingly reduced to the simpering, petulant, childlike singer with a list of ridiculous demands 748 .

In the context of the diva collaborator, Viardot-Garcia's involvement and contributions to operas such as Sapho and Les Troyens would be seen not as unusual in nature but in degree. Hers was a collaboration from the inception of these works. For Gounod, she provided the framework, and the creative ambiance at Courtavenel where Gounod's creativity could flourish. Her collaboration with Gounod was also compositional at times in suggesting and providing melodic lines and harmonic choices 749 . It has recently come to light that a portion of the manuscript of Berlioz's Les Troyens, known to have been composed with input from Viardot-Garcia, is probably written in her hand 750 . This seems to imply more than just an auxiliary collaboration.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia's status as a composer, though lauded by other composers and aristocrats, was not seen as a path to be cleared for celebrity. She was a diva, already famous as an interpreter.

She sought another path to the valuation of her works that was outside the status quo; by publishing what she wanted, performing her own works, collaborating freely with other composers of genius, she provides a mode of inquiry and valuation into works that history has ignored up to this point.

Though the nineteenth century views of genius are shrouded in the need to prove male sexual dominance, there was a conversation that has been forgotten. This conversation, combined with the artistic examples of highly talented individuals like Pauline Viardot-Garcia, can provide a new way to understand the past, and the possibility of listening to great works by female composers, on their own terms.

Confronting the consequences of myths

Genius, though it seems to resist definition, is ultimately recognizable by all. The word and the concept have been proven to have staying power. From the eighteenth century and before, genius proved an answer to how masterworks came into being. Genius was the source of inspiration to the nineteenth century and ultimately the present day. But more than that it was, and is, used to describe the master, not the process. Genius is nowhere close to going out of style. Every culture in every age has its mythology and its heroes. The title of genius appears to be the modernist effort to claim their own mythology and name their own gods. If this is even the slightest bit true, then we must know how and why they are named thus to truly define the word and thus look behind the mystique to disassemble the social and cultural barrier for female composers.

The story of the remarkable people that shape a musical creator to create exceptionally isn't what we generally talk about when we talk about genius. The romantic ideal didn't disappear, even with the demystification of intelligence and its origins and non-origins. Genius moved, instead of closer to the scientific realm, further into the magical undefinable space of myth and hero worship. Garber asks,"Is there anything wrong with cherishing this ideal 751 ? To answer Garber's question, yes and no. Genius worship invokes the human desire to wonder at the mysterious just as religion gives some the means to contemplate the infinite. But the other side of that coin is a relinquishment of responsibility for the future. Religion often proclaims that if the individual is morally good their god will work out the rest. There is a dependence on a day of 'reckoning' in which all the messes of the world will be made right. Could genius worship be the same thing? Looking to, identifying, and holding up humans as irrefutable geniuses in the past and in the future relinquishes us mere mortals from the heavy responsibility of saving society or art from its various ills. It releases society from its responsibility for its part in creating or contributing to nurturing and developing artists. The link between hero worship of the composers of the canon and religion is still a strong one 752 , which possibly explains the strong social resistance to change and acceptance of women's musical contributions from the nineteenth century, given the political agenda, such as the Napoleonic code.

… the canonicity of the Bible was governed by a desire to retain a sense of national identity among the Israelites. Hence one of the guiding criteria according to which canonicity was determined was whether a work dealt (thematically) with God's alleged covenant with the Hebrews. Thus, the Book of Job, for example, which had been written several centuries earlier, was accepted as canonical at this time, whereas several other writings, now called the Apocrypha, were excluded. My point is that the contents of the book conservatives hold as almost definitional to Western culture were selected according to standards of political correctness many centuries ago 753 . The most common western example of canonicity as a result of political and social norms would be the Bible. This compendium of political and social norms from its time, much like the musical canon, was taken into a time in which these norms may be foreign. The canon artificially imposes these archaic norms on the present day, delaying social movements that could allow for more equality and a clearer and broader historical context.

The title of musical genius has come to represent the hero mythology and impedes studies of the entire spectrum of creativity. The word we have chosen and the way it has separated a select few for the messianic role within the musical canon gives the impression of limitation; limitation of human creativity for the rest of us, limitation of who can make great music and what music is considered great. As more and more expectations are heaped upon artists not to just create but to embody creative mythology, again the title of a genius becomes an impediment to creative work. 752 Garber, 138. 753 Josephine Donovan, "Women's Masterpieces," in Challenging Boundaries: Gender and Periodization, ed. Joyce W. Warren and Margaret Dickie (University of Georgia Press, 2000), 28.

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… as a culture, we have become increasingly addicted to the idea of genius, so we are dependent on it for a certain kind of emulative high, an intoxication with the superlative. Nowadays it takes more and more genius, or more and more geniuses, to satisfy our craving. It may be time to go cold turkey for a while, to swear off the genius model to represent our highest aspirations for intellectual or artistic innovation. If we remind ourselves that what is really at stake is creativity and invention, if we can learn to separate the power of ideas from that of personality, then perhaps we will be less dazzled by the light of celebrity and less distracted by attempts to lionize the genius as a high-culture hero-as essence rather than force 754 . Unlike Garber, I am not advocating a cold turkey stop of our use of the word genius when referring to great artists, but a return to the old usage of the word genius, one that I now recommend as an alternative to abandoning it altogether 755 . The move back to referring to someone as a 'person of genius' gives society an opportunity to reflect on the origin (which is slightly different for each composer or artist) of that genius inspiration and opens up the conversation instead of slapping a title on it and closing the door. In truth, behind the curtain shielding the great and powerful Oz, the individual behind the curtain isn't a genius, but is of genius. The illusion of genius is a title that can be worn, like a tattoo on the skin of great men. But genius is a word we could use to learn more about creativity; with a definition closer to Viardot-Garcia's image of talent choosing its clothing. The people of genius dress themselves in the vestments of genius through their own combination of training, obsession, experience, and natural propensities. No matter what nineteenth century culture had evolved to believe, genius is an expression of creativity that is expressed by earnest, obsessive, highly trained individuals (and I say highly trained and not necessarily formally trained, to invite a broader perspective on musical training). The title of a genius is a disservice to the individual expressing it and robs the person on which the title hangs of their own humanity and capacity to make mistakes and experiment. It erases the possibility of 754 Garber,Loaded Words,139. 755 This idea was first suggested by Catherine Deutsch, assistant professor at Sorbonne University individual discovering and developing their own genius, the spirit to inspire them, at whatever level, to creative endeavors.

The question of gender is of course, part of this whole complicated web, one that expresses a symptom of a deeply flawed hierarchical system designed for exclusion. The oasis I sought in a desert of inequality is not what I had thought it was. Nineteenth century genius is an illusion, at best a means to glorify the great accomplishments of the individual and at worst a means of skirting responsibility for change, innovation, and intense concentration for the rest of us mere mortals.

The word genius needs a reset, but not in the way that I originally thought. Genius, more than being gendered, has become synonymous with superhuman, and thus any efforts to look closely at its origins and its workings become akin to trying to peek behind the curtain in our interview with the great and powerful Oz. In order to allow for female accomplishments to take their place in the Pantheon of human respect for creative achievement, we must not just renovate genius but restore it to the spirit of inspiration that abides inside us all. Those who rise above, through a mixture of environment, education, obsession, and sheer luck do not present the answer but posit more questions on how we nurture creativity, who is being overlooked, and what the whole story tells us about societal expectations.

Keeping genius

In a larger context, a label that isolates the work from the society that created the need for it, calls into question the actual function of that label. Not only does the label contribute to a change in perception for the general public, but for the recipient of the accolade. Given a status, it is only natural to want to keep that status by promoting and pushing into the public eye that which garnered praise in the first place. Instead of focusing on nurturing their creativity, the genius is forced to nurture their image in order to stay financially viable in the arts marketplace. This is a heavy weight to bear and still demand superior creative output. This energy, that could have been used to generate even more exceptional creative pursuits, is then wasted on marketing a 'brand' of genius.

Keeping genius means both opening it up to welcome women to the table as well as questioning the social structures of the nineteenth century, to better understand our own biases and from whence they came. Pauline Viardot-Garcia's gifts and creative output provide an example of a person of genius, a person who contributed and aided other creatives to access their own potential of greatness. Viardot-Garcia's unique perspective, creative generosity and technical facility are all expressions of a person who often accessed her own spirit of inspiration. Her creations and collaborations are expressions of her spirit of genius in full force.

Conclusion

One journey ends and another begins

At the beginning of my research, my proposition was three-fold: first to contribute a scholarly analysis of three of the works by a great female composer: Pauline Viardot-Garcia. The third goal was to gain an understanding of the obstacles that the nineteenth century placed in the way of remembrance of exceptional musical women, women of genius. I set to outline what genius was, both by identifying Pauline Viardot-Garcia as one, as well as what the list of genius criteria looked like for nineteenth-century philosophers, musicians, and critics. I hoped that this idea could then inform our modern conception of genius and explain why women were still systematically excluded from being considered as part of the list of 'great composers'. My initial goal was to separate the gendered criteria from the gender-neutral criteria, and then present Viardot-Garcia as a genius in this neutral 'pure' analytical space. There are of course, several works that have endeavored to do some variation of this goal. One of the most notable was Susan McClary's Feminine Endings 756 whose very title plays on the use of feminine to give gendered metaphors to musical theoretical analysis. Another work is Marcia Citron's work Gender and the Musical Canon 757 which lists a wealth of historical references that show that musical analysis, especially in the nineteenth century, has always had a strong misogynist bias. As Citron and McClary clearly state, there is an argument to be made that music composition has never have been a gender-neutral space and certainly not during Pauline Viardot-Garcia' lifetime. If theoretical analysis, the very tool I hoped to use to lift Viardot-Garcia, is in fact, itself gender-biased, what hope do I have of suggesting an alternative way of viewing the past and still remain within the cadre of academic musicology? It appears that the lack of women in music history is just a symptom of a profound cultural misunderstanding that begins with gendered bias but extends beyond that. It may even go as deep as the cultural desire to categorize and enforce binary divisions to create a social hierarchy or enforce an existing one. Gender divisions and hierarchies lead to creatively limiting divisions and hierarchies, as we have seen. My own personal yellow-brick-road that has been the journey of this thesis has led me to the conclusion that new ways of analysis must be developed if there is a chance of allowing women's works from the past as well as the future to receive the value they merit. These are the questions and observations that prodded and guided me as I endeavored to develop my thesis. As I conducted my research, reading and enlarging my ideas through writing and many discussions within my own creative circle, each chapter of my thesis brought new insights and new ways to view the subjects of my thesis as well as topics and issues that require further study.

Unexpected pathways

In chapter one, the biography of Pauline Viardot-Garcia was crafted around providing a framework for a new study in genius, one that looked different from that of the members of canon, but was recognizable, nonetheless. In studying her life, I recognized the patterns of a musical prodigy in a musical environment: the curious mixture of an intense learning and performing lifestyle combined with the peculiar personality that Pauline Viardot-Garcia possessed. Her intensely cosmopolitan and musical-home environment probably helped create a woman whose work ethic and curiosity, creativity and energy often went unmatched. The musicological world stills stands uncomfortably, if at all, in a space where a woman's background creates not only context but additional value for her works. A female composer's life is generally portrayed as the constraints that held her back from being the female version of the names we know in music history. But there is value in seeing Viardot-Garcia's singing career, her choice to marry and have children as well as other life choices as part of what shaped her ability to collaborate with other creators of genius. What if motherhood was not seen as the antithesis of artistic creation as Chaminade believed it was? There is much more to be said on how and why Viardot-Garcia became who she was as a woman-creator, more than I had the time and space to say. Viardot-Garcia's ability to involve her children in her operettas, her astounding salons, her collaborations on great works, are all part of what a continuing study of how great female composers can and did navigate the space of creation as a woman (and sometimes as a mother).

In chapter two, I laid out the sociological background of the nineteenth century for European women and the conversation between the different sides of the gendered genius arguement. I found the voices that were part of the conversation on genius and gender in the nineteenth century: George Sand, Pauline Viardot-Garcia herself, feminists like Jenny D'Hericourt and Olympe de Gouges and many members of her artistic circle, who were much more open to the possibility of female musical genius. Not only has modern culture inherited a masculine view of genius from the nineteenth century, but a myopic view of the conversations that flowed during that time on the value of women's artistic work.

Viardot-Garcia's creative circle easily recognized her talents and exceptional abilities even if they didn't advocate for equality within the sexes or see her genius as a universal possibility for her gender. The opponents, though their actual words may seem shocking to modern eyes and ears, were not so foreign as they seem. Proudhon's critiques are echoed in the sarcastic jokes about 'women's place' of many modern men when a woman speaks earnestly of feminism, the patriarchy and perhaps even when she speaks earnestly and passionately at all. Milder versions of the same idea of women's inferiority even find their way into comments following my presentations at musicological conferences in the form of questions as to why women cannot be satisfied with what they have or suggesting that adding value to women's works will subtract value from the 'great composers' of the canon. Research into the conversation on great women's art and its value in the nineteenth century has been eye-opening and eerily familiar, there is much more work to be done to balance out this conversation in musicology. Viardot-Garcia's drive to write and stage her operettas in less formal settings such as salon concerts, using students and family members as cast members attests to her collaborative mindset.

Templates for the future

Her ambition to create, is obvious, though not in the professional and gendered sense of pursuing a career as a composer. Perhaps her skill and technique as a composer combined with her lack of "anxiety of influence 758 "(there was no need to destroy what has come before), presented an interesting new field of study on how to recognize great talent when ambition for notoriety is not a concern.

Genius: its burdens and boundaries

Chapter six was a surprising exploration into the evolution of the word genius, one that proved much more complex than originally perceived. The way in which culture shapes definitions to fit certain needs, and what those needs are reveal a great deal about state of philosophy at the time as well as what it has become. My goal for this thesis and the study of the term 'musical genius', marinated as it has been for the last five years in the words of others, combined with my own experience and perspective, inevitably evolved. This research has come to be more than one on the genius of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and the historical conscious-forgetting of female composers and their works. The path this research lays out ahead points in the direction of the vast and still unknown boundaries of collaborative genius. The surprising answers that arose after the analysis in chapters three through five revealed the field of study of creative partnerships yet to be discovered, as well as deeper investigation into collaborative and inspirational partnerships between Viardot-Garcia and her artistic friends like Frédéric Chopin, Charles Gounod and Hector Berlioz. Chapter six is a launching point for further research on how musicology has and should view genius as a concept and as a means of qualifying great composers and great works. This attempt to bring back one of the influential voices of the nineteenth century lost in the patriarchal ether invites me to look further down the road of the effects human collaboration has on the creation of masterworks. It is a nod at the future projects that await.

There is an exciting field of study that awaits a culture that can loosen its grip on the established musical canon. An exploration revealing a depth of cultural understanding can place well-loved favorites in the context of the environment in which they grew, and the people who nurtured and shaped the creation of each one creating space for the same treatment of women's compositions.

Tia DeNora observes:

In retrospect influence is conceived as independent of the local often mundane conditions under which composition occurs. This misconception of influence leads to over idealized and musically imperialistic conceptions of the compositional process, which sidestep the issue of social structure 759 .

The dividing lines of genius

The title of genius, as in a genius, cannot tell the whole story, it is too rigid and eschew's environmental context for mythology. But what is it leaving out? We can see from above that it leaves out the possibility of a great work being the result of intense collaboration.

But we have also left out what the title of genius does to the recipient of the gift, the one who bestows it, and society at large, and historians too, must deal with the consequences of this choice.

Genius is a concept that dominates our dreams and ideals. Genius was (and is) also used to market individuals and their creations. The flow of our concept of genius follows the landscape of social expectations and norms of our society, our valuation of different expressions of intelligence and our expectations for different human groups. But most of all a genius provides a means of division.

In his article "Situating Genius", Ray McDermott points out that we use genius to excuse 759 DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 6. mediocracy in a system built to glorify the few, and the rare 760 . The conception of genius cultivated in the nineteenth century is a static object that is either a person or in a person, emphasizing a genius' thought as something one owns fully from start to finish, which is rarely, if ever the case. The conversation on different ways to understand exceptional creativity existed, and women like Olympe de Gouges and Jenny D'Hericourt clearly voiced the logic behind women's artistic contributions having inestimable value. However, one can see just by reading current program notes at the symphony just whose voices society continues to ignore.

A possible future for musical genius

But there is hope and a way to ease that burden of a genius from both society and from the shoulders of the individuals whose creativity demands excellence and produces astounding results.

There is a hope that context and understanding of the groups that built the names we recognize as genius can create a pattern of understanding that makes women's' place in the musical canon inevitable. The weight of genius comes from the idea that creations are conceived linearly (also rarely the case), thus divorced of their genesis. Both the geniuses and their creations are removed from context and orphaned from the parentage of influence and social context giving even more weight to social inequalities. A division that was meant to honor greatness, instead disconnects the achievement from curiosity and further exploration because the label implies finality and denies the subjectivity of its origins. In the context of female creativity, it is obvious that this would create a barrier to women's works being accepted into mainstream musical enjoyment.

There is much to do, there is much more to discover and there are many works that await to be reunited with their heritage and presented, whole, to the world. Pauline Viardot-Garcia's life and work present a new way to look at the inspiration of genius in the way she naturally gathered great creative minds around her. Her contribution to others' works was not auxiliary to the final product but integral and important just as Ivan Turganev's librettos were for her operettas. Genius should be viewed as a manifestation to one's collaborative powers as much one's contextually untethered intellectual abilities. Understanding collaborative relationships in artistic circles not only invites a better way of understanding how women excelled creatively when denied formal training or professional exposure and encouragement, but also provides a more complete picture. This more complete picture moves away from an aesthetic that favors a male-centric genius criteria set to a place where an artist and their art can be evaluated in context. Then the concept of musical genius becomes expansive, one that allows for wonder as well as study and analysis. A more complete historical picture can inspire and motivate instead of separate and discourage new creative talents.

Changing genius from a title to a quality provides not only an impetus for greatness but removes the blinders to great composers of the past. Genius, like the quality that Pauline Viardot-Garcia placed on her own shoulders without asking societal approval or permission, is the kind of genius that can widen and clarify understanding of great creative talents past and present, no matter where the excellence falls on the gendered spectrum. Il y a au moins trois thèses écrites sur différents aspects des chansons de Viardot-Garcia 768 , et deux thèses qui se concentrent sur les aspects de performance de sa dernière opérette, Cendrillon 769 . La 763 Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance. 764 Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique. 765 Barbier, Pauline Viardot. 766 Borchard, Pauline Viardot-Garcia. 767 Figes, The Europeans. 768

Des choix dans l'analyse du répertoire

Mais pourquoi ne pas étudier et analyser les chansons de Viardot-Garcia, qui sont nombreuses ?

Viardot-Garcia était connue pour ses oeuvres vocales plus courtes, dont elle a publié des recueils de son vivant. Cependant, non seulement il existe déjà plusieurs thèses qui étudient ses chansons, mais ses opérettes présentent également des aspects intéressants qui ne peuvent être trouvés qu'en étudiant ses oeuvres plus importantes. Puisque je suis également confrontée aux questions de genre entourant les termes de canon et de génie musical, il est important d'être explicite sur les questions de genre que j'ai rencontrées dès le début de ma thèse. Je reconnais qu'une partie de mon désir

Pourquoi sommes nous ici?

L'analyse de ses opérettes a pour but de faciliter la question suivante : comment se fait que nous redécouvrions seulement aujourd'hui l'oeuvre d'une autre femme incroyable pour la première fois depuis sa mort ? Le fait que Viardot-Garcia soit maintenant étudiée et louée contribuera à rendre l'histoire plus complète, ce qui profitera à tous, mais la cause sous-jacente de cet oubli doit encore être abordée. Les titres de "grand compositeur" et de "génie musical" sont ceux que nous avons largement hérités du XIX e siècle. Le génie idéal, celui qui compose seul, est encore vanté dans les biographies et les articles consacrés aux artistes exceptionnellement créatifs. Cette image est encore majoritairement masculine. Dans les cercles musicologiques, on doute encore que les femmes puissent composer, ou aient composé, au même niveau créatif que les hommes. Thomas Meyer, par exemple, cité dans le livre de Danielle Roster, Les Femmes et la Création Musicale, a écrit : "[…]lorsque les compositrices sont entendues, c'est à un échelon 'inférieur' de la vie des concerts, dans un coin perdu […] Au niveau où pullulent les débutants, les méconnues et les inconnus, et où l'on cherche peut-être aussi des talents, il est volontier fait mention des femmes, mais plutôt, il est vrai, comme une curiosité dont la valeur, quand on s'élève au niveau institutionnel, est tout aussi volontier remise en question […] Les performances de très haut niveau jugées avec la rigueur appropriée doivent, dans notre activité musicale, être accomplies par des hommes ; on attend des femmes tout au plus un travail de base […] 771 " Cette citation ne date pas du XIX e siècle mais de 1985, certainement pas assez loin pour que l'on puisse prétendre que les oeuvres des femmes sont aujourd'hui pleinement comprises et appréciées.

Cette approche de l'inégalité passe par l'étude et la philosophie qui se cachent derrière le titre de génie musical. Cette enquête se concentre sur le XIX e siècle en raison de son pouvoir et de son influence durables sur les questions d'égalité aujourd'hui.

Le génie musical comme repère social

Le dernier thème de ma thèse, l'étude du concept de génie musical au XIX e siècle, cherche à comprendre pourquoi les compositrices comme Viardot-Garcia demeurent en périphérie de l'Histoire, alors qu'elles en occupaient le centre à leur propre époque. Cette étude de la philosophie du "génie" retrace les racines d'une misogynie tenace, comme le montre la citation de Meyers cidessus. Cette partie a l'ambition de mettre à nu les préjugés qui subsistent, toujours présents aujourd'hui en filigrane des écrits historiques. Le concept de génie dont nous avons hérité doit être Face à l'ambiguïté, nous remplissons l'histoire de nos espoirs ou de nos craintes, ou des deux, en la faisant correspondre à ce que nous considérons déjà comme vrai. Cela sert à limiter et à réduire notre vision du monde. Même les informations historiques que nous obtenons, qu'elles soient musicales ou autres, sont rarement complètes. L'Histoire consignée tend un miroir aux valeurs et aux aspirations actuelles d'une culture, et non à la réalité ; nous nous retrouvons donc avec une image déformée 773 .

Les femmes dotées d'une créativité extraordinaire sont tenues à l'écart des valeurs de la culture occidentale depuis que le mot génie trouve son origine dans la Grèce antique. J'ai commencé à m'attaquer à cette problématique au cours de mes études supérieures et j'ai décidé de consacrer mes recherches doctorales à l'approfondissement de l'enquête sur cet oubli culturel de masse. Cette recherche est axée sur un déficit observé, en raison de la façon dont la nouvelle vision plus complète du monde a changé et amélioré ma capacité à remettre en question les structures sociales du passé et du présent.

Aborder les idées préconçues

La recherche sur la vie de Pauline Viardot-Garcia a permis de modifier les questions initiales à l'origine de ma thèse et de dissiper certaines idées fausses sur cette femme, son entourage et sa carrière. Voici quelques-unes de ces idées reçues et les chapitres qui traitent de ces questions :

Des chemins inattendus

Dans le premier chapitre, la biographie de Pauline Viardot-Garcia a été pensée afin de fournir un cadre à une nouvelle étude du génie, un génie différent de celui des membres du canon, mais néanmoins reconnaissable. En étudiant sa vie, j'ai reconnu les caractéristiques d'un prodige de la musique dans un environnement musical : le curieux mélange d'un mode de vie intense, fait

Chapitre deux

Fichier de personnes disparues

L'hypothèse culturelle selon laquelle le génie musical est un concept non sexiste et même utile est abordée dans mon deuxième chapitre : "Genius : the word, the concept and the gender", ainsi que dans le chapitre six : "A meeting with the myth: The Great and Powerful Oz". Dans ces chapitres, j'aborde à la fois les problèmes liés à l'évolution culturelle du titre de génie (chapitre deux) et la Le cercle créatif de Viardot-Garcia a facilement reconnu ses talents et ses capacités exceptionnelles, même s'il ne prônait pas l'égalité entre les sexes ou ne voyait pas son génie comme une éventualité universelle pour le genre féminin. Bien que les propos des opposants puissent paraître choquants de nos jours, ils n'étaient pas cependant si différents de ceux que l'on connaît aujourd'hui. Les critiques de Proudhon trouvent un écho dans les plaisanteries sarcastiques sur "la place des femmes" de nombreux hommes modernes lorsqu'une femme parle sérieusement du féminisme, du patriarcat et peut-être même lorsqu'elle parle sérieusement et passionnément. Des versions plus édulcorées de la même idée d'infériorité des femmes se retrouvent même dans les commentaires qui suivent mes présentations lors de conférences musicologiques, sous la forme de questions demandant pourquoi les femmes ne peuvent pas se contenter de ce qu'elles ont, ou suggérant qu'ajouter de la valeur aux oeuvres des femmes enlèvera de la valeur aux "grands compositeurs" du canon. La recherche autour du débat sur le talent artistique des grandes femmes et sa valeur au XIX e siècle a été révélatrice et étrangement familier, mais il reste encore beaucoup à faire pour équilibrer ce débat en musicologie. La volonté de Viardot-Garcia d'écrire et de mettre en scène ses opérettes dans des cadres moins formels, comme des salons-concerts, en utilisant des étudiants et des membres de sa famille comme acteurs, témoigne de son esprit de collaboration. Son ambition de créer est évidente, mais pas dans le sens professionnel et genré de la poursuite d'une carrière de compositeur. Peut-être que ses compétences et sa technique en tant que compositrice, combinées à son absence de "anxiety of influence 782 " (il n'était pas nécessaire de détruire ce qui avait été fait auparavant), ont ouvert un nouveau champ d'étude intéressant sur la manière de reconnaître un grand talent lorsque l'ambition de notoriété n'est pas une préoccupation.

Chapitres trois à cinq

Un coup de projecteur

Des modèles pour l'avenir

Chapitre trois

Le chapitre trois, Le Dernier Sorcier : une création en collaboration, présente le contexte de la longue évolution de l'opérette de Viardot-Garcia, avec le librettiste Ivan Tourgueniev. Mon analyse musicale de l'oeuvre se concentre sur les points forts de la composition de Viardot-Garcia ainsi que sur la façon dont elle développe chaque personnage par le biais de dispositifs musicaux. Je trouve que le développement musical des personnages féminins forts de l'oeuvre par la mesure et la mélodie est particulièrement démonstratif de sa palette artistique. La subversion tranquille de Viardot-Garcia à l'égard des normes de genre apparaît dans la hiérarchie musicale qu'elle a établie en conjonction avec le livret de Tourgueniev. Le thème du pouvoir féminin surgit de manière surprenante et remarquable. Tout cela dans une opérette de salon comique ! Cette oeuvre commence à remettre en question le statu quo de ce que l'on peut considérer comme une oeuvre magistrale. Une oeuvre musicale qui vous fait rire peut-elle être une oeuvre de génie?

Chapitre quatre

Dans le chapitre quatre, "La Partie de Whist : a game of questions", je présente l'opérette nouvellement découverte de Viardot-Garcia et Tourgueniev, ainsi Cette thèse représente un parcours personnel de découverte de la nature fluctuante et sous-marine des mots qui structurent notre comportement social et notre compréhension de nous-mêmes. Elle a aussi été celle de la découverte d'une femme dont la vie n'était pas seulement une nouvelle histoire de génie gâché, mais une expression différente du génie, qui a changé la trajectoire même de cette these, ainsi qu les perspectives d'une étude plus approfondie après son achèvement. Ce modèle différent de génie a changé la nature même des possibilités que le mot présentait au début de cette étude. La recherche des aspects de mes questions, Viardot-Garcia, ses travaux et la philosophie du génie sont essentiellement toutes les facettes de la même question : à quoi ressemble le génie féminin ?

Chapitre six

Nouvelles conclusions et orientations

Le génie: ses fardeaux et limites

Le chapitre six est une surprenante exploration de l'évolution du mot "génie", évolution qui s'est révélée beaucoup plus complexe qu'on ne le pensait initialement. La manière dont la culture façonne les définitions pour répondre à certains besoins, ainsi que la nature de ces besoins en disent long sur l'état de la philosophie à l'époque et sur ce qu'elle est devenue. À l'origine, un de mes objectifs pour cette thèse était l'étude du terme "génie musical" appliqué à Pauline Viardot-Garcia.

Cependant, au fil de mes lectures, ma compréhension de ce mot a inévitablement évolué. Cette Rétrospectivement, l'influence est conçue comme indépendante des conditions locales, souvent banales, dans lesquelles se déroule la composition. Cette conception erronée de l'influence conduit à des conceptions trop idéalisées et musicalement impérialistes du processus de composition, qui éludent la question de la structure sociale 787 .

Les frontières du génie

Le qualificatif de "génie", comme dans un génie, ne révèle pas grand chose, il est trop figé et laisse de côté le contexte environnemental au profit de la mythologie. Mais que laisse-t-il de côté ? Nous avons vu qu'il exclut la possibilité qu'une grande oeuvre soit le résultat d'une collaboration intense.

Mais nous avons également omis ce que le titre de génie fait au destinataire du don, à celui qui l'accorde, et c'est ainsi que la société dans son ensemble, mais aussi les historiens, doivent faire face aux conséquences de ce choix. Le génie est un concept qui domine nos rêves et nos idéaux.

Un voyage se termine et un autre commence

Au début de mes recherches, ma proposition avait trois branches: d'abord contribuer à une analyse érudite de trois des oeuvres d'une grande compositrice : Pauline Viardot-Garcia. Le dernier objectif était de comprendre quels obstacles que le XIX e siècle ont entravé le souvenir de femmes musiciennes exceptionnelles, des femmes de génie. J'ai cherché à définir ce qu'était le génie, à la fois en identifiant Pauline Viardot-Garcia comme telle, et en examinant la liste des critères du génie pour les philosophes, les musiciens et les critiques du XIX e siècle. J'espérais que cette idée pourrait ensuite inspirer notre conception moderne du génie et expliquer pourquoi les femmes étaient encore systématiquement exclues de la liste des "grands compositeurs". Mon objectif initial était de séparer les critères sexués des critères non sexués, puis de présenter Viardot-Garcia comme un génie dans cet espace analytique neutre "pur". Il existe bien sûr plusieurs travaux qui se sont efforcés de réaliser une variation de cet objectif. L'un des plus remarquables est Feminine Endings Garcia. Si l'analyse théorique, l'outil même que j'espérais utiliser pour relever Viardot-Garcia, est en fait elle-même biaisée par le genre, quel espoir ai-je de suggérer une autre façon de lire le passé tout en restant dans le cadre de la musicologie académique ? Il semble que le manque de femmes dans l'histoire de la musique ne soit qu'un symptôme d'un profond malentendu culturel qui commence par un préjugé sexiste, mais qui va au-delà. Cela peut même aller jusqu'au désir culturel de catégoriser et d'appliquer des divisions binaires pour créer une hiérarchie sociale ou renforcer une hiérarchie existante. Comme nous l'avons vu, les divisions et les hiérarchies liées au sexe conduisent à des divisions et à des hiérarchies limitant la créativité. Mon cheminement personnel tout tracé, qui a été le parcours de cette thèse, m'a conduit à la conclusion que de nouvelles méthodes d'analyse doivent être développées s'il y a une chance de permettre aux oeuvres des femmes du passé et de l'avenir de recevoir la valeur qu'elles méritent. Ce sont les questions et les observations qui m'ont poussée et guidée dans l'élaboration de ma thèse. Au fur et à mesure que je menais mes recherches, que je lisais et que j'élargisse mes idées par le biais de l'écriture et de nombreuses discussions au sein de mon propre cercle créatif, chaque chapitre de ma thèse m'a apporté de nouvelles perspectives et de nouvelles façons de voir les sujets de ma thèse ainsi que des sujets et des questions qui nécessitent une étude plus approfondie. Le concept de génie musical devient alors plus large et permet l'émerveillement ainsi que l'étude et l'analyse. Une image historique plus complète peut inspirer et motiver au lieu de séparer et de décourager les nouveaux talents créatifs. Faire passer le génie d'un titre à une qualité permet non seulement de donner une impulsion à la grandeur, mais aussi de supprimer les oeillères qui nous focalisent sur les "grands compositeurs du passé". Le génie, en tant que qualité que Pauline Viardot-Garcia a placée sur ses épaules sans demander l'approbation ou la permission de la société, est le type de génie qui peut élargir et clarifier la compréhension des grands talents créatifs passés et présents, peu importe où l'excellence se situe sur le spectre des genres.

Un avenir possible pour le génie musical

  Deutsch and Dr. Florence Launay. Dr. Catherine Deutsch was a professor at the Sorbonne who generously helped me with my preparation for several conferences. Her ingenious way of asking questions has inspired a new avenue in my research on more than one occasion. I met Dr. Florence Launay in person following our participation in a conference for the Opera Comique in 2019. She probably does not know how inspired I am by her work and how much I have benefited from her publications. Both our discussion of Viardot-Garcia in February of 2019 as well as her books and articles have guided me in their academic precision. Her open and inquisitive research style is both elegant and inspiring.

  Viardot, who I found to be a fascinating and under-studied musical and historical figure. I initially thought to center my thesis around Le Dernier Sorcier, but I found that Dr. Nicholas Žekulin had 25 N. G. Žekulin, "Novye materialy o sovmestnykh khudožestvennykh proizvedeniïakh Turgeneva i Poliny Viardot v Houghtonskoï biblioteke Harvardskogo universiteta," I. S. Turgenev. Novye issledovaniïa i materialy 4 (2016): 288-311.

200

  Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)[Continued]," 542-44.201 Original text: "Bin ich vorgestern un 11 Urh Nacts in Paris angekommen. Mein guter Louis und Louisette warteten mein an der Eisenbahn Station. Das war eine Freunde! Die Armen, sie können wirklich nicht leicht ohne mich leben. Die zwei Mägdlein sind aufgewacht, als ich ganz leise in ihrem Zimmer getreten bin. Da war ein Mama schreien, ein wilder Tanz im blossen Hemdchen auf di kleine Betten, ein Jauchzen, ein Küssen!! Ei, das war wunderschön. C'est pourtant un plus beau succès que tous les succès du théàtre, et cependant j'ai le courage de chagriner tous ces êtres chéris de temps à autre par mes absences… Ah cette fois j'ai formé intérieurement le projet de tâcher de m'arranger de sorte à ne plus faire que de très courtes absences à moins d'avoir un engagement d'une certaine durée, en quel cas, j'emmènerai tous mes trésors avec moi."together: an operetta. Nicholas Žekulin, a Turgenev scholar, has found that the first manuscripts of Dernier Sorcier originate from this period 202 . It was at Courtavenel that Viardot-Garcia began multiple mentorships for other composers.Pauline met Charles Gounod, a rising composer at the Villa Medici during the Viardot's honeymoon in Italy in June of 1840. Ten years later, the composer met Viardot-Garcia for a second time. This time the prima donna was enthralled by Gounod's music and promised that she would sing in the opera he hoped to write. She then recommended a librettist and then even offered her home in Courtavenel as an ideal place for the composer to come and write his first opera. Viardot-Garcia and Gounod would collaborate often in his compositions; she often played the part of advisor as well as editor as he wrote 203 . Like other artists before and after him, Gounod fell madly in love with Viardot-Garcia for a time. It wasn't only Gounod who would benefit from the creative nest that was Courtenavel. The Viardots also opened their doors to Hector Berlioz. In 1859 Berlioz, sick, depressed and feeling mistreated by his wife, found reprieve at Courtenavel 204 . Berlioz was working on a project that interested the two artists equally. Berlioz had been asked by Léon Carvalho to prepare and arrange Orpheo by Gluck for Viardot-Garcia's voice who would be singing the title role. Berlioz, together with Viardot-Garcia, used a mixture of the Italian version from 1762 as well as the version used in the Parisian production twelve years later in 1774 205 . Hector Berlioz found more than a muse 202 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan S. Turgenev, "Air de Krakamiche" (Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, undated), Pauline Viardot-Garcia Additional Papers 1838-1910. 203 Patrick Waddington, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia as Berlioz's Counselor and Physician," The Musical Quarterly 59, no. 3 (July 1973): 383. 204 Melanie Stier, "'The Power of Gluck, and of His Interpreter' Pauline Viardot's Part in the British Gluck Revival," British Postgraduate Musicology 11 (December 2011): 13; Waddington, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia as Berlioz's Counselor and Physician," 383. 205 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 207.

  to both Louis and Pauline's republican convictions 206 . The ambiance in Paris translated into animosity and limited engagements for Pauline in the French capital. If the musical organizations there didn't favor Pauline as a singer, it made sense that finding vocal students would be difficult at best 207 . The couple was eager, then to move their family to the idyllic spa town of Europe's elite in Baden 208 . The Viardot family's move to Baden in 1863, following the diva's first official (there were several) retirement(s) from the stage was followed by Turgenev purchasing the adjoining property less than two years later 209 .

  individually as well as in collaboration. In the years between 1864-1874 Viardot-Garcia published fifty lieder and wrote or finished at least four operettas, The operettas Le Dernier Sorcier, Trop des Femmes and L'ogre and Le Miroir. Though there are no dates to be found on the manuscripts and sketches of La Partie de Whist, it being a collaboration between Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, it is likely that it was at least sketched during this period as well 210 .Following the premiere of Trop des Femmes in September 1867 211 , Le Dernier Sorcier was a public success in Baden although the audiences were limited to capacity of the theatre in Turgenev's villa. The operetta received favorable reviews in several Parisian journals as well thanks in part to the notoriety of the members in the audience such as Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Anton Rubinstein, the grand Duke Friedrich and the Duchess Luise of Baden 212 . The critic Henry Choreley, friend of both the Viardots and Turgenev wrote of the opera in the London journal The Athenaeum (1867):

  Viardot-Garcia's voice students and family that typically performed the roles in her operettas. Marie Hasselmans, a Belgian singer, sang the role of Stella. The Viardots' daughters Marianne and Claudie played the Queen of the Elves and Verveine, the principal elf. The Viardot's son Paul stole the show in the comedic role of Perlimpinpin and Turgenev even filled the role of Krakamiche in the Baden performances 214 . Le Dernier Sorcier's public reception included reviews in Le Ménestrel, Le Temps Paris, la Revue et Gazette musicale and La France musicale. Sextius Durand, correspondent for la France Musicale, wrote of Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev in 1868: They have already composed three [operettas]: L'Ogre, Trop de Femmes et Le Dernier Sorcier. It is the last one that I heard; I promise you that it's worth a hundred times more than what we see performed in our theatres… 215 (MT) 216 During the winter of 1868 to 1869 the Grand Duke of Weimar asked Pauline Viardot-Garcia to stage one of her operettas at the Court Theatre in Weimar 217 . Le Dernier Sorcier would continue its evolution and begin a period of public performances. Ivan Turgenev wrote the libretto for Le Dernier Sorcier with Pauline Viardot-Garcia over the span of more than twenty years. From their sketches and references to the work, we can trace the earliest sketches from 1850 to the first performances in 1869 in Baden with subsequent orchestrations and additional pieces added in 1870 for performances in Weimar, Germany 218 when the work was orchestrated by Eduard Lassen 219 . The next city where the work was performed, Karlsruhe, proved

  Garcia and Turgenev continued their artistic partnership, a much less turbulent relationship now, and wrote and polished their operettas and other works during this prolific season. Between 1864 and 1874 Viardot-Garcia published over fifty lieder, including her first album of Russian songs with texts edited by Turgenev in 1864. In 1869 she published Five Poems by Lermontov and Turgenev 223 .Unfortunately, the Franco-German war of 1870 closed the door on this sunny creative period for Viardot-Garcia. Baden was quite close to the battle front. The family's cosmopolitan political affiliations and friendships made it imperative that they leave. This incensed Pauline as she explains in her letter to Madame Crémieux (wife of the republican minister of justice):

  could have found a new career and a second renown 233 (MT)234 "In 1872 Viardot-Garcia began working as a professor of singing at the Conservatory of Paris. But like Reicha her methods clashed with the traditions of the institution. She resigned only three years later, stating that she was disappointed by the pedagogy of the Conservatoire, especially the policy that students moved from one teacher to another from year to year.It is also during this season that the Viardots and Turgenev stayed in Bougival and decided together to purchase the estate Les Frênes. The large house on the property was the Viardot's residence and a smaller house, an architectural mix of Russian dacha and Swiss chalet built for Turgenev on the grounds of the estate. The Viardots and Turgenev, until 1883 shared their time between the estate in Bougival and their home in Paris (where Turgenev had rooms of his own).In 1883 Pauline lost both her husband and her dear friend Turgenev. First on the fifth of May, Louis passed away at their home in Paris. Pauline viewed her husband as her best friend. He was stable, gentle, a kind father, and an understanding and patient partner to the creative genius. He adored her, and she loved him in her way, though not with the emotional passion she shared with Turgenev. Four months later, racked with pain from long term illnesses and cancer of the spine, slipping in and out of lucidity he passed away on the third of September. Moments before, in his bedroom at Bougival, Turgenev proclaimed to Pauline "Here is the queen of queens! How much good she has done for me! 235 ".In a matter of four months Viardot-Garcia lost both her husband and her artistic soulmate. But, she continued, driven by her own creative fire. Shortly after these terrible events she left the house on Rue Douai for 243 Boulevard Saint Germain. It is there that she hosted her dear friend Clara Schumann for the last time in 1884. Clara often visited her friend between concert engagements including spending time with the family in Baden 236 . It was in the Saint Germain apartment where she hosted a performance of Le Dernier Sorcier in 1890 and likely where she composed her final operetta Cendrillon. At this point she would be sixty-nine, still very active in both teaching and composing.

  thus any fame acquired by the artist would reflect favorably on the promoter. DeNora provides context for the image modern western culture holds as who Beethoven was and what he represents (the model of musical genius).

  Jenny D'Hericourt presents a multifaceted rebuttal to this ideal female in her detailed work entitled: La Femme affranchie: Réponse à MM. Michelet, Proudhon, E de Girardin, A. Comte et aux autres Novateurs Modernes 317 . D'Hericourt carefully takes intellectual and physiological myths constructed about women and promoted by prominent figures such as Proudhon and Michelet, and logically dismantles them one by one. She is careful to highlight how both society and men could benefit from women's liberation and equal treatment and estimation at the same time. Why has no one heard of Jenny d'Hericourt, whose arguments were elegantly and logically set forth, which essentially hobbled both Proudhon and Michelet's arguments for women's subservience? Women, like d'Hericourt were a threat to the very construction of nineteenth century society and perhaps that observation is part of the answer.

  120 at genius 338 . Viardot-Garcia masterfully manifests female strength by claiming 4/4 as an exclusive right of the strong female figure in the operetta. She further outlines the transformation of the female protagonist through melodic and tonal transformation. Viardot-Garcia establishes Stella,

  the creative process as collaborative provides a new way of looking at established works and reintroduces female composers and collaborators as artistically important into the historical creative arena. For example, Hector Berlioz edited the definitive version of Gluck's Orphée side by side with Pauline Viardot-Garcia. Her contributions are well documented 365 . Renaming this version, the Berlioz/Viardot edition has already begun, which opens the door to more historical context. Once women are seen as part of the musical world of their time, viewing their works in the context of influence becomes less challenging. Changing the focus of the historical paradigm from solitary agency to the activity of social groups provides the frame of reference needed to see how most works of genius were created. It opens the historical landscape to view men and women writing and sharing their works side by side, though in different venues. Women like Pauline

From

  the drafts and references to Le Dernier Sorcier, we can trace the earliest sketches from 1850 to the first performances in 1867 372 . Thanks to the traces of Viardot-Garcia's and Turgenev's work, sometimes dated and sometimes not, one can watch the development of Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev's creative work as well as their personal philosophies. Le Dernier Sorcier beautifully demonstrates the artistic and emotional connection between composer and librettist. The two great artists were mutually inspired by their collaborations, and their long relationship and friendship directly influenced both artists' creative outputs 373 .

  Garcia's hand for voice and piano found in the Harvard University Hollis Archives. Some excerpts seen in this chapter, however, are taken from the score edited by Nicholas Žekulin, which has never been officially published, and uses the original French libretto by Ivan Turgenev but the orchestrations by Eduard Lassen. These pages from a later score are used for image quality purposes, and only when the music is unchanged from the original rehearsal score. When using the holograph Harvard score, a page number is not given to any blank pages in the notebook nor to the printed title page, nor the manuscript title page which contains the title in both French and German (Der Letzte Zauberer). This means that page one is the musical beginning of the introduction. Pages are numbered in the order they are found in the manuscript, even though the first six pages of music are written for primo and secondo piano parts. There are other manuscripts of the work found in both Weimar as well as the New York Public Library. The scores in both libraries are ones associated with the work's Weimar performances 385 and have not been extensively consulted in this analysis.

Viardot-

  Garcia, her family and Turgenev moved after her first official 'retirement' from the stage in 1863 to Baden-Baden. The Viardots and Turgenev lived there until 1870. It was a place and a period of overflowing creativity. It is where the four operettas they wrote together were revised and finished and where La Partie de Whist is believed to have been written. Le Dernier Sorcier continued to evolve during a third period in which it was prepared and performed on the public stage in Weimar at the request and funding of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Weimar. The 387 Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, "Air de Krakamiche," 70. 388 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Viardot-Garcia, Pauline, 1821-1910. Pauline Viardot-Garcia Additional Papers, 1838- 1910. [Collection of Songs]." (Album, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, n.d.), 95, Houghton Library. 389 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score." (vocal score, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, undated), Houghton Library.

Ex. 3 . 3 "

 33 Par Ici" p. 9 407 407 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 9. 150 Ex. 3.5 "Par ici" p. 15 409

448

   42. 449 Pauline 43. 450 Original text: "Sous l'eau qui ruisselle en rideau mouvant La fleur étincelle -Comme un diamant".164 Ex.3.20 "Coulez, coulez,

454

  Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 47. 455 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 84-87.

Viardot-

  Garcia was certainly familiar with all of Mozart's' operas as she admired the composer greatly. She would certainly be familiar with Mozart's use of different keys. The Queen of the Night's aria is also in D minor. The connection, whether accidental or intentional, draws attention to a principle of key association with certain characteristics during the eighteenth and nineteenth century 462 . Certainly, in the Magic Flute, D minor puts the Queen of the Night in relief against her

Ex. 3 .

 3 32 "Stornello" m.43-51 p.2 479 478 Original text: "Crois-tu retrouver un coeur comme le mien. Qui donc t'aimera, mon âme et qui m'aimera, mon bien?" 479 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 113; Pauline Viardot and Ivan S. Turgenev, "Stornello" (musical score -vocal and piano, Cortavenel, October 1857), 2, Houghton Library. 180 Ex. 3.36 "Scene two" m. 1-32 p. 71 483"Mux Fiat Lux": Krakamiche's melodramaThe accompaniment then introduces another theme from the first chorus, the one that began the operetta on page one, and in the same key:483 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 71. 181 Ex.

  The only section of harmonic instability in this piece accompanies the final lines of the second verse speaking of the heart's quest to understand new love: "It would like to understand, but it doesn't know how!" The accompaniment descends chromatically from E to C, ending the phrase on an A diminished chord, emphasizing Stella's search. The spinning wheel ceases with Lelio's entrance. Lelio's verse is then sparsely accompanied by chromatically descending chords. 500 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 81. 190 Ex. 3.46 "Chanson du rouet" Lelio's entrance. m. 49-53 p. 83 501 The chords accompanying Lelio evoke the melodic and chromatic descent that accompanies Stella's lines sung just before, "Mais il ne sait pas comment", implying a connection between the two characters. Ex. 3.47 "Chanson du rouet" m. 41-45 p. 83 502 This variation seems to be a musical suggestion of Lelio's efforts to draw close to Stella. The accompaniment gains momentum and as Lelio completes his verse, and the rocking, alternating rhythms are replaced by a more marching rhythm that quickens to sixteenth notes, underscoring 501 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 176; Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 83. 502 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 174-75; Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 83.

"

  Exorcisme" laughter and mischief Pauline Viardot-Garcia makes it clear from the beginning of this piece, full of delightfully silly magical words, that Krakamiche's spell is doomed to failure. The piano provides commentary 196 left hand of the piano plays an ostinato (mm. 18-20) repeating the elves' theme in a mocking, insistent fashion. Ex. 3.55 "Exorcisme" Elves theme in the piano m. 18-20 p. 93 510

517

  Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 100.200Ex. The piece is marked by the chromatic passages: part of the hallmark of Viardot-Garcia's composition style. This time, however, the tonal center remains clear throughout. The finale is dedicated to the forest, the domain of the elves, and they sing of how they will no longer leave.Turgenev's personal philosophy is once again affirmed as nature and therefore the queen of the elves, the embodiment of nature, regain dominion over Krakamiche, the embodiment of man and reason. Viardot-Garcia's compositional supports to this philosophy are numerous and at the same time subtle. She uses 4/4 exclusively for the elves, specifically the queen, a musical 518 PaulineViardot-Garcia, 102.

  herself and how Viardot-Garcia underlines her power. The strong association of the meter 4/4 to the Queen of the Elves substantiates her already dominant role in the libretto. Her melodrama 203 addressed to Lelio as well as to Stella begins in 4/4. Though in both instances the song transitions to 3/4, which is strongly associated with Krakamiche, this could imply his long-standing dominance, one which the queen is now actively fighting to overcome. No other character, unless they are addressing the queen as in the case of the Stella and Lelio's duo, "O bienfaisante fée", sings in 4/4 in the operetta. The operetta concludes with the elves singing of their reclaimed domain by addressing their queen and their forest home in 4/4. The principal couple do not get the last word; the women of the forest do; affirming both the dominance and the non-otherness of the Queen. Viardot-Garcia took a libretto with a strong female lead and made her the norm, not the anomaly through the very commonality of her meter, subtly confirming her power and normalizing it at the same time.Weighing the power presented by the queen through her dominance of the 4/4 meter and Krakamiche's relegation to 3/4, Viardot-Garcia sets the framework of the power structure of this operetta. Upon this framework, she builds the harmonic and melodic philosophy that becomes her own as much it was Turgenev's: the triumph of Nature, a clearly perceived feminine trait, over that of reason, a trait claimed to be masculine by nineteenth century philosophy. As Nicholas Žekulin puts it: Le Dernier Sorcier emerges as a deliberate reversal of forces that we find in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte -and of the victory of Rationalism, as represented by Sarastro, over the Queen of the Night 522 .

  La Partie de Whist? Neither Turgenev's notes and first draft of the libretto, nor is the sketch in one of Viardot-Garcia's notebooks in the Harvard Archives dated, so the basis of this estimation relies on what is known about their creative lives together. Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia may have started sketches of several of their operettas before Baden, but the work was mostly likely finished, and the clean autograph manuscript was most likely made between the years of 1870-1879 536 . The performers are written in pencil on the cover page: M. Lefort, M. Robert, M. Auguste, and M. de la Tour. In her journal (box 19 Viardot-Garcia additional papers) from 1863 in Baden, Viardot-Garcia listsher students, the qualities of their voices, etc. and there are no men listed. Dr. Nicholas Žekulin suggests that it is possible that these other singers were students of Jules Lefort, the tenor. Žekulin also suggests that the most likely date for the composition of this work is 1878 citing Turgenev's letter to Viardot-Garcia's daughter Claudie Viardot-Chamerot on 9 September 1877. Turgenev

220Ex. 4 . 3

 43 La Partie de Whist m.45-53 p. 5-6 563 This tone is contrasted by a light and playful theme first seen after the introduction, that returns repeatedly in moments of transition. The whimsical nature of the theme makes it more likely that 221 this work was sarcastic and satirical in nature. It first appears in the first measure following the introduction and is seen here in measure 57 in the same key of C major.Ex. Following the beginning theme that implies the players are playing the game, the music then moves through multiple tonalities as the game and the operetta continues. The musical aspects of this work are simple and direct, like a well-crafted joke. What could Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia be mocking? Perhaps the game of Whist itself, and what it had come to represent in the second half of the nineteenth century. The joke Turgenev and Viardot-Garcia seem to be telling is cultural and probably directed at the Viardot-Garcia circle -those that would understand the subtleties of this game, and the fact that Pauline never played, but that the Viardot-Garcia household (including Turgenev) often did.564 Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 3.to someone else? Perhaps, M. de la Tour was an exceptional student and Lefort would not have been offended to share the spotlight. It is noticeable, however, that the Tenor 1 (the part given to M. Lefort on the cover page of the autograph score 569 ) and the Bass II parts are given the most interesting melodies. While the Bass II part was written for a singer with an agile voice with ample stamina, the Tenor I part, the other part that stands out in this work is written with the demand for vocal fluidity over a large range as well as more range of character. The Tenor 1 part stands apart as having to protest the group and express outrage, two actions that separate his part from the chorus-like parts of the other three. Perhaps Viardot-Garcia wrote the work for the respective strengths of M. Lefort and M. de la Tour in mind. Though there are different singers listed on the last page of the manuscript score, M. de la Tour's name appears in pencil several times within the score at the Bass 2's entrances. Interestingly M. Lefort's name is written next to both a Bass 1 and the Tenor 2 entrance as well as multiple times next to the Tenor 1 part. Perhaps there were multiple changes to the groupings of singers, and it would make sense that the vocal teacher that Lefort was (if it was indeed Jules Lefort) could pick up the respective parts with ease.

Ex. 4

 4 .8 La Partie de Whist m. 92-101 p. 6 572 Finally, Bass II ends the last iteration of the phrase with melodic cadence, once again in C major. The harmony momentarily stabilizes on the tonality of Bb major for the Tenor solo, before departing again through D major to finally transition back to C major: marking the final winning 227 Ex. 4.10 La Partie de Whist p. 13 576

La

  Partie de Whist opens a new view into the comic of the composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia as well as Ivan Turgenev, the librettist. Due to the scarcity of sources and documentation, one can only interpret the work to one's best ability using the historical context available. But because of the scant traces of the operetta one can probably assume that it was written quickly, too quick to have left traces in letters, journals and in critical review such as abounded for Le Dernier Sorcier. The operetta was probably written for a specific event, given the singers names are written on the autograph score, and the audience was probably people close to the two artists who may not have felt the need to document their seeing the work. It demonstrates a healthy sense of mockery and satire, though the exact target of this satire is hard to determine when the analysis is based on only the score. One can hope that these interpretations hit close to the mark and that further information will continue to surface. Much like Le Dernier Sorcier, analysis and study of La Partie de Whist feels like an invitation to find a way to have it published and 577 Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 20. 578 Greg Audette, "Tragi-Comedy: A Study in Rossini," The Massachusetts Review 12, no. 2 (Spring 1971): 262.

  Cendrillon585 " and Lauren Rebecca Berman's "Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon and its Relevancy for 579 Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris -Located at 209 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019, Paris 580 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Cendrillon: Autograph Manuscript Scores, Undated." (Manuscript draft of Cendrillon, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, undated), Pauline Viardot-Garcia additional papers, 1838-1912.; Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Cendrillon: autograph manuscript scores, undated." (Manuscript draft of Cendrillon, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, undated), Pauline Viardot-Garcia additional papers, 1838-1912. 581 Viardot-Garcia, "Cendrillon: Autograph Manuscript Scores, Undated." 582 Viardot-Garcia. 583 Launay, Les Compositrices En France Au XIXe Siècle, 100. 584 Original text: "Un compositeur doit savoir travailler vite…on soigne un peu moins, mais on est actif!" 585 Rachel Miller Harris, "The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot: Featuring Her Salon Opera Cendrillon." 235 the Developing Opera Singer 586 ". Both of these theses are focused on the pedagogical aspects of the operetta, and practical aspects of staging the work. There is information about the characteristics unique to each vocal part that lend useful information into my study of each character as it applies to Viardot-Garcia's composition style. The third thesis I reference is Rebecca Bennett Fairbank's "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture" which delves into the sociological aspects of Viardot-Garcia's character, career choices as well as difficulties she would have confronted. All these aspects have bearing on the way in which Viardot-Garcia crafted Cendrillon.

  comes after the second or third meeting. Their responses are very different; Stella is cautious where Cinderella embraces the moment. Here are the lyrics from both duos: Stella: It's him! Oh what panic, Oh if this is a trap, More still if my father notices… I don't know what to say to him… Confusion takes me over Don't come closer, Speak low 609 (MT) 610 Cendrillon: It's him! What joy! Oh God, if this is just a dream, Don't wake me! Oh if he is sincere Then my dreams will come true! Ever since I saw him I wanted to give my life to him, 609 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 182-91. 610 Original text: "C'est lui! Quel terreur/Ah si c'était une piège/Si mon père pourtant/allait le percevoir./Je ne sais que lui dire…/un trouble m'a saisie…/N'approchez pas plus près/Parlez bas" 251 God, this is a dream! I don't know what to say to him… I feel panicked… My soul is filled with a ray of happiness I want to tell him That I would give my life to him Forever together Never to part 611 . (MT) 612 Viardot-Garcia chose the same music to accompany Cendrillon's modified lyrics (the prince's lyrics were only changed slightly) placing her own personal philosophy of feminine strength and choice for Cinderella in stronger relief. Where Stella fears discovery, Cendrillon hopes her dreams are real.

  These writers have aided my pursuit to reach some kind of conclusion as to what use, if any, society has for the term following the weight with which it was imbued during the nineteenth century. The first two general sources that gave form to my understanding of genius were Peter Kivy's The Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the idea of Musical Genius 671 and Tia DeNora's Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803. Kivy's book, served as an overview (though, I would find that this overview was not entirely accurate) of the philosophical writings about musical genius leading to the glorifications of Handel, Mozart and Beethoven and leading to the nineteenth century formation of the term. DeNora's book provides an in-depth look at how Beethoven became 670 Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 133. 671 Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius.

672

  Young, "On the Enshrinement of Musical Genius"; Lowinsky, "Musical Genius--Evolution and Origins of a Concept""; Lowinsky, "Musical Genius--Evolution and Origins of a Concept--II"; Anna Piotrowska, "Modernist Composers and the Concept of Genius," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 38, no. 2 (December 2007): 229-42; Vlado Kotnick, "The Idea of Prima Donna: The History of a Very Special Opera's Institution," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 47, no. 2 (December 2016): 237-87.

673

  Karen Painter, "Mozart at Work: Biography and a Musical Aesthetic for the Emerging German Bourgeoisie," The Musical Quarterly 86f, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 188.674 Bauman, "Becoming Original: Haydn and the Cult ofGenius," 334-35.

677

  McDermott, 249:293. 678 McDermott, 249:295.

684

  Derek R Strykowski, "The Negotiation of Nineteenth-Century Style: A Case Study in Composer-Publisher Relations," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 49, no. 2 (December 2018): 224. 685 Piotrowska, "Modernist Composers and the Concept of Genius," 233.

689

  Painter, "Mozart at Work: Biography and a Musical Aesthetic for the Emerging German Bourgeoisie," 206-8. 690 M. Stendhal, The Life of Rossini, trans. Richard N. Coe (University of California: J. Calder, 1985), 1; M. de Stendhal, Vie De Rossini (Paris: Auguste Boulland et Cie, Libraire, 1824), 1. 691 Original Text: "Depuis la mort de Napoléon, il s'est trouvé un autre homme duquel on parle tous les jours à Moskou [sic] comme à Naples , à Londres comme à Vienne , à Paris comme à Calcutta. La gloire de cet homme ne connaît d'autre bornes que celles de la civilisation…" 692 Erneste Renan, Vie de Jesus (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, Èditeurs, 1870), 9.

  Genius, to use Viardot-Garcia's metaphor of the giant who clothes himself in it, is a vast and varied wardrobe. Genius could slip just as easily from a solid definition into the clothes of inquiry, as the question of where said inspiration came from and what inspiration was in the first place came forward. I tried again and again to find who geniuses were and what truly set them apart, always with the goal of helping Viardot-Garcia gain admission to this artistic Emerald City. If musical geniuses were the magical few, in my view, Viardot-Garcia deserved to take her place with them.

  others would fit the bill. Collaborative creative genius is what Viardot-Garcia presents in her letter to Clara Weick Schumann: a genius that flourishes in cooperation and in the combination of individual strengths.

  Chapters three through five analyze three of Pauline Viardot-Garcia operettas as works by any other member of the established canon. Context and depth are provided when possible (very little was possible with La Partie de Whist) to works that have criticized as mere amusement. My analysis of each work revealed a new look at the technical facility of Viardot-Garcia's compositions and her fluid and often virtuosic piano accompaniments. Analysis of her support of the libretto show and that humor, melodic agility, and tight harmonic developments were all signposts of her exceptional musical talent. The choice to analyze her operettas was made in part because several theses have already been written on her songs. But analyzing her operettas also opens a sort of secret garden of historical context that interweaves her compositions with her life as well as providing a larger scope to understand her style and her connections to the artistic movements of her time. Somewhat surprisingly similarities and connections to a Chopinistic style can be found in Dernier Sorcier as well as Cendrillon. Viardot-Garcia different techniques for musical character development, include references to Chopin's musical style in her musical representations of Krakamiche in Le Dernier Sorcier as well as in ensemble compositions in Cendrillon as a means of building tension. These connections present interesting possibilities for analysis in the future including but not to be isolated to her vocal arrangements of Chopin's mazurkas.

  Figes mentionne certaines des oeuvres de Viardot-Garcia, ce n'est guère le sujet principal du livre.

  Brasier, "Pauline Viardot: Her Music and the Spanish Influence"; Hunsaker, "Pauline Viardot's Russian Compositions"; McCormack, "The Influence of National Styles on the Compositions of Pauline Viardot." 769 Berman, "Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon and Its Relevancy for the Developing Opera Singer"; Rachel Miller Harris, "The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot: Featuring Her Salon Opera Cendrillon." thèse de Rebecca Bennett Fairbank, intitulée "Devastating Diva : Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture 770 ", a contribué à donner forme à la façon dont je voulais aborder sa voix compositionnelle. Fairbank prend soin de décrire les difficultés culturelles rencontrées par les musiciennes au XIX e siècle, en particulier les divas de l'opéra. L'exposé littéraire de Fairbank souligne et révèle l'aversion tout autant que l'attirance pour la voix feminine : ce qui m'a attiré vers les philosophies qui se cachent derrière ces normes et interactions culturelles. Ces normes auxquelles les artistes féminines se sont habituées et avec lesquelles elles ont appris à composer. Personne ne s'était encore demandé pourquoi Viardot-Garcia avait été oubliée. Personne ne s'était demandé pourquoi ses oeuvres, qui m'avaient stupéfié par leur beauté ainsi que par leur équilibre harmonique et mélodique, n'avaient pas "survécu à l'épreuve du temps". D'ailleurs, qu'est-ce que "l'épreuve du temps" et est-elle basée sur des critères esthétiques objectifs ou simplement subjectifs ? Il semblait suspect que toutes les compositrices que j'avais étudiées aient été également "oubliées". J'ai décidé d'étudier les opérettes de Viardot-Garcia afin de mieux comprendre l'environnement culturel qui l'a exclue des "classiques". C'est en contactant le Dr Nicholas Žekulin que j'ai trouvé mon sujet d'étude musicologique. Le Dr Žekulin m'a généreusement donné une partition de Viardot-Garcia, de l'opérette La Partie de Whist, récemment acquise par les archives de Harvard dans le Houghton Library, sur laquelle j'ai basé ma proposition de thèse. L'opérette est cependant courte et il existe très peu de sources primaires, à l'exception des partitions du manuscrit et du copiste eux-mêmes. J'ai ajouté l'analyse de la seule opérette à avoir été mise en scène professionnellement du vivant de Viardot-Garcia, Le Dernier Sorcier. Le Dernier Sorcier est une opérette riche de sens qui témoigne de l'étonnante capacité de Viardot-Garcia en matière de développement mélodique et de complexité harmonique. La Partie de Whist et Le Dernier Sorcier sont tous deux composés sur des livrets écrits par Ivan Tourgueniev. Si mon intention était d'illustrer le style de composition de Viardot-Garcia, il m'a semblé nécessaire d'inclure sa dernière opérette, Cendrillon. Cela permet d'avoir une vision plus complète de son développement créatif ainsi que de ses influences littéraires et musicales puisqu'elle est également l'auteur du livret.

  d'analyser ses opérettes est un effort pour la placer dans un contexte d'oeuvres plus grandes, des oeuvres qui sont plus facilement considérées comme le domaine d'un compositeur masculin. Viardot-Garcia a écrit d'excellentes chansons, des chansons dont l'accompagnement, pour beaucoup, est pianistiquement brillant et constitue un délice pour les chanteurs et le public. Mais l'écriture de chansons artistiques n'était pas un domaine interdit aux femmes au XIX e siècle, puisqu'il s'agissait d'une activité principalement domestique. Mon choix d'analyser les opérettes de Viardot-Garcia la positionne plus clairement dans un contexte sociologique á questionner. Avec ses opérettes, elle pourrait être envisagée comme une musicienne de génie et oblige cette thèse à affronter des questions de genre qui pourraient être plus facilement évitées en analysant ses chansons. Par exemple, la question d'orchestration : un compositeur peut-il être élevé au rang de génie quand bien même il n'orchestre pas ses oeuvres?

  étudié et redéfini si l'on veut que la fenêtre d'attention sur les compositrices reste ouverte. Le livre d'Adrianna M. Paliyenko, Genius Envy : women shaping French poetic history 1801-1900 772 , a renforcé et façonné ce point de vue en exposant à la fois les préjugés sexistes et l'influence poétique des femmes, qui a ensuite été niée et dénigrée par les historiens et les éditeurs de recueils de poésie. L'ouvrage de Paliyenko expose les arguments philosophiques et physiologiques du XIX e siècle utilisés pour bloquer, couvrir de honte et discréditer les grandes femmes littéraires et artistiques.À ma connaissance, aucun ouvrage de ce type n'a encore été créé sur les femmes musiciennes du XIX e siècle. Cette thèse est ma première incursion dans ce domaine, un domaine auquel j'espère ajouter d'autres recherches et publications après l'achèvement de cette thèse. C'est ainsi que j'ai dévelppé trois principaux axes de réflexion pour ma thèse de doctorat, 1) Pauline Viardot-Garcia, une grande musicienne et compositrice, 2) trois de ses opérettes, et 3) le débat sur le génie musical de féminin au XIX e siècle.Entendre des voix (de femmes)Les recherches que j'ai effectuées au cours de mon Masters sur Amy M. C. Beach ont révélé une thématique que j'avais envie d'entendre davantage : des voix de femmes. Ma surprise a été double : premièrement, il était évident que Beach était douée, qu'elle avait écrit des oeuvres de génie et qu'elle était bien reconnue et influente de son vivant. Deuxièmement, en tant qu'étudiante en musique, je n'avais jamais entendu parler d'elle avant d'entamer mes études supérieures. Comme elle a été la première compositrice américaine à écrire une symphonie, cela semblait étrange. Ces observations ont occupé mes pensées et mes recherches. En 2019, après avoir commencé mes recherches doctorales à l'Université Paris Sorbonne, il m'a été demandé de réaliser une présentation lors de la conférence TEDx de Panthéon-Sorbonne. J'ai eu l'occasion de présenter l'héritage culturel dont nous héritons en tant que membres de la société, et des raisons pour lesquelles il reste incomplet.

  premièrement, il est souvent dit que Pauline Viardot-Garcia n'avait pas l'ambition d'être compositrice774 . April Fitzlyon a écrit que ses compositions répondent au "seul désir de la rendre heureuse 775 ". Il semble qu'il y ait eu une certaine résistance de son vivant à qualifier Viardot-Garcia de compositrice, malgré la richesse des compositions qu'elle a laissées. Sa notice nécrologique dans The Musical Times ne fait aucune mention de ses compositions ; les seules compositions mentionnées sont celles de son importante collection comprenant des manuscrits autographes de Bach, Mozart et Mendelssohn et les compositions de Robert Schumann qui lui ont été dédiées 776 . Cependant, comme nous le verrons dans mon premier chapitre, "Setting the Stage", son appétit pour la composition appelle une question et une réponse plus nuancées et détaillées. Son enfance a été imprégnée d'échanges artistiques, qui sont devenus le langage qu'elle maîtrisait le mieux. On y trouve non seulement les raisons et les explications de ses choix, mais aussi des anecdotes de ses proches sur sa précocité et son talent qui annoncent sa brillante carrière. L'affirmation qu'elle n'ait pas eu l'ambition de devenir compositrice semble indiquer que le génie doit à la fois se connaître et avoir la ferme intention de faire en sorte que tout le monde le sache. L'ambition, cependant, est un mot aussi chargé de sens que le génie dans les questions de genre. Il est tout à fait possible que Viardot-Garcia n'ait pas été une telle ambitieuse, tout comme elle n'était pas le génie dont on se souvient comme tel. Peut-être n'a-t-elle pas poursuivi une carrière parce que cela aurait été la réponse masculine à son talent et à son inspiration. Peut-être son attitude face à son propre génie était-elle un certain type d'ambition : sa collaboration, l'exécution de ses oeuvres dans son propre cercle social et artistique, ses magnifiques salons étaient tous des marqueurs d'ambition qui ne sont pas socialement perçus comme tels.Chapitre unLutter contre le temps et l'espaceDans son avant-propos à la biographie de Francesca Caccini par Suzanne Cuzick, Catherine R. Stimpson fait débuter l'histoire de Caccini d'une manière encore inhabituelle dans les biographies de musiciennes. Stimpson commence par poser le contexte historique en décrivant Caccini comme : "Une femme aux dons immenses qui s'est battue avec son époque et son lieu. Ce livre magnifique, la première étude sérieuse de Caccini, la replace dans l'air chargé de l'histoire 777 ". Elle poursuit son récit en racontant le schéma habituel d'un environnement familial qui engendre des femmes de génie : Caccini était un artisan accomplie et prolifique, une "virtuosa", qui savait unifier les sons en des unités signifiantes. Née en 1587 à Florence, elle s'est efforcée, avec courage, ruse et une intelligence farouche, de concilier le fait d'être une femme vertueuse et de faire de la musique. La famille de Caccini a veillé à l'éducation de leur fille très brillante. Ses deux parents étaient musiciens, son père était l'un des plus influents de son époque... À ce titre, il a fourni à ses enfants des conditions privilégiées et un accès aux personnes puissantes... 778 (MT) Pauline Viardot-Garcia, elle aussi, a dû se débattre "avec son temps et son époque" alors qu'elle essayait de trouver une place pour son formidable talent, son caractère passionné et son désir intense d'accomplir sa destinée en tant que membre de la famille Garcia. La biographie de Nancy B. Reich sur Clara Schumann, amie proche de Viardot-Garcia, est un autre exemple d'un nouveau type de biographie de femmes musiciennes, qui inclut le contexte social. Dans son portrait d'une artiste, Reich s'efforce d'établir un équilibre entre les ambitions d'égalité sexuelle du XXIe siècle, tout en reconnaissant que Clara Schumann ne se serait jamais qualifiée de féministe. Pourtant, Clara était entière elle-même : elle a créé et interprété sa musique en dépit des préjugés sociaux, tout comme Viardot-Garcia. Le contexte présenté dans le premier chapitre, "Setting the Stage", vise à ajouter l'histoire de Viardot-Garcia à la poignée d'ouvrages, tels que les biographies de Cusick et de Reich, qui reconnaissent à la fois les talents prodigieux de ces femmes et la lutte psychologique, philosophique et physique qu'elles ont menée pour être entendues et acceptées.Concilier la lutte et le soutienComme Francesca Caccini, Pauline Viardot-Garcia a trouvé dans sa vie des défenseurs qui ont cru en son travail et l'ont soutenue d'une manière inhabituelle pour l'époque. Le mariage de Pauline Viardot-Garcia avec Louis Viardot en est un exemple. Leur partenariat était unique, tout comme la volonté de Louis de sacrifier certains aspects de sa carrière pour assurer l'avancement des ambitions professionnelles de sa femme. Dans mon premier chapitre, j'aborde la portée du rôle de Louis, son mari, dans sa carrière ainsi que dans ses ambitions créatives. Louis Viardot a parfois été dépeint comme un mari trompé insouciant, alors qu'en réalité sa relation avec son mari a traversé différentes périodes de tendresse, d'inspiration mutuelle et d'acceptance. Il s'agissait d'un mariage entre deux personnes partageant souvent les mêmes idées. Louis Viardot n'était pas un artiste de scène, mais il était un observateur attentif et éloquent. Son soutien aux projets de sa femme témoigne de la profondeur et du caractère l'affectif de leur relation, même si le sentiment amoureux de Louis pour sa femme était difficilement réciproque. La relation de Viardot-Garcia avec Tourgueniev se distingue de la liste des autres amities, collaborateurs inspirés et même intimes de sa vie. Leur relation a eu une forte et constante incidence sur le plan émotionnel, tant pour Viardot-Garcia que pour Tourgueniev. Comme cette thèse se concentre sur la vie musicale de Viardot-Garcia, la présence de Tourgueniev y est proportionnellement moindre qu'elle ne le fut réellement. Tout au long de sa vie, Pauline Viardot-Garcia a été en contact étroit avec de nombreux grands esprits artistiques qui ont contribué à façonner sa vie comme elle a contribué à façonner la leur. Parmi eux, on peut citer les noms éminents de George Sand, Clara Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, Julius Rietz et Frédéric Chopin. L'esprit de partage mutuel, de création et de générosité artistique prépare le terrain pour le débat sur le génie et le genre au XIX e siècle, élaboré dans mon deuxième chapitre. Les mythes de sa nature solitaire et les preuves qui indiquent qu'il s'épanouit dans la collaboration ont commencé à devenir plus clairs au fur et à mesure que je rédigeais ce chapitre et que je faisais des recherches.

  d'apprentissage et d'interprétation combiné à la personnalité particulière de Pauline Viardot-Garcia. L'environnement cosmopolite et musical dans lequel elle vivait a probablement contribué à créer une femme dont l'éthique de travail et la curiosité, la créativité et l'énergie étaient souvent inégalées. Le monde de la musicologie se tient encore mal à l'aise, si tant est qu'il le fasse, dans un espace où la vie d'une femme créent non seulement un contexte mais une donné supplémentaire à prendre en compte pour l'étude et l'interpretation de ses oeuvres. La vie d'une femme compositeur est généralement réduite aux contraintes qui l'ont empêchée d'être la version féminine des noms que nous connaissons dans l'histoire de la musique. Mais il est intéressant de voir la carrière de chanteuse de Viardot-Garcia, son choix de se marier et d'avoir des enfants, ainsi que d'autres choix de vie, comme faisant partie de ce qui a façonné sa capacité à collaborer avec d'autres créateurs de génie. Et si la maternité n'était pas considérée comme l'antithèse de la création artistique, comme le croit Chaminade ? Il y aurait beaucoup plus à dire sur comment et pourquoi Viardot-Garcia est devenue ce qu'elle était en tant que femme-créatrice, plus que je n'ai eu le temps et l'espace pour le dire. La capacité de Viardot-Garcia à faire participer ses enfants à ses opérettes, ses salons étonnants, ses collaborations sur de grandes oeuvres, tout cela fait partie d'une étude ininterrompue sur la façon dont les grandes compositrices peuvent évolué et ont évolué dans l'espace de la création en tant que femmes (et parfois en tant que mères).

  façon dont les programmes philosophiques du XIX e siècle ont brouillé les pistes dans la perception du génie féminin. Dans le chapitre six, la discussion sur le génie et le genre pose la question suivante : le mot génie est-il utile à la musicologie ou est-il trop partial ? Pauline Viardot-Garcia se montre à nouveau à la hauteur de la situation en proposant un nouveau modèle de vision du génie et de possibilités de perception des chefs-d'oeuvre féminins à travers l'histoire. Outre l'examen de diverses questions culturelles, musicales et sociologiques, chaque chapitre s'efforce de contribuer à la discussion générale sur Pauline Viardot-Garcia en tant que personnage historique mémorable et remarquable. Le génie n'était pas un terme historique bénin pour l'héritage de Viardot-Garcia. Le chapitre deux, décrit l'évolution du génie et la valeur culturelle superficielle du terme. En outre, le chapitre deux aborde les pièges philosophiques tendus au cours du d XIX e siècle par des hommes de lettres notables et les réponses à ces attaques par les premières féministes et philosophes. Bien que Viardot-Garcia ne commente pas directement son propre génie, son discours libre sur le sujet semble impliquer que les femmes peuvent également être des génies. Même si elle a reçu les louanges pour ses oeuvres pendant sa vie, il n'existait pas un héritage de commémoration des femmes exceptionnelles en musique dans l'histoire. Les différents moyens par lesquels les femmes génies ont été discréditées et isolées se sont présentés pendant le XIX e siècle. Le cadre philosophique de l'inaccessibilité des femmes au canon musical s'est solidifié au cours du XIX e siècle. Cette inaccessibilité a été abordée et démystifiée par certains hommes et femmes de lettres du XIX e siècle, rendant le débat désespérément familier. L'évolution des philosophies sur le genre semble avoir si peu progressé ou si lentement, que se pose encore la question de savoir pourquoi cela semble être un point d'achoppement. J'aborde à nouveau cette question au chapitre six. Dans le chapitre deux, j'ai présenté le contexte sociologique du XIX e siècle pour les femmes européennes et le débat entre les différents arguments prônant un génie sexué. J'ai présenté les voix qui se sont exprimées sur le génie et le genre au XIX e siècle : George Sand, Pauline Viardot-Garcia elle-même, des féministes comme Jenny D'Hericourt et Olympe de Gouges et de nombreux membres de son cercle artistique, qui étaient beaucoup plus ouverts à la possibilité d'un génie musical féminin. La culture moderne a non seulement hérité du XIX e siècle une vision masculine du génie, mais aussi une vision myope et amnésique des débats qui ont eu lieu à cette époque sur la valeur du travail artistique des femmes.

  Dans les chapitres trois à cinq, je conteste l'idée que Pauline Viardot-Garcia n'était qu'une diva de son temps et que ses compositions étaient simplistes. Chaque chapitre s'attache d'une manière ou d'une autre à comprendre la nature du titre de génie et du genre. Bien que cette thèse soit certainement influencée par le travail de Susan McClary 779 et de Marcia Citron 780 , parmi d'autres musicologues féministes, mon analyse se situe entre la démonstration du corps et de la sexualité de McClary dans l'analyse elle-même et une approche théorique plus traditionnelle. J'ai tendance à me ranger du côté de McClary qui dit que "la théorie musicale a souvent été une branche plus ou moins législative de la musique qui cherche à rationaliser et à prescrire les préférences d'un groupe dominant particulier 781 "(MT), et cette idée influence mon travail et mon analyse. Mais dire que mon analyse théorique est purement féministe nécessiterait un changement d'orientation de ma thèse, et je garderai donc cette investigation pour un travail ultérieur. Il y a, bien sûr, des thèmes féministes dans cette thèse, mais abordés d'une manière différente, à travers une analyse musicale et sociologique. J'étudie des thèmes, tant dans le livret que dans la musique, qui font de l'opérette, d'une certaine manière, un miroir de La Flûte enchantée de Mozart. Le Sarastro omnipotent de Mozart est assorti à la Reine des Elfes de Viardot-Garcia dans Le Dernier Soricier. Après mon analyse et le contexte historique de Le Dernier Sorcier, le troisième chapitre contient mon analyse de l'opérette qui a motivé mes recherches, La Partie de Whist.

  Les chapitres trois à cinq analysent trois des opérettes de Pauline Viardot-Garcia comme des oeuvres de tout autre représentant du canon établi. Le contexte et une description plus détaillée sont fournis lorsque cela était possible (très peu était pour La Partie de Whist), pour ces oeuvres qui ont été décrites comme de simples distractions. Mon analyse de chaque oeuvre a révélé un nouveau regard sur l'agilité technique des compositions de Viardot-Garcia et sur ses accompagnements fluides et souvent virtuoses au piano. L'analyse de ce qu'elle a apporté au livret montre que l'humour, l'agilité mélodique et les développements harmoniques rigoureux sont autant de signes de son exceptionnel talent musical. Le choix d'analyser ses opérettes a été fait en partie parce que plusieurs thèses ont déjà été écrites sur ses chansons. Mais l'analyse de ses opérettes ouvre également une sorte de jardin secret du contexte historique qui imbrique ses compositions dans sa vie et permet de mieux comprendre son style et ses liens avec les mouvements artistiques de son époque. De manière assez surprenante, on peut trouver des similitudes et des liens avec le style chopiniste dans Le Dernier Sorcier et dans Cendrillon. Viardot-Garcia utilise différentes techniques pour le développement musical des personnages, inclut des références au style musical de Chopin dans ses représentations musicales de la Krakamiche dans Le Dernier Sorcier ainsi que dans les compositions d'ensemble dans Cendrillon comme moyen de construire la tension. Ces liens offrent des possibilités intéressantes d'analyse à l'avenir, y compris, mais pas seulement, dans ses arrangements vocaux des mazurkas de Chopin.

  que les détails connus et inconnus de l'oeuvre. J'ai placé cette opérette entre deux oeuvres plus connues pour deux raisons. La première est que, chronologiquement parlant, il est logique que Le Dernier Sorcier soit venu en premier, avec des esquisses et des brouillons datant des années 1850. Cendrillon a été publié en 1905, ce qui en fait la dernière opérette de Viardot-Garcia, et une opérette dont elle a écrit à la fois le livret et la partition. La Partie de Whist, bien qu'il n'y ait pas de date définitive sur aucune des sources primaires, peut logiquement être placée entre ces deux oeuvres. Le livret de cette courte oeuvre a été écrit par Tourgueniev, mais il existe très peu de traces de cette oeuvre, ce qui implique qu'elle ne possède pas la même chronologie étendue que Le Dernier Sorcier. La deuxième raison pour laquelle l'analyse de La Partie de Whist est placée au troisième chapitre est qu'elle est composée de bout en bout, ce qui était inhabituel pour ses opérettes. Sa nature unique semblait bien se prêter à se situer entre deux oeuvres dont les origines et la généalogie étaient plus claires. Cette opérette n'est chantée que par des hommes, sur un jeu de cartes. Pourquoi l'inclure dans une thèse centrée sur le genre et le génie? Cette opérette apporte également quelque chose à la reconstitution de la voix compositionnelle de Viardot-Garcia. Une fois de plus, son existence pose la question suivante : quel doit être le degré de sérieux d'une oeuvre pour être considérée comme une oeuvre d'art musical "sérieuse" ? Cette petite pièce sarcastique a beaucoup à dire sur les normes culturelles, même si celles sur lesquelles elle se concentre ne traitent pas directement du genre. L'étude harmonique de cette pièce contribue également à donner une image plus claire du style de composition de Viardot-Garcia. Le Dr Žekulin joue à nouveau un rôle dans ce chapitre. Le Dr Žekulin a été le premier à attirer mon attention sur cette oeuvre, étant le premier chercheur à écrire à son sujet depuis qu'elle a été cataloguée à la bibliothèque de Harvard en 2011 783 . Je préparais mon dossier pour l'entrée à la Sorbonne, espérant écrire ma thèse sur Pauline Viardot, qui me semblait être une figure musicale et historique fascinante et peu étudiée. Je pensais initialement centrer ma thèse sur Le Dernier Sorcier, mais j'ai découvert que le Dr Nicholas Žekulin avait déjà beaucoup travaillé sur cette opérette. Après avoir contacté le Dr. Žekulin et échangé plusieurs courriels, il a partagé avec moi sa copie transcrite (alors uniquement accessible à Harvard) de La Partie de Whist. Avant ma visite à la Houghton Library de Harvard, j'avais espéré trouver plus d'informations qui pourraient alimenter ma thèse sur cette oeuvre. La Partie de Whist, bien que sa filiation soit connue, reste une le cadre d'une enquête sur les philosophies personnelles de Viardot-Garcia sur les femmes et la société dans son ensemble. Les personnages de Viardot-Garcia constituent le cadre de ce chapitre : Cendrillon, ses soeurs, le Baron Pictordu, Barigoule, le Prince, la Fée, et la narration musicale fournie par l'accompagnement au piano, possèdent tous des caractéristiques individuelles. Chaque personnage contribue à une compréhension plus cohérente de la philosophie personnelle de Viardot-Garcia ainsi que de son génie créatif.

  figures historiques comme Pauline Viardot-Garcia qui, je crois, mérite d'être davantage étudiée,

  recherche est devenue plus qu'une recherche sur le génie de Pauline Viardot-Garcia, en s'étendant à l'étude du génie ignoré des femmes de manière générale. Le chemin que cette recherche dessine nous conduit vers les vastes fronières encore inconnues du génie collaboratif. Les réponses surprenantes qui ont surgi des conclusions des chapitres trois à cinq ont révélé le champ d'étude des partenariats créatifs encore à découvrir. De plus, l'enquête sur les partenariats d'inspirants entre Viardot-Garcia et ses amis artistes comme Frédéric Chopin, Charles Gounod et Hector Berlioz serait à approfondir. Le chapitre six constitue un point de départ pour des recherches ultérieures concernant la façon dont la musicologie a considéré et devrait considérer le génie comme un concept et comme un moyen de qualifier les grands compositeurs et les grandes oeuvres. Cette tentative de ramener l'une des voix influentes du XIX e siècle perdue dans un contexte patriarcal m'invite à davantage examiner les effets de la collaboration humaine sur la création de chefs-d'oeuvre. C'est une ouverture potentielles pour les futurs projets qui m'attendent. Un champ d'étude passionnant attend une culture capable de desserrer son emprise sur le canon musical établi. Une étude qui permet une approche culturelle approfondie peut replacer les oeuvres populaires dans le contexte de l'environnement dans lequel elles ont été créées et des personnes qui ont nourri et façonné la création de chacune d'entre elles, créant ainsi un même espace pour le sort réservé aux compositions de femmes. Tia DeNora observe :

  Le génie a été (et est) également utilisé pour commercialiser des individus et leurs créations. Le flux de notre concept de génie suit le paysage des attentes et des normes sociales de notre société, notre évaluation des différentes expressions de l'intelligence et nos attentes pour les différents 787 DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction ofGenius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 6.

  groupes humains. Mais avant tout, le génie fournit un moyen de division. Dans son article "Situating Genius", Ray McDermott 788 souligne que nous utilisons le génie pour excuser la médiocrité dans un système construit pour glorifier le petit nombre et la rareté. La conception du génie cultivée au XIX e siècle est un élément figé qui est soit une personne, soit à l'intérieur d'une personne, mettant l'accent sur la pensée d'un génie comme quelque chose que l'on possède entièrement du début à la fin, ce qui est rarement, voire jamais le cas. Le débat sur les différentes façons de comprendre la créativité exceptionnelle existait, et des femmes comme Olympe de Gouges et Jenny D'Hericourt ont clairement exprimé la logique selon laquelle les contributions artistiques des femmes avaient une valeur inestimable. Cependant, il suffit de lire les notes de programme actuelles de l'orchestre symphonique pour comprendre quelles sont les voix que la société continue d'ignorer.

de

  Susan McClary 789 , dont le titre joue sur l'utilisation du féminin pour fournir des métaphores sexuées à l'analyse théorique musicale. Un autre ouvrage est celui de Marcia Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon 790 , qui énumère une foule de références historiques montrant que l'analyse musicale, surtout au XIX e siècle, a toujours eu un fort parti pris misogyne. Comme Citron et McClary l'indiquent clairement, il est possible de soutenir que la composition musicale n'a jamais été un espace neutre du point de vue du genre, et certainement pas du vivant de Pauline Viardot-

  Néanmoins, il y a de l'espoir. Par exemple, un moyen d'alléger le fardeau qui pèse sur les épaules des génies et des épaules des individus dont la créativité exige l'excellence et produit des résultats stupéfiants. Par exemple, une meilleure compréhension des groupes considérés comme géniaux pourrait rendre évidente la place des femmes dans la création musicale. Le poids du génie vient de l'idée reçu selon laquelle les créations sont conçues de manière linéaire -ce qui est rarement le cas-et seraient donc séparées de leur genèse. Tant les génies que leurs créations sont sortis de leur contexte, et sont donc orphelins de toutes filiation culturelle et de toute influence sociale. Cela amplifie le poids des inégalités sociales. Une distinction qui était censée honorer la grandeur, au contraire, déconnecte un tel accomplissement de la curiosité et de toute exploration ultérieure. Cette "étiquette" implique une finalité et nie la subjectivité de ses origines. Dans le contexte de la créativité féminine, cela crée un obstacle à l'acceptation des oeuvres des femmes dans les courants musicaux. Il y a beaucoup à faire, il y a beaucoup plus à découvrir et il y a beaucoup d'oeuvres qui attendent d'être redécouvertes par le prisme de leur héritage et enfin présentées, entières, au monde. La vie et l'oeuvre de Pauline Viardot-Garcia nous offrent une nouvelle façon d'envisager l'inspiration du génie, particulièrement dans la manière qu'elle a de rassembler naturellement autour d'elle de grands esprits créatifs. Sa contribution aux oeuvres des autres n'était pas un simple ajout au produit fini, mais intégrale et importante, tout comme les livrets d'Ivan Tourgueniev l'étaient pour ses opérettes. Le génie doit être considéré comme une manifestation des capacités d'une personne à collaborer, autant qu'à réfléchir et à créer. Comprendre les relations de collaboration dans les cercles artistiques permet non seulement de mieux comprendre comment les femmes ont excellé sur le plan créatif alors qu'elles étaient privées de formation formelle ou de visibilité et d'encouragement professionnels, mais fournit également une image plus complète. Ce tableau plus complet s'éloigne d'une esthétique qui favorise un ensemble de critères de génie centrés sur l'homme pour s'orienter vers un lieu où un artiste et son art peuvent être évalués dans leur contexte.

  Ma mère est une bonne philosophe dans la vie pratique -elle a toute sa vie durant su supporter les grands chagrins comme les plus grands revers avec courage et résignation. L'élasticité de sa nature est telle que son humeur enjouée a toujours fini par reprendre le dessus…"

All three children learned their parents' trade from a very young age, from the wings of the theatre. Manuel's career as a baritone-turned-tenor (his performances spanned both voice parts), a composer, and a director of his own troupe was enhanced by his friendship and collaborations with Gioachino Rossini. Among his many voice students, was Isabella Colbran who became the Italian composer's first wife 68 . Manuel Garcia and Rossini would become not only great friends but artistic collaborators. Garcia created the role of Norfolk in Rossini's opera: Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra, and more notably the Count Almaviva in Le Barbier de Séville. There is some evidence that shows that Garcia may have actually participated in the composition of the former, including the account found in L'illustration Journal Universel in an article entitled Chronique Musicale from the October 21, 1854, edition. This article describes how Garcia as well as the tenor Zamboni were with Rossini when he composed Barbier de Séville. In addition, in response to Garcia's request for a romance which the Count was

64

Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique, 63.

65 Original text: "Persuadée que tout ce que vous pouvez dire à Maria sera écouté, je vous prie de bien lui recommander de se ménager pour le théâtre et de ne pas accepter de dîners en ville … si ell prend soin d'elle, c'est une année d'or pour elle ; mais si elle se fatigue en se prodiguant, comme elle a fait à Paris, vous voyez bien qu'elle jettera la fortune par la croisée." 66 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 368-70.

67 Original text: "68 Mengibar, Los Garcia: Una familia para el canto, 58-59.

:

  Chronicle of the Life of a Bel Canto Tenor at the Dawn ofRomanticism, 98. for the better salary and the more experienced opera audiences of Europe. She wrote to her mother in Mexico in the fall of 1827:To scare Eugène, I told him that in six months I had resolved to leave for London; if he wants to come with me, he'd better hurry, if not I leave alone [knowing] that there is only loss without any motivation here. I, my dear mother, as I have said, will truly do it. 87 (My translation)88

84

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 24; Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 18.

85 Radomski, Manuel Garcia (1775-1832)

: Chronicle of the Life of a Bel Canto Tenor at the Dawn of Romanticism, 98. 86 Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique, 46-47.

longed

  Pour faire peur à Eugène, je lui ai dit que d'ici à six mois, j'étais résolue à partir pour Londres ; que s'il veut venir avec moi, il devra se dépêcher, sinon je pars seule …[sachant] qu'ici il n'y a qu'à se laisser perdre, n'ayant aucun stimulant. Moi, chère mère, comme je le dis, je le ferai en vérité" 89 Erika Pani, "Saving the Nation through Exclusion: Alien Laws in the Early Republic in the United States and Mexico," The Americas 65, no. 2 (2008): 217.

87

Barbier, 47. 88

Original text: "

90

Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 19.

  95 Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Count Wielhorski 12 Dec. 1846 (TB)96 Pauline carefully observed her father's interactions with his children. In personality as well as musical precocity, she was exceptional in her exceptional family. The Malibran once remarked to her friend Ernest Legouvé as they saw young Pauline blow her sister kisses: "this child…is someone that will surpass us all, that is my little sister Pauline 97 "(MT)98 Viardot-Garcia knew the weight and importance of her music career from a young age. Her father's training and approval,

her mother's expectations, her sister's legacy; all these things influenced her career choices.

Like his children, Manuel Garcia achieved a register flexibility that allowed him to sing both tenor and baritone roles such as in Noces de Figaro 99 . The Garcia School vocal technique developed by

  by Manuel Patricio and Viardot-Garcia during their pedagogical careers, to produce a much more durable singing technique.It is quite possible that Pauline's personality was different enough from her sister as well as her father to not agitate the same anger from him. The Bulldog, Pauline was naturally attracted to work on her musical training, and she learned quickly and well; her lessons were mostly calm affairs and her father was gentle and soft with her. Pauline began accompanying her father's lessons between the age of eight and ten and thus had some time to observe and absorb technique. Manuel Garcia wrote exercises for his daughter that she would use throughout her life and which she treasured. Perhaps this ambiance enabled Pauline to absorb the genius of her father's compositions,

Barbier,[92][93]

Original text: "Dans ma famille, on m'a surnommée Bulledogue parce qu'une fois que j'empoigne une affection, un travail, quoi que ce soit, je ne lâche plus prise"

97

Legouvé, Ernest, Soixante Ans de Souvenirs; Ma Jeunesse, vol. 1 (Paris: J. Hetzel et Cie, Éditeurs, 1886), 252. 98 Original text: "Cette enfant… c'est quelqu'un qui nous éclipsera tous, c'est ma petite soeur Pauline." 99 Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 17. 100 Malcolm Sterling Mackinlay, Garcia the Centenarian and His Times: Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labour for the Advancement of Music and Science (Hardpress Publishing, 2012), 86. 101 Radomski and Fitzlyon, "García Family," 3.

honed

  Je commence sans grande attention, et m'embrouille tout à fait dans une mesure-"Fais attention" me dit-il. Je recommence avec les mêmes fautes. "Tu ne fais pas attention, recommence!" Les mêmes fautes lui écorchent de nouveau les oreilles-"Veux tu faire attention, sacr…" Le juron fait son effet et je sors triomphante de la mesure fatale-oui, mais au même instant un formidable soufflet me jette presque par terre-"Pourquoi n'as-tu pas fait dès la 1ere fois autant d'attention que la dernière? Tu nous aurais évité, à toi la douleur physique de recevoir un soufflet, à moi la douleur morale de te le donner" Mon père avait raison, et depuis ce jour I flatter myself that I am one ; -he greatly liked my father, for whom he wrote several of his principal operas, the Barbier, Othello, Donna del Lago, etc. -and having known me since my childhood (he called me his 'prima donna in erba' when I was eight'). He was transferred to me a portion of that affection which dates from his dearest memories of youth. I never seem him kiss anyone except myself 104 (TB) 105 . French citizen, Reicha was raised by his French aunt and his uncle, a cellist

	Perhaps Viardot-Garcia's close and long friendship with Rossini also influenced the playful yet
	exacting way in which she approached her own composition work.
	Pauline received counterpoint and composition lessons from Antonín Reicha (1770-1836), a
	prominent and influential pedagogue and theorist, at the Conservatory of Paris. A Czech native
	later naturalized as a

102

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)

[Continued]

," 530.

103 Original text: "C'est à present seulement que je reconnais tout ce qu'il a dû avoir d'elasticité et de charme et d'entrain dans mon père! Je n'ai éprouvé que de la tendresse de sa part-il m'aimait passionnément et délicatement. Lui qui avait été, dit-on si sévère et si violent avec ma soeur, il a usé d'une douceur angélique avec moi. Je n'ai reçu de lui qu'un seul soufflet dans ma vie, et voici à quel propos: Un jour il m'appela pour déchiffrer au piano quelque chose qu'il venait d'écrire. j'ai compris que dès que l'on se met à faire une chose il faut y concentrer toute son attention." and composer, in Bavaria. His uncle originally forbade nis nephew from studying harmony, so the young composer began his theoretical education on his own, though his uncle did finally acquiesce.

  Pauline began early on to compose and to prepare, not for a singing career but for a career as a concert pianist. This career began in Liege where she accompanied her sister La Malibran and her She hid her vertigo and fatigue from everyone, even her husband, except Pauline, which must have been a difficult burden for the adolescent. During her final days, Maria refused offers for medical care seeking instead naturopathic tinctures and bleedings that would make her condition much worse. The Malibran died shortly after her performance on the first of October, in Manchester, England. The death of her celebrity sister would mark Pauline's life in several ways. Following the death of the Malibran, Joaquina Garcia determined that Pauline would become a singer. April Fitzlyon recounts the decisive moment like Poor father, how I should have adored him, had I known him later in life. I was ten and a half years of age when I lost him. If he had lived, God knows what my life might have been! probably very different from what it is 119 . (TB) 120 .Did she believe that she would have become both a pianist and a composer if her father had lived? Perhaps, and perhaps not, much of Viardot-Garcia's life turns on these critical years of loss and change in the Garcia family.

new brother-in-law Charles Auguste de Bériot the violinist, in 1836. It is in working with de Bériot that we find some of her first recorded compositions: piano accompaniments to exercises for the violin written by de Bériot 114 . All who heard the sisters perform together envisaged a long history of collaboration between the great diva and her sister the brilliant pianist. But Maria was troubled by the death of her first child, by her own mercurial nature that often dipped into melancholic states. She often confessed of having premonitions of her own early death 115 . That same year Maria revealed to her sister that she had suffered a terrible fall from her horse that she felt would probably kill her. In an outing at her friend Lord Lennox's estate, Maria was thrown from a newly-broken horse and sustained head injuries: her forehead revealing a large hematoma 116 . The Malibran never stopped working: the homeopathic remedies that seemed to have helped in the days following the accident no longer seemed to work.

this:

Pauline was rapidly developing into a very remarkable pianist, and she herself wanted to devote her life entirely to that instrument. Her mother, however, was not of the same opinion; to her it was unthinkable that a Garcia should be anything but a singer. On Pauline's fifteenth birthday Madame Garcia ordered her to sing an aria by Rossini. When she had finished, her mother said, 'Very well, I've made up my mind. Close the piano. From now on you are going to sing 117 ' Pauline heeded her mother's insistence but only with a heavy heart 118 . She studied deeper and harder than any other singer and prepared for each role with astounding care. She carefully crafted both the image of female propriety her sister ignored as well as a respectability that could shield her from the critiques that divas received.

Up to this point, Pauline had not formally pursued the training of her voice, but she had absorbed the technique sufficiently well from observation that her mother saw her future on the opera stage.

Pauline again filled the role of dutiful daughter, and she had the powers of observation, the intelligence and the ability to adapt, and made a brilliant career out of it. Many years later she commented on this choice. In a vague reference to the time when everything in her life changed 55 due to the deaths of her father and the Malibran who died just a few years after. She wrote the following to Julius Rietz: Bolstered by natural ability, hard work and excellent vocal technique, Pauline's debut at seventeen years old in Brussels on December 13, 1837, was a resounding success 121 . Soon after this debut she would perform in Berlin where L. Rellstab, a German critic wrote about the bewitching imperfection of her voice: "But in it one senses a soul, a mind, or, if you like, what one might term the physiognomy of the voice, and it is this individual expression which moves the writer of this article to such an extent 122 "

  Pour parler maintenant de madame Viardot, c'est toute une étude à faire. Son talent est si complet, si varié, il touche à tant de points de l'art, il réunit à tant de science une si entraînante spontanéité, qu'il produit à la fois l'étonnement et l'émotion: il frappe et attendrit; il impose et persuade. Sa voix, d'une étendue exceptionnelle, est au service de la plus savant vocalisation et d'un art de phraser le chant large dont les exemples sont bien rares aujourd'hui." 57 career move. Pauline began her career by singing many of the same roles that made her sister's rise to stardom, such as Desdemone, Norma and Zerlina among others. But as her career developed, she would gain notoriety for her creations of the title roles in Sapho by Charles Gounod and Fides in La Prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer and her re-creation of Orphée by Christoph Willibald Gluck. Viardot-Garcia's legacy in Russia, as we will see, was formidable, and provided the notoriety she needed to return to other European countries with an established reputation. Her success in France would remain lukewarm, but the rest of Europe became unabashedly taken with her.

Fitzlyon, 46. 124 Saint-Saëns, Regards Sur Mes Contemporains, 185. 125 Hector Berlioz, "Pauline Viardot," Journal Des Débats Politiques et Littéraires, November 22, 1859, Faites Divers. 126 Original text: "

Louis Viardot: a friend and advocate

	to many shades in between, but she understood the social needs as they were at the moment. Sand
	saw the very practical limitations placed on artistic women and saw this marriage as a way of
	preserving her friend's career and creative powers. Not only was this a marriage of artistic survival,
	but also would allow Pauline to succeed and build a career in social safely within a proper marriage
	Thanks to her time at George Sand's estate Nohant, Pauline could also count Frederic Chopin as to a proper partner. Louis Viardot, to his credit, faithfully adored his wife and supported her
	both a friend and colleague. It was due to this role that Pauline took Sand's urgings seriously, to creative endeavors his entire life. Louis had already proved his character to Sand when he came to
	accept Louis Viardot's, offer of marriage. Louis was the director of the Italian Theater in Paris at her aid in 1837 when Casimir Dudevant had taken their daughter from her 135 . Sand felt she could
	the time, and there was twenty-year age difference between the two. Louis Viardot already had an safely confide her grand priestess of art into the hands of her friend.
	established relationship with the Garcia family and was good friends with the Malibran. Knowing
	that both a difficult marriage or a passionate one could endanger the creative life of this young Pauline did hesitate before accepting Louis' pursuit of her hand. She may have trusted him as a
	wonder, Sand saw in Louis Viardot the stability and care that she believed would allow Pauline to friend of the family, but she was not in love with him. She had good reason to hesitate, her art was
	be unfettered by a dominant husband or distracted by a passionate love. Sand found in Louis of paramount importance to her and the choice for a woman to marry often meant the end, or a
	Viardot all the necessary qualities for a good partner for Pauline; an ambitious man, who shared shortened, career. As Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) commented in her 1908 interview when
	Sand's political leanings, an admirer of the arts, and someone who already understood the career asked if it was possible to be both artist and mother:
	demands of a diva.
	It depends. Marriage should adapt to the career. When it concerns a man, all of that is
	comprehensively expected. But if it concerns a woman, it disturbs the norms, habitual It seemed of little consequence at the time for both Sand as well as Pauline (eventually) that the conventions and accommodations, and in a general fashion, it destroys a woman's art.
	Although I was married and am now a widow, I believe that it is difficult to reconcile union would be based on friendship and courtesy. Louis Viardot was intelligent, a man of letters, domestic life with an artistic life. A woman must chose one or the other 136 . (MT) 137
	a lawyer, well-viewed, and financially well-off. It may seem strange in the light of Sand's terrible
	marriage to Casimir Dudevant and ensuing struggle for independence and custody of her children
	that she would be so eager to push her very young friend towards such a lifetime commitment.
	George Sand's feminism may have vacillated between proclaiming her own 'vie de garçon' early
	in her career to later writings that women and men were equal in ability, but socialized differently,
	134 Marix-Spire, 91-288.

Frédéric Chopin: An artistic friendship

	pursuits 138 . Louis Viardot was both a lover of opera, and a man well positioned in temperament settled in with her three "pas trop belle soeurs 140 " though the couple would be soon off on a Viardot-Garcia valued Chopin's artistic opinion and he valued hers as well. In a letter to George
	and in passion for the arts to adore and support his talented wife. Louis and Pauline's similar honeymoon Italy and then on multiple tours, including to Spain. Sand in October 1841 Viardot-Garcia writes to Sand:"I put to work a rather new and bold idea:
	interests, coupled with her deep desire to pursue her art but maintain her modest reputation, won Pauline's marriage to Louis Viardot would prove to be both a help and a hindrance to her career. I've put to music the chêne et le roseau de Lafontaine! I truly wish that Chopin hears it, so that I
	the day. It was a long-standing precedent that marriage for an opera diva was necessary to avoid Louis, loyal and principled, resigned from his director's position at the Italian Theater in Paris to may know if it is good or bad 144 ". (MT) 145 Chopin did hear it and liked it. It was later encored at
	moral scrutiny 139 . This decision is a window into the character of Pauline Viardot-Garcia. Her avoid conflicts of interest, and became his wife's impresario. He, like Aristide Farrenc did for his his concert at Salle Pleyel on February 21, 1842, when he performed the piano part of the piece 146 .
	music was always the most important part of her life, even more than her personal relationships. wife Louise, became Pauline Viardot-Garcia's ally, manager, and supported her ambitions in a The two artist friends shared a love of folk songs and their melodies permeated both composers'
	Louis Viardot was a defender of these pursuits and accepted her chosen principal purpose in life. way that was rare for their time 141 . Louis' republican political affiliations, and probably George works. Chopin described some of her Spanish songs in a letter to his family in 1845: "She [Viardot]
	Though in light of Viardot-Garcia's artistic and intimate relationship with Ivan Turgenev, her Sand's as well, however, would prove to be problematic, for Pauline's career in France. Louis sang me the Spanish songs she has composed in Vienna last year; she promised she would sing
	marriage to Louis is often reduced to spotty paragraphs here and there, Louis held an important Viardot's political involvement in the Republican movement (Pauline was less vocal politically them to you. I am very fond of them, and I doubt whether one could hear or think of anything
	role in Viardot-Garcia's artistic and personal life. She depended on Louis for his observations, his but in letters and among friends she agreed with her husband) would shape their travels as well as better of their kind. 147 ". Viardot-Garcia arranged twelve of Chopin's Mazurkas for voice and often
	advice and for his support of her frequent travels. He was a doting father, and an intelligent and their later move to Baden. performed them at her concerts. Jenny Lind (Viardot-Garcia's brother Manuel was her voice
	supportive partner and remained an active man of letters. He authored articles on the history of teacher) performed the Chopin/Viardot mazurkas in one of her concerts in Poznań, Poland and the
	Spanish theatre, guidebooks to European art museums, and one of the definitive translations of reviewer commented on both the skill and beauty of the mazurka as well as Viardot's added vocal
	Pauline Viardot-Garcia's close association with George Sand not only resulted in her marriage to
	Don Quixote into French among other publications. His experience in the musical world was lines:
	Louis Viardot, but also in her close friendship with Frédéric Chopin. Their friendship began in
	invaluable, and his understanding of his wife's need to associate with other artists should not be
	1840 When the Viardot's came to stay at George Sand's country estate, Nohant. Chopin and
	downplayed. It seems more than being oblivious to Pauline's artistic and often intimate
	Viardot-Garcia spent hours at the piano together taking turns playing their own and each other's
	friendships, Louis was a quiet observer, ever loving and supporting his artist wife in what was by
	compositions, sometimes with Viardot-Garcia singing as well 142 . The pair shared similar musical
	even today's standards a progressive marriage. On April 18th, 1840, eighteen-year-old Pauline
	aesthetic taste and a deep admiration for Mozart's works 143 .
	Garcia married thirty-nine-year-old Louis Viardot. Pauline moved into Louis Viardot's home and
	135 Marix-Spire, 23.
	136 Launay, "Compositrices et mariées au XIXe siècle," 192-93.
	137 Original text: "Cela depend. Le mariage doit s'adapter à la carrière. Quand il s'agit d'un homme, tout cela est
	etendu et prevu. Mais s'il s'agit d'une femme, cela derange les norms, les conventions, les accomodements 138 Launay, "Compositrices et mariées au XIXe siècle," 192.
	habituels, et de façon Générale, cela détruit l'art de la femme. Bien que j'aie été mariée et que je sois veuve 139 Raphaëlle Legrand, "Favart, Laruette, Trial et Dugazon: Chanteuses à La Comedie-Italienne, Mariées à Des
	aujourd'hui, je crois qu'il est difficile de conciliar vie domestique et vie artistique. Une femme devrait choisir l'une Artistes," in Musiciennes En Duo: Mères, Filles, Soeurs Ou Compagnes d'artistes (Rennes: Presses universitaires de
	ou l'autre". Rennes, 2015), 93.

  Una voce poco fa" has the firemen gaping in the wings. Musical Russia is at her feet: the acclamation and the floral crowns mount up as if to heaven 160 .

	say…The strange bringing-up that I had, so far to the north, endowed my romantic heart with stability and constancy…read over the first part of Consuelo; I shall see if you can discover the other similarity with me 155 .(TB) 156 electrifying velvet of her "The seasons were an unmitigated success, and the Russian press was hard-pressed to find enough
	In her letter to Viardot-Garcia in June 1842 Sand expresses to Viardot-Garcia the importance of
	adjectives to describe the glory of the artist's talent 161 . It is here in this first Russian season where
	the musician's role as high priestess of her art:
	she met the young poet, budding author, bourgeois landowner and new hunting companion of her
	you are the priestess of the musical ideal and your mission is to spread that message, to help the people to understand and to bring the reluctant or the ignorant to an understanding husband, Ivan Turgenev. From their first meeting some time in November of 1843, Turgenev was
	of the true and the beautiful. You have something greater to build than your reputation and your fortune 157 .(MT) 158 already a profound admirer of hers 162 . Turgenev was immediately deeply smitten with Viardot-
	Sand's Consuelo would, as she had counseled her, build her celebrity thanks to her three seasons Garcia even as she remained at first modestly cordial.
	in Saint Petersburg beginning in 1843. This allowed her to acquire roles in Germany, France, and
	England. Beginning in September 1843 under the modest title of" prima donna soprano et mezzo-
	soprano en chef 159 " with her colleagues she opened the Italian opera season in Saint Petersburg to
	ecstatic audiences and equally ecstatic salaries. Patrick Waddington draws a descriptive portrait of
	the young artist's debut on the stage at the Grand Opera House in Saint. Petersburg.
	A performance of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia is about to start, and intense curiosity is
	shown about a new leading lady: the 22-year-old Pauline Viardot, daughter of the
	legendary Garcia and sister of the prodigious Maria Malibran, tragically dead. The moment
	is precarious: a reputation can be made or lost forever. The singer appears. She is an 'ugly
	beauty'-stocky but lithe, with irregular and heavy features and great bulging eyes, yet with
	smooth complexion and raven-black hair. All else is forgotten as her strong but metallic, Sand spoke of her hopes for captivating voice slides easily from pure soprano to warm, caressing contralto. The
	Viardot-Garcia in the writer's letter to her on May 25, 1842:" you are my youth, my glory and my
	future 154 ". Sand's novel Consuelo was inspired by Viardot-Garcia with hopeful projections on her
	future. Viardot-Garcia saw the novel as an accurate character portrait of herself and, in describing
	her own personality to Rietz, even urged her friend to read the novel to understand her better:
	I do not shrink from the responsibility of a copartnership in other lives, for I know that I
	can bestow as much friendship-as any human being can feel;-I can love more than I can

  "unofficial marriage 175 " as Patrick Waddington wrote, in his article of the same title, about the pair.

	Russian language and literature, but also helped her expand her understanding of German, English endured from their meeting in 1843 until his death in 1883. It was indeed a type of artistic,
	and French literary works. In preparing for her opera roles, he would counsel her to read the works
	that inspired the librettist as well as the composer of the work. Turgenev contributed to Viardot-
	Garcia's profound understanding of her roles, including her singing of Russian popular songs in
	the lesson scene of The Barber of Seville in perfect Russian to the delirious delight of her
	audience 171 . In addition, Turgenev's artistic friendship provided her with needed creative
	collaboration and advice.
	Love kills, when not allowed to burst into flame. To extinguish it -oh, that is cruel Turgenev as well as her need to preserve a certain image of herself. One can torture-doleful, dreadful, deadly. Bereft of sacred friendship, I should have died long
	still see the development of this relationship thanks to Turgenev's preserved letters addressed to ago 172 (TB) 173 .
	his "dear, good, noble, excellent friend 167 ". Viardot-Garcia as she wrote above in a letter to her dear friend Julius Rietz, needed and formed
	Turgenev's collaboration with Viardot-Garcia is well-documented, as it was a vital part of his many other artistic and intimate friendships with musicians and composers. These ties were
	professional career. Viardot-Garcia's was as well and included not only the librettos written by important for her career, but as her husband Louis quickly understood, also for her happiness and
	Turgenev for her operettas, including that of La Partie de Whist, but also a collection of Russian creative vitality. She formed deep friendships, always holding on to her reputation of a principled
	songs and her passionate promotion of Russian composers. Turgenev was a passionate supporter artist with a strong moral core. It was with great difficulty that she pulled herself away from these
	of Viardot-Garcia's compositions which included sometimes paying for their promotion and passionate impulses, though she felt that doing so was important, quite possibly for her own career
	publication 168 . Turgenev was in good company with Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns, who and reputation 174 . But her friendship and bond with Turgenev, from the beginning, was stronger,
	also promoted and saw the value in her compositions 169 . more unbreakable, and lasting than even her friendship or flirtations with Maurice Sand, Charles
	Turgenev held Viardot-Garcia's opinion in high esteem, he sought to please her in what he wrote; Gounod, Hector Berlioz and even Julius Rietz. Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev's relationship was
	he included her ideas and followed her corrections in his novels 170 . Turgenev introduced her to the one of mutual promotion, support, and creative development. Their relationship was not always
	harmonious, it went through many rifts, and rocky patches that spanned years. Their friendship

  Madame Garcia demonstrates that an exceptional singer can at the same time be an excellent pianist, and overall, a high cultural musician, an indispensable quality for anyone who aspires to the name of artist 183 (translation Klara Hamburger) 184 .

	at least two of its founding fathers: Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin and Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin
	Buchez 180 .
	Hector Berlioz, following Viardot-Garcia's triumphs in their revival of Willibald Gluck's Orphée,
	described her consummate artistry in his book A travers chant :
	She unites an irrepressibly impetuous and imperious verve with a profound sensibility and
	with an almost deplorable faculty for expressing immense grief. Her gestures are sane,
	noble and true to life, and her power of facial expression is even more remarkable in silent
	scenes than in those where she has to reinforce therewith the accents of song 181 (MT) 182 .
	Though she never pursued a career as a concert pianist, Viardot-Garcia often played the instrument
	in public. She frequently accompanied herself as she sang in concerts and her salons, but she also
	performed pieces for piano only. In her concert in Pest, Hungary in 1858, she played a duet with
	Clara Schumann. The paper Pest-Ofener-Zeitung praised her abundant musical gifts:
	Gounod and Berlioz. Her generosity with other composers seems to be linked to her own creative
	desires as well as her personal beliefs. Perten further explains that Viardot-Garcia's energy and
	appetite for aiding and promoting new artists may have been partially due to her belief and
	subscription to the Saint-Simonian movement to which both George Sand as well as Franz Liszt
	ascribed to. The basic tenants of the movement, regarding art is that the artist is a servant to the
	people and their art a tool with which they can serve humankind 179 . The Saint Simonians also,
	crucially believed in equality between the sexes, though what that meant was heavily debated by
	178 Elizabeth Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"" (Doctor of
	Philosophy in Musicology, Brandeis University, Brandeis University, 2014), 159; Susan Rutherford, "La Cantante
	Delle Passioni: Giuditta Pasta and the Idea of Operatic Performance," Cambridge Opera Journal 19, no. 2 (July
	2007): 136.
	179 Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 160.

second career as Liszt and Turgenev hoped 191 possible reasons for this will be

	187 "
	This seems to suggest that Viardot-Garcia already had decided that composition was not a viable
	career choice. She also carried with her the template established by her father. Performer by
	profession, Manuel Garcia used his compositions to promote his performing career and that of his
	troupe. For both, there was an element of practicality to composition, just as one would use a limb.
	This is not to say that she wasn't proud of her compositions and didn't seek to have them be heard.
	She recounts to her friend Julius Rietz the reactions she received for both one of her compositions
	and her arrangements of Chopin's Mazurkas in her letter:
	According to expectation, they made me sing. Do you know what made the greatest effect?
	Guess-my caña-and I had not [said] by whom it was-you may [imagine,] knowing the high
	pitch of exaltation to which the Altenburg is keyed up, the noise that burst out when the
	name of the author-ess was pronounced-and it was the Princess who guessed it! oh, women
	are keen!-then I finished with the Mazurkas', which made Liszt jump about in his chair…
	188 (TB) 189
	Viardot-Garcia was keenly aware of the effect her compositions had and that they were good. One
	of her earliest published works is a group of eight songs for voice and piano, published in 1843
	when she was just 22 190 . One can see that as her role as diva, a means of musical expression for a
	woman that had a strong social precedent, declined, the less socially condoned impulse came
	forward as she dedicated more of her time to her compositions. She never endeavored to make
	composition into a 187 Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 123.
	188 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 362.
	189 Original text: "Comme je m'y attendais bien on m'a fait chanter. Savez-vous ce qui a fait le plus d'effet?
	Devinez-ma caña-et je n'avais pas [dit] de qui c'était-vous pouvez vous au Diapason très élevé d'exaltation qui
	donne le ton à la Altenburg le tapage qui a éclaté quand le nom de l'auteur-esse a été prononcé-et c'est la princesse
	qui l'a deviné! oh les femmes sont fines!-puis j'ai terminé par les Mazourkas qui on fait sauter Liszt sur sa chaise"
	190 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, Album de Mme Viardot-Garcia: Huit Morceaux de Chant Avec Acc. t. de Piano (Paris:
	E. Troupenas et Comp., 1843).

191

Franz Liszt, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia," Gesammelte Schriften 3 (1881): 126.

  Chansons populaires 198 . Her first known composition, according to the research of Patrick Waddington was Der Junge Fischer a lied for voice and piano, written when she was 17 years old 199 . This composition was followed by other songs written for voice and piano including Die Capelle and Étoile du soir and La Chapelle. These works would be published later in her album of eight songs in 1843.

	composer must know to work quickly" "But can one refine one's works?" Fauré responded.
	"One refines a little less, but one is active [actif]! 194 " (MT) 195
	Even more so once her performing schedule was considerably reduced, due to vocal overuse, and
	she 'officially' retired from the stage, her compositions were a primary source for artistic
	expression 196 . She could compose comfortably not only with poetry in several languages, but also
	in the national style of the language as well. She could fluidly compose a Berceuse cosaque or
	Chanson Géorgienne with profound stylistic understanding just as easily as a caña or lieder 197 .
	Viardot-Garcia was an avid collector of French folk songs that she transcribed, and which resulted
	Saëns would write in the Revue de Paris June 15, 1897: Attending Mme Viardot's salon had a strong influence on one's musical orientation. With Mme Viardot we entered another world. This famous woman was not only a great singer but a great artist and a living encyclopedia: having known Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Rossini, George Sand, Ary Scheffer, Eugène Delacroix, she was welcome in the most diverse schools [of thought] and promoted the artistic movement of the avant-garde: a first order pianist, at home [her salon] she interpreted Beethoven, Mozart and Reber whom she loved. It is not difficult to image how an environment like would be conducive to hatching emerging talent 192 (MT) 193 . In spite of her full performing schedule, Viardot-Garcia composed constantly. There was even a in the collection entitled: As Viardot-Garcia's different residences follow different stages of her life and career, it makes
	frantic nature to her need to get her ideas on paper, illustrated in her discussion on composition
	with Gabriel Fauré, and recounted by Florence Launay:
	Pauline Viardot believed that one must compose quickly, a fact that could have contributed
	to her loyalty to the melody which forms the biggest part of her [creative]production. An
	exchange with Gabriel Fauré, who was meant to become her son-in-law, is revealing: "A
	192 Camille Saint-Saëns, "Charles Gounod," Revue de Paris, Juin 1897.
	193 Original text: "La fréquentation du salon de Mme Viardot, voilà ce qui aura fortement influé sur son orientation
	musicale. Avec Mme Viardot, nous entrons dans un autre monde. Cette femme célèbre n'était pas seulement une
	grande cantatrice, mais une grande artiste et une encyclopédie vivante : ayant fréquenté Chopin, Schumann, Liszt,
	Rossini, George Sand, Ary Scheffer, Eugène Delacroix, elle était invitée aux écoles les plus diverses, marchait à
	l'avant-garde du mouvement artistique : pianiste de premier ordre, elle interprétait chez elle Beethoven, Mozart et
	Reber qu'elle appréciait beaucoup. Il n'est pas difficile d'imaginer combien un pareil milieu devait être propice à
	l'éclosion d'un talent naissant."

sense to group her artistic life into the same divisions of time and place: we have already briefly mentioned Paris which is followed by Courtavenel, Baden, London and Paris once again.

194

Launay, Les Compositrices En France Au XIXe Siècle, 100.

195 Original text: "Pauline Viardot estimait qu'il fallait composer vite, un fait qui a pu contribuer à la cantonner dans la mélodie qui forme la plus grande part de sa production. Un échange avec Gabriel Fauré, qui faillit devenir son gendre, est révélateur: 'Un compositeur doit savoir travailler vite' 'Mais comment alors soigner ses oeuvres', répond Fauré. 'On soigne un peu moins, mais on est actif!'"

196 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 127. 197 Barbier, 267. 198 Barbier, 267. 199

Waddington and Žekulin, The Musical Works of Pauline

  psychological power. These examples, among others, were deeply, and perhaps subliminally, influenced by social norms and philosophical thought. Germaine de Staël's heroine in her novels Corinne plays out the feminine perspective of this narrative; Corinne is accepted as a genius, but 101 in the end, society rejects her (in the form of her lover Oswald marrying a conventional, submissive, 'normal', woman) and her grief, coupled with the burden of genius ultimately kills her264 . to an interesting point: "that what unifies various manifestations of genius in human affairs is not what genius produces but how it produces 268 ". This philosophy could be useful in reevaluating musical genius in the light of female examples with its focus on process. Understanding the process of creating a work eliminates the necessity of creating orchestral or large form compositions as a marker of greatness but allows artists to create as they are inspired to do and moves the focus to an actual analysis of the work within its own frame of reference.

	Philosophers on the categories of genius
	Much of modern western understanding of genius can trace their roots to the writings of
	seventeenth, and eighteenth-century male-European philosophers. Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
	divided genius into two categories: learned genius, and natural genius 265 . Edward Young (1681-
	1765) then gave these two categories a hierarchical order: "Learned genius was now not merely a
	264 Bonnie G. Smith, "History and Genius: The Narcotic, Erotic, and Baroque Life of Germaine de Staël," French
	Historical Studies 19, no. 4 (Autumn 1996): 1061.
	265 Thomas Bauman, "Becoming Original: Haydn and the Cult of Genius," The Musical Quarterly 87, no. 2
	(Summer 2004): 338.

less exalted form of originality but rather its antithesis. Original at birth, we surrender our birthright to imitation 'that meddling ape' and in so doing 'counterfeit nature' and thwart her design 266 ". In his essay "De l'Esprit" (1758) Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771) countered with the combination of the two categories, both needing the other in order to create true genius: "Genius is not a gift of Nature. Men of genius are just products of the circumstances in which they find themselves 267 ". Under this definition, Viardot-Garcia, Clara Schumann and other female composers from musical families, fit quite nicely into the narrative often used for Amadeus Mozart as both a gifted individual and a product of an exceptional musical upbringing.

Alexander

Gerard (1728-1795)

offered another way to view this division in genius and its methods by dividing genius into 'scientific' and 'artistic' categories with no preference between the former and the latter. Gerard, though his philosophies were not favored by the romantics, draws our 266 Bauman, 338.

267 Bauman, 342.

attention

  Joseph Addison, philosopher, poet and opera critic wrote his first article in a series called "On the Pleasures of the Imagination" for The Spectator in 1711 contributing to the creation of modern discipline of aesthetics and the philosophy of art273 . In this and other articles Addison forms his criteria for genius: "[1] Wild and powerful, [2]Rule-breaker,[3]Original rather than derivative[and 4]Prone

	273 Peter Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius (Yale
	University Press, 2011), 22.
	274 Kivy, 22.
	275 Stephen Miller, "The Strange Career of Joseph Addison," The Sewanee Review Published by: The Johns Hopkins
	University Press Stable URL: Vol. 122, no. 650-660 (n.d.): 650.

to production of sublime rather than beautiful works 274 ". Addison's articles not only influenced art philosophy in England but also on the European continent: his works were promptly translated into Italian, French, German, and Dutch 275 . Contributing to Addison's influential ideas, William

Smith (1711-1787)

who translated the text attributed to Longinius, On the Sublime, in 1739 gave historical depth to the idea of the sublime and its role defining genius 276 . Edmund

Burke's (1729- 1797)

. "Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" in 1757 introduced the idea of 'terror' into the perception of the sublime as the other(necessary) side of pleasure when observing works of genius 277 . Terror, as a criterion for emotion that a genius work must produce brought the aspect of the divine in genius onto the scene: the terror of God: something so exquisite that it was almost too much for mere mortals. Terror, the sublime and images of divine inspiration, all hallmarks of social superiority, power, and control, were all 276 Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel,

Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius, 28. 277 Kivy, 28.

  The values of Beethoven's heroic style have become the values of music 283 . The conception of genius, using Beethoven as a central figure has had lasting repercussions which are presented in two diametrically different works. I have chosen two works to represent the two 281 Jacqueline Letzter and Robert Adelson, "French Women Opera Composers and the Aesthetics of Rousseau," of the argument about genius. Peter Kivy's book, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius 284 takes the side of, despite extensive (and flawed philosophical genealogy 285 ) philosophical analysis, an unquestioning worship of the canonized composers of the past. Tia DeNora's book, Beethoven and the construction of genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803 286 represents the side of the argument that would allow scrutiny of the social elements contributing to a composer's 'genius reputation' and therefore open the door for people like Pauline Viardot-Garcia to have their artistic legacy restored.Kivy's book, though problematic in his genealogy of philosophical influence 287 , does outline two extraordinary powers of concentration and his obsession to compose music did not, as in the case of Beethoven, get in the way of his humdrum activities making, it seems to me, the powers and the obsession all the more extraordinary, which I suppose is why Beethoven Genius seems to us so much more like what genius should look like than the genius of Citizen Bach 289 .This image, however, totally excludes female composers of the nineteenth century as that type of distraction and focus was quickly labeled madness or hysteria. Kivy's praise of Beethoven's brand of genius and the reputation he accrued demonstrates how firmly his reputation and mythology was established in the nineteenth-century rhetoric. Though Kivy takes the time to identify divergent philosophies on genius, he recoils at questioning the solitary origin of genius. Concrete inspection of genius, however, is where the romantic ideal, solitary genius, comes apart.

	Feminist Studies 26, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 71, https://doi.org/10.2307/3178593; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean
	Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert, and Marc Buffat, Lettre à d'Alembert (Paris: Flammarion, 2003).

282

Leo Schrade, Beethoven in France: The Growth of an Idea

(Oxford University Press, 1942)

, 36.

283

Scott G.

Burnham, Beethoven Hero (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995)

. sides important ways in which musical genius is classified using two philosophers, Longinius and Plato 288 . Beethoven's legacy benefits directly from this philosophical genealogy. Kivy states that the Longinian view of genius is one who breaks the rules, who forges their own path, who is the 'possessor' of their art, a legacy easily attributed to Beethoven. Once again, focusing on Beethoven -the romantic era's poster child -raises the question of equity in the way men's versus women's creations and creative output were received, recorded, and preserved. Where Beethoven's lesser compositions have been relegated to another cataloguing system entirely (the WOo numbers) women's compositions receive no such courtesy. Their works are presented as a cohesive whole, with any lesser composition lowering the average of the oeuvre. Kivy encapsulates the romantic obsession with the image of the distracted genius used to build on the heroic, masculine image of Beethoven: 107 Bach's Kivy asserts that discovering the mechanisms of composition; the methods and practices of geniuses is to lose our sense of wonder at the work of art 290 . This mystical approach implies that great works of art cannot, or should not have to, stand up to scrutiny. I argue for the opposite; wonder and awe increase with each additional layer of knowledge and understanding of a composer's methods and practices. Tia DeNora illustrates how the appreciation of Beethoven's works, the nineteenth-century golden archetypes of a genius, were not universally acknowledged as great works until after his death.

DeNora defines the problem with most Beethovinian accounts as a lack of social context; that they "isolate the quality of Beethoven's works as the cause of his recognition 291 ". The problem with isolating innovation and creation is that it is often "interpretively projected backwards on earlier events 292 " DeNora's account highlights the "issue of social structure 293 " in the debate over what 289 Kivy, 249. 290 Kivy, 250. 291 DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 5. 292 M. J. Mulkay, The Word and the World: Explorations in the Form of Sociological Analysis (London ; Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1985), 173. 293 DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 6.

109

  Kivy's arguments fail to address the inherent problem with the conception of musical genius; it completely ignores the subjectivity of both historical and current reception. Despite these disagreements, it isn't until his chapter where he outlines his disagreement with Tia De Nora's book, Beethoven and the construction of genius, that his argument starts to unravel. Kivy appears to hold his now carefully constructed and defended concept of genius so dear that he will defend it at all costs.Kivy states that if one were to believe as does DeNora, that genius is a political construct, Beethoven a political put-up job and Dussek a political victim, then one perforce cannot experience the music of Beethoven with the sense of wonder and fervor one had when one believed in the traditional concept of genius 296 This process is not destructive, as Kivy asserts. The factual analysis that DeNora provides forms a basis for understanding the mythology surrounding Beethoven as well as other composers that still strongly influences the current musical canon. Not only does the analysis provide perspective on historical context but also raises serious questions on the heroic, misunderstood, artist-image that is now attached to Beethoven's name. Perceptions of Beethoven as unnoticed, or as a composer of the people are both erroneous. In response to a plea by Baron Peter von Braun to help fill the theatre in Vienna for his performance of Fidelio he responded with "I do not write for the galleries" (in other words…the people) 297 . DeNora demonstrates through tracing the concerts and commissions that provided Beethoven's livelihood that his compositions for the first years of his career were mostly for aristocratic audiences. DeNora asserts that: Neither Beethoven's middle period popularity nor his ultimate recognition as the greatest of musical masters could have occurred without his initial lionization by aristocratic society during the 1790s and early 1800s 298 .The romantics of France by this time had already taken the persona of Mozart as the embodiment of their "principles of art 301 ". They had first received Mozart with aversion, perceiving his works as too heavy and too musically dense. Their view was changed by literary figures such as Theophile Gautier who hailed Mozart as the "complete reconciliation 302 " of Italian aesthetics with German values of balance and proportion. Mozart's posthumous fame was also boosted by the propagation of the belief that his genius was snatched by death too soon; before he was able to reach his full potential 303 . This lament, of course was not voiced for composers such as Fanny Mendelssohn or Maria Agata Szymanowska who died at a similar age.

It is here where Kivy falls most fully into the logical fallacy of the slippery slope: that full understanding must destroy wonder. This type of logical side-stepping belongs in the maintenance of religious mystique, not the appreciation and honoring of real artists' legacies. Can he really mean that someone with an understanding of the machinations of how Beethoven's genius became the romantic era's archetype cannot love and be awestruck at the same time by his works? If this is true, then wouldn't that undermine the statements by his composer colleagues attesting to his genius? Since, it can be assumed, they understood his compositional practices. Tia DeNora's deconstruction of the reception of Beethoven's work serves to separate his artistic production from his constructed persona. This is, of course, not the end of the story in tracing Beethoven's rise to mythic composer status.

Following his aristocratic support and brand building during his lifetime, French audiences were presented with the myth by well-known critics such as Castil-Blaze and Berlioz. An article in Le Globe, a few days after his death, hailed Beethoven as the "Kant of Music 299 ". Leo Schrade in his book Beethoven in France explains the historical Beethoven phenomenon in this way:

The door, then, through which the French admitted the genius of Beethoven into France was opened by the romantics: Habenek with his performances roused the first enthusiasm, while Castil-Blaze with Berlioz and Joseph d'Ortigue introduced the genius in a literary campaign 300 .

  309 Original Text: "Ce qui est une persévérance louable chez les organisations d'élite, prend le caractère d'une déplorable obstination chez les intelligences secondaires. Cette verité doit être sérieusement méditée par les femmes qui prétendent faire de l'art musical une profession."

310

Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 20.

  Original text: "[J]e dirais crûment être persuadé que, si on avait fait l'autopsie des femmes ayant un talent original, comme Mme. Sand, Mme Viardot, etc. on trouverait chez elles des parties génitales se rapprochant de l'homme, de clitoris un peu parents de nos vergers".

When combined with creative exceptionality it begins to draw a new picture of what musical genius is and was. But even the 'normal' signs of genius such as stylistic rule-breaking seem to have gone largely unnoticed in past figures. Marcia Citron's stylistic analysis of Cécile Chaminade's Sonata Op. 21 outlines a clear subversion of the normal sonata theme hierarchy. Chaminade's treatment of the two expository themes eliminates the tonal 'otherness' usually expected of the second theme. Chaminade accomplishes this by creating a first theme that is a prelude which ends with a melismatic, and expressive flourish. The second theme in the form of a fugue exhibits tonal ambiguity but starts in tonic, eliminating the binary separation of the two themes 337 .

Another example of a largely ignored flame of originality could be Pauline Viardot-Garcia's intriguing use of meter, for example, combined with masterful compositional technique, to show feminine power in her chamber opera Le Dernier Sorcier. I present my analysis for this operetta in the following chapter as well as musical reasons as to why it may open the door to a new look

335 Paliyenko, 36. 336 337 Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 153.

  340 Wiley, Christopher, "Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and 'The First Woman to Write an Opera,'" The Musical Quarterly 96, no. 2 (2013): 263. 341 Wiley, Christopher, 268. 342 Wendy Rosslyn, Alessandra Tosi, and Open Book Publishers, eds., Women in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Lives and Culture (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2012), 119-36. 343 Wiley, Christopher, "Music and Literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and 'The First Woman to Write an Opera,'" 273. 123 Pauline Viardot received similar praise from George Sand in her review in La Revue des Deux Mondes as she presents her first composition as her "first title to imperishable glory 344 ". Franz

  La Femme Affranchie: Réponse à MM.Michelet, Proudhon, E. de Girardin, A. Comte et Aux Autres Novateurs Modernes, 10. 348 Launay, Les Compositrices En France Au XIXe Siècle, 67.349 Origninal text: "Pour les jeunes filles, la rébellion contre l'avenir d'épouse et de mère n'est soutenue par aucun fantasme positif de réussite. Au contraire, la compositrice, comme toutes les femmes aux ambitions intellectuelles, est le plus souvent victime de quolibets : les 'femmes savantes', les 'bas-bleus', etc., font depuis longtemps partie des ridicules."

347

Jenny P. D'Hericourt,

  Genius Envy, 19. 355 Oren Braha, "The Ideology of Authorship Revisited: Authors, Markets, and Liberal Values in Early American Copyright," The Yale Law Journal 118, no. 2 (November 2008): 209. aria, something like a local melody -a Spanish song or a very colorful synthesis, lightly provocative -where she could use all the, what I will call artistic perversities, that she has in her arsenal: vocal caresses and smiles, voluptuous inflections, killing glances and provocative gestures 357 .(MT) 358

354

Paliyenko,

356

Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 179.

128 …a characteristic

  Most children who have taken a music class can recite a few things they know about Mozart. Well known are personal details of his age when he began to write and play, who his father was, and that he played for the kings and queens of Europe. We can all recall Beethoven's disposition, 357 Hervé Lacombe and Christine Rodriguez, La Habanera de Carmen: Naissance d'un Tube (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2014), 65-66; Charles Pigot, Georges Bizet et son oeuvre. (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1911), 243.358 Original text: "…un air caractéristique, quelque chose comme une chanson du cru -chanson espagnole ou pastiche très coloré, légèrement troublant, -où elle pût à loisir deployer l'arsenal complet de ce que j'appellerai volontiers ses perversités artistiques : caresses de la voix et du sourire, inflexions voluptueuses, oeillades assassins, gestes troublants."

359

Lacombe and Rodriguez, La Habanera de Carmen: Naissance d'un Tube, 70.

129

volatile childhood, and his handicap. But if a student of music knows anything at all about Cecile

  Garcia from Gounod who writes of performing the last scene of Sapho for her family at Courtavenel, its success and her part in the composition of the work: Huuuuuuuuuge success. They found the last number grippingly dramatic; they were greatly moved by it. As was I. I can hardly wait to give you all of this: you for whom and a bit by whom [i.e., 'with whose assistance'] I have made it 363 .Deeper historical investigation reveals a different context. For example, artists like Pauline Viardot-Garcia were at the center of the musical milieu of France and Europe for much of the nineteenth century. Admirers of her music, her colleagues, were names we all recognize, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Massenet, Liszt, Berlioz and many more. Yet her name, and those of other women like her, such as Louise Farrenc, Augusta Holmes, and Fanny Mendelssohn, are nowhere to be found in the present canon. A look at the standard canon, with the backdrop of historical context

that includes women's achievements, reveals that it is neither reflective of the social norms of our day nor the true historical context of the time it venerates. Nor is a simple separation of professional and private spheres indicative of women's influence or lack thereof. Adrianna Paliyenko's words

  The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 10.375 Viardot-Garcia and Baker, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)[Concluded]," 46.376 Original text: "Le Duo avec Euridice (une belle voix sans art) a fait beaucoup d'effet aussi, mais ce qui a été le point culminant, c'est l'air "J'ai perdu mon Euridice." Je crois avoir trouvé trois bonnes manières de dire le motif. La 1ére fois, douleur étonnée, Presque immobile. 2éme reprise-étouffée par les larmes (on a applaudi pendant 2 minutes et on voulait bis!!!) La 2éme fois éclats de désespoir. Ma pauvre Euridice a dit en se relevant "Ouf! J'ai cru que cela ne finirait jamais!" pattern of unity and harmonic relevance. Presented simply, but with substance behind it, the work is modest in its goals, but none the less a masterwork of a new breed: written without the anxiety of authorship.This ingenuity, of course, was also inspired by Ivan Turgenev's libretto. Turgenev learned to write for the stage and create characters with depth through Le Dernier Sorcier. Closer inspection of Viardot-Garcia's compositions reveal gems both literary and musical: of intricate social philosophies cleverly rejecting the philosophical mores of feminine inferiority of their time. himself belonged in a different time and space: "as usual I am in foreign worlds. These are no doubt imaginary spaces 380 "(MT) 381 .There are also thematic transformations and broad exploration of tonal ambiguity, perhaps alluding to the techniques of the Neue Deutsche Schule (in her work on the piece in Baden) this could also be explained through her close association with Richard Pohl (who translated the operetta into German) and Edward Lassen (who orchestrated it) who both were proponents of the New German School in neighboring Weimar 382 .

	377 Florence Launay, "Pauline Viardot, Compositrice," in Pauline Viardot Cent Ans Après, Ivan Tourguéniev,
	Pauline Viardot, Maria Malibran 34 (Assoc. des amis d'Ivan Tourguéniev, Pauline Viardort et Maria Malibran,
	2010), 14.
	378 Moreno, "Challenging Views of Sequential Repetition: From 'Satzlehre' to 'Melodielehre,'" 146.

374

Žekulin,

A composer's journey

As we have seen, Viardot-Garcia learned composition with Antonín Reicha 377 . It's no surprise that Viardot-Garcia's music shows inventive and beautiful melodies, considering the importance her composition teacher placed on melody as a tool for development and a way to generate harmony 378 . This teacher, who taught other female students as well, had the interesting saying that sparked innovation and perhaps, rebellion from social convention: "They would not let you do that at the Conservatoire, but I like it 379 " Viardot-Garcia experimented with various composition techniques with rich allusions to Chopin's fluid tonal style and perhaps even using this style to refer to the man himself. It is fitting that her references to her friend are part of a fairy tale operetta. Chopin said of himself that his music as

379

Demuth, "Antonin Reicha," 170. 140 well as

Dernier Sorcier synopsis and musical analysis: the fairytale begins

  operetta, which after a first season of successful 'private' performances in the Thiergarten theatre in Turgenev's villa, was also presented for a gala performance for the Crown Prince Friedrich Willhelm's birthday on October 17 th , 1867 390 . This gala performance, as well as the subsequent transformation of the work for the public stage, was partly due to the enthusiastic support and promotion of Viardot-Garcia's close friend Queen of Augusta whose husband would soon become Kaiser 391 .The work would undergo a transformation in which it was translated into German, orchestrated by Eduard Lassen, and several new pieces were added by Viardot-Garcia. The gala performance, celebrating the Grand Duchess of Baden's birthday was an opportunity to showcase new works. The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 18. She goes on to explain that this ensemble piece, as instructed by Pohl, should go before the final elf chorus.Finally, the work's trajectory towards popularity and critical reception after Weimar was sidelined by the events surrounding the performances and political climate in Karlsruhe. Production in this city was staged at the request of either the Grand Duke or Grand Duchess of Weimar, though not a welcome addition to the performing season for the theatre director, Eduard Devrient (1801-1877)396 . The work, now in German with translation done by Richard Pohl, had lost much of the humor from the original French libretto. Baden were not perceived in the same way by Karlsruhe audiences. The work was not well received especially in the local press 399 . This performance season, combined with the family's sojourn in England during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, sidelined the popular momentum that the work. The war and its aftermath, for a while, reduced Viardot-Garcia's available moments to compose.I have a little musical event to tell you about. Madame Viardot has written some little operettas and she had two of them performed by her children and her students. I heard each one three times and always with the same pleasure. What ability! What grace, what spirit. It's marvelous! The text is by Turgenev who also participated in the production. Everything is sketched out on sheets of paper and the staging was huge success. Her children are adorable, and her son is a comic genius. Madame Viardot is truly the most incredible woman I have ever met, and she directs everything from the piano with great ease, I was so moved, and I wanted to kiss her. But alas, I am never able to say a word to her since she is always surrounded and besieged by compliments, to which she is without a doubt more appreciative than of the admiration of an honest German artist. Mme Viardot a composé de petites opérettes, et elle en a fait représenter deux par ses enfants et ses élèves. Je les ai entendues trois fois chacune et toujours avec le même plaisir. Quelle habileté, quelle grâce, quel esprit. C'est merveilleux! Le texte est de Tourgéniev qui participe également à l'interprétation. Le tout est esquissé sur quelques feuillets, et la mise en scène est extrêmement réussie. Ses enfants à elle sont adorables, et son fils a un véritable génie comique. Mme Viardot est vraiment la femme la plus géniale que j'aie jamais connue, et lorsque je la vois assise au piano dirigeant tout avec la plus grande aisance, je suis toute émue et je voudrais l'embrasser. Mais hélas on ne parvient jamais à échanger un mot avec elle, tant elle est entourée et assiégée de compliments, auxquels elle est sans doute plus sensible qu'à l'admiration d'une honnête artiste allemande."

	Karlsruhe
	Le Her friend Clara Schumann wrote this letter praising Viardot-Garcia's operettas to Johannes
	Brahms in October of 1867:

Le Dernier Sorcier and a new opera by Eduard Lassen were chosen after Wagner's new Die Meistersinger von Nürburg was deemed too costly and difficult to stage 392 . To prepare her operetta for the public stage, the composer Lassen was chosen to orchestrate the work. Though Viardot-Garcia was not trained in orchestration, she was still heavily involved in the transformation of her work for which she composed several new pieces including the duo "Si tu ne sais pas" and the unaccompanied quartet "Adieu, témoins de ma misère" 393 . This quartet was added at the request of Richard

Pohl (1826-1896)

, the translator. Viardot attests to this in a letter addressed to Lassen while she was in Carlsruhe

[sic]

. "Here is, dear Mr. Lassen, the small quartet without accompaniment -It was Mr. Pohl who cried loudly for the need of an ensemble piece. 394 "(MT) 395 .

390

Žekulin, 391 Žekulin, 17. 392 Žekulin, 29. 393 Žekulin, 32. 394 Pauline Viardot, "Pauline Viardot to Eduard Lassen," 12 Mars [s.a.]. 395 Original text: "Voici, cher Monsieur Lassen le petit quatuor sans accompagnement -C'est M. Pohl qui l'a demandé, à grand cris, le besoin d'un morceau d'ensemble…"

Unfortunately, much of Turgenev's wit in Le dernier sorcier disappears in Richard Pohl's German translation […] Pohl, however, was also responsible for less forgivable deviations from Turgenev's text, and not only in terms of being unable to emulate Turgenev's lightness of touch. An operetta heroine is, as a matter of course, expected to be proverbially innocent and the heroine of Le dernier sorcier is no exception. But in Pohl's translation she is also somewhat prissy, because Pohl omitted the gentle but ironic barbs that Turgenev had used to deflate his heroine a little. Turgenev's Stella seems to have a major concern for coiffure, both her own and that of her beau. Not only does she rush to preen herself in front of the mirror, but one of the principal attractions afforded by Lélio seems to be his trim moustache. The humour of this was accented by the fact that the moustache is obviously fake, since the part of Lélio was taken by a mezzo-soprano (often Pauline Viardot herself "en travesti") No trace of any of this remains in Pohl's text 397 .

Secondly, what was intended as caricatures of Napoleon III in the character of Krakamiche were seen as possible critiques of Wagnerian opera, a direct insult to German culture 398 . Not only was the work seen as insensitive, but the humor and characters appreciated by the cosmopolitan society of Baden-400 (MT) 401 .

The plot of Le Dernier Sorcier in its final version, takes a fairy tale thematic arc, with a young couple's love and union being the result of magical adventures and objects. Turgenev's libretto evolved considerably from its first draft. Through successive versions, Turgenev developed his abilities to create characters with emotional depth and complexity for the stage. At the center of the plot, one finds two forces in opposition: Krakamiche and the Queen of the Elves. Krakamiche, once a great wizard, now is an old man with quickly fading powers and a failing magic wand

400

Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 223.

401 Original text: "J'ai un petit événement musical à te raconter.

  Turgenev was first Louis Viardot's friend and hunting companion. Viardot-Garcia's musical allusions provide artistic unity to Turgenev's character who was often played by Viardot-Garcia herself en-travesti, perhaps indicating their joint recognition of the activity that brought them together. The piece is simple 413 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 27. 414 Original text: je répète -je ne veux pas de mal à Krakamiche. Il a une fille qui me plait, car elle nous ressemble…

415

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 24.

  416 Pauline Le Dernier Sorcier, 36. 417 Original text: "Reste immobile… Ne m'interroge point." "Jeune mortel, il faut obéir et se taire…" 418 PaulineViardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 31-32.

419

Original text: Hélas! la lutte est vaine -Comme le cerf blessé, je sens tarir ma veine. Je veux fuir et je traîne, le trait qui m'a percé!

  Deutsche Schule style and Viardot-Garcia's former piano teacher, Franz Liszt, in thematic development. Chopin is invoked once more in a funny line where Krakamiche complains of the impotence of his magic wand accompanied by a cascading chromatic scale over chromatic chords.

	Ex. 3.16 "A Sotte Existence" m. 154-158 p. 37 442

420

Original text: "C'est moi, ne crains rien" 421 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 181. 422 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, 38. 423 Original text: "avance et ne crains rien!" 424 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 40. 425 Original text: "Obéis, fuis, Obéis!" 160

  invisible lover in front of her father! Interestingly, the orchestrated version omits Stella's high B in this passage, perhaps to accommodate the capabilities of a different singer.

Though Stella's lyrics do not change, her one to two-note lines slowly evolve to harmonize with Lelio's soaring melodies. Stella has made her decision, though she still cannot declare her love to 506 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 86. her Ex. 3.52 "Duo de la rose" Stella and Lelio m. 71-78 p. 90 507

  Original text: "Ecoute Krakamiche! Tu sais que pendant longtemps j'ai été ton ennemie. Je ne pouvais souffrir que tu viennes t'emparer de notre belle forêt. Mais je crois avoir effacé tous les torts que j'ai pu avoir envers toi, tous les chagrins que j'ai pu te causer, en donnant à ta fille un pareil époux, à toi un pareil fils! Accorde au prince Lelio la main de Stella et va t'établir dans le royal palais qu'il t'offre pour demeure. Tu y passeras dans le bonheur les derniers jours de ta vie." 514 This information comes from an email I received from Nicholas Žekulin on Sept. 24, 2020 stating that a letter from Pauline Viardot to Eduard Lassen discussed the addition of the quautor at Pohl's request.

	Ex. 3.57 "Marche" m. 9-11 p. 100 517
	199

Pohl for the professional production 514 . The idea conveyed by the quattuor is simple; Krakamiche begins in A minor, still lamenting his defeat, and is soon joined by the voices of Stella, Lelio and finally Perlimpinpin, comforting him as they harmonize his theme (no repetition here, this seems to be a new melody to the operetta). At measure 21 Perlimpinpin begins the fugue-like contrasting 512 Pauline

[198][199][200][201]

  This list traces the themes of love and power that predominate the operetta; 4/4 is associated with power and the Queen of the Elves, 3/4 with Krakamiche and his efforts to reclaim his power and 6/8 is used in expressions of love, both romantic and filial. Though the finale of the first act, sung in 6/8, is technically not a love song sung by the elves, it is a foreshadowing of the growth of

	Exorcisme	Krakamiche	3/4, 6/8, 2/4	e
	Melodrama	Queen of the elves	4/4	E
	Quattuor	Stella, Lelio,	3/4	a, A
		Krakamiche,
		Perlimpinpin
	Marche & Duo	Stella, Lelio	4/4	G
	O bienfaisante fée
	Finale (Choeur)
	Réjouis	Elves	4/4	E
	Acte 1
	Introduction (2 pianos) rehearsal score only	3/4
	Choeur : Par Ici	Elves, Krakamiche
		Verveine	2/4	e, A, C, G e
	Announcement of the Queen		4/4	C
	Dans le bois frais et sombre	Lelio	6/8	F
	Ramasse cette rose	Queen of the elves, 4/4 Melodrama	C
	(Melodrama)
	(Melodrama/Romance	Lelio	3/4 Romance	Bb
	(Romance)
	Ah, la Sotte Existence	Krakamiche	3/4	c, g, D, c
	Coulez, Coulez gouttes fines	Stella	2/4	D, (B, C#)
	Melodrama & Romance	Queen of the elves, 4/4 (Melodrama)	C
	Sur les yeux	Stella	3/4 (Romance)	Bb
	Quand j'étais un géant	Perlimpinpin	2/4	C
	Marche des Farfadets	Krakamiche, Elves 4/4	c
	Ronde des Lutins	Krakamiche, Elves 3/8	d, D, d
	Finale -Compagnes ailées	Elles	6/8	C, F, E, A
	Acte 2
	Stornello	Lelio	9/8	C
	Melodrama	Lelio, Krakamiche	2/4	g B
		Elves
	Duo: Si tu ne sais pas	Krakamiche, Stella 6/8	a, A,
	Couplets du Rouet	Stella, Lelio	2/4	G
	Duo de la Rose	Lelio, Stella	3/4	G
				202

La Partie de Whist: a game of questions Introduction

  At this moment there is no published version of the full score of Le Dernier Sorcier either in the piano version or the orchestrated version. In Viardot-Garcia's bicentennial year I have received multiple requests for the score and have either had to direct the request to the Hollis archives or to Sometime in the 1870s four men walked onto a salon stage with just a table and four chairs. The piano played while they seated themselves, cards were dealt. It was clear to the audience that they were going to play whist, a popular silent card game. Perhaps the audience members, all acquaintances of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Turgenev, look at each other with quizzical looks. This was to be an operetta after all! Viardot-Garcia probably never or rarely played the game, and how was this operetta to work if the game was supposed to be silent? The piano continued the fanfare introduction and suddenly one singer after another starts singing about the game, scolding, cajoling and teasing each other, finally singing in chorus that it is forbidden to talk The operetta raises many questions. In all the biographies and books written about Viardot-Garcia the work is never mentioned. Up to this point, no letters or documents in her papers mention the work, except for a brief line in a letter from Turgenev that may be inferred to be about the operetta, though it is never mentioned by name. The work stands out from Viardot-Garcia's other compositions for several other reasons. First, the operetta is written for four men: not Viardot-Garcia's usual focus for her vocal works. Her compositions are predominately written for the female voice; she often wrote pieces to perform in concerts or salons or for her students to perform.Second, the operetta is through-composed; this presents a break from her other operettas which are clearly divided into arias, melodramas, etc. The use of thematic and melodic transformation is

	523 Pauline Viardot and Ivan S. Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist" (Manuscript, undated), Pauline Viardot-Garcia
	Additional Papers 1838-1910, Hollis archives, Houghton Library.
	524 Viardot and Turgenev.
	525 Original text "s'il vous fait remuer la bile, Hum! Il donne aussi de l'agrément!"
	526 Žekulin, "Novye materialy o sovmestnykh khudožestvennykh proizvedeniïakh Turgeneva i Poliny Viardot v
	Houghtonskoï biblioteke Harvardskogo universiteta."
	207

Žekulin's score, with his permission. It is evident that an edited published version of this operetta would benefit the musical community. Study and analysis of this score is only the first step in seeking out the means to publish this score for public use. One hopes that soon, modern audiences much like the public who viewed Le Dernier Sorcier during Viardot-Garcia's lifetime can be guided, laughing all the way, through the un-othering of feminine power in this fascinating work.

Chapter 4

in whist ("Parler au Whist est défendu! 523 "). The characters bemoan their hands, until the last assurance "If all this worries you, it also pleases! 524 "(MT) 525 What did Viardot-Garcia's salon audiences make of this little satiric operetta, just twenty minutes in length? We may never know; the work was known to very few people until 2012 and Viardot-Garcia never wrote about the work. It is thanks to Dr. Nicholas Žekulin that I could study the work, as he brought it to my attention and provided historical context on the work in email conversations. This historical context, for those who speak Russian, can be found in his article, printed in I. S. Turgenev. Novye issledovaniïa i materialy 526 in 2016. This initial analysis has planted the seed that among the critical editions yet present, but by no means close to what is done in Le Dernier Sorcier or Cendrillon. Third, the work is very short; the autograph score, including a title page, is just thirteen pages long. Fourth, aside from her sketches, Turgenev's sketch and complete first draft, and the autograph vocal score and the copyist score, La Partie de Whist is never mentioned directly by Viardot-Garcia nor her friends or biographers. Though the work seems to have been performed several times at least, there is no documentation of the fact except for the names of the singers written on the scores themselves.

  Le whist avait été créé et mis au monde pour amuser les membres du parlement britannique, en laissant reposer leur langue fatigue ; alors on imagina d'avoir aussi en France deux chambres parlementaires."

	531 Vautré, Victor, Génie du Whist: Méconnu jusqu'à présent, Quoique joué avec une espece de fureur par toute
	l'Europe: Avec ses explications et des maximes certaines pour gagner/ par le Général Bon de V.... (Paris: Ledoyen,
	1839), 7-8, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb31550200z.

532

Original text: "533 Wm. B. Hall Jr., "The Evolution of Whist," 458.

  Appearing with some regularity in Turgenev's writings the game's presence seems to represent something but nothing of great or truly deep significance. Perhaps it was just an

	539 Dzintars Freimanis, "The Motif of the 'Dessous' in Les Diaboliques," Romance Notes 11, no. 3 (Spring 1970):
	553.

Turgenev'

s works, such as in Fathers and sons (Ottsy i deti 1862) and First Love (Pervaya lyubov 1860) and A Nest of Gentlefolk (Dvoryanskoye gnezdo 1859).

540

Viardot, "Petit Thèmes."

  Original text: "J'ai pensé que le concert de ce soir était le 1er des 48 autres et je me suis abstenue-non sans quelque peine…car cela m'amuse de chanter, quand je sens que cela fait plaisir au public. Cependant, il faut avouer que ce plaisir réciproque n'est jamais aussi parfait en Angleterre qu'ailleurs. Le public de ce soir, par exemple, sait que je suis une celebrated singer-alors il applaudit tout ce que je fais avec la même chaleur. Si j'avais moins bien chanté, il n'en aurait pas été moins content, et si j'avais mieux chanté, il n'aurait pas été plus content! Voilà ce qui éteint l'enthousiasme de l'artiste. Oui, décidément en fait d'art, les Anglais sont les grands …spéculateurs." … many of Ivan Sergeeviê's friends were fervent disciples of Bayreuth, in theory Turgenev would sometimes accept the validity of "Zukunftsmusik," but any exposure to Das Rheingold or Die Meistersinger elicited indignation at the gullible audiences which idolize this "Priap Eunuchus. 544 " This could be substantiated by Viardot-Garcia's choice to align her composition techniques with the Neue Deutsche Schule for her operetta Whist. Perhaps then, the operetta was a clever and subtle jab at the pompous self-absorbed composer. Viardot-Garcia did admire Wagner's music but not without caveats. If Wagner was indeed part of the inspiration for the satire in this work, perhaps Viardot-Garcia was still simmering internally over Wagner's accusation that she herself was a Jew.Wagner must have reasoned as such, much to Viardot's indignation; why else would she protest

Turgenev was decidedly not a supporter of the polemic composer, and Viardot-Garcia had found herself on both sides of the line, both hating and loving the composer's works. The libretto could possibly be Turgenev's response to Wagner's choices in subject matter: where Wagner chose the far-flung fairy tale, Turgenev chose the most mundane: a game of cards 543 . 541 Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship) [Continued]," 532. 542 543 Nicholas G. Žekulin, "Questions on Partie de Whist," February 16, 2021. 212 his publication of a second edition of Das Judentum in der Musik (1869) if she wasn't Jewish herself 545 ?

A link to another possible influence on the work can be found in the list of singers written in Viardot-Garcia's hand in her autograph copy 546 . The first tenor was filled by M. Lefort, who could have been Jules Lefort, a singer with whom Viardot-Garcia performed from time to time, including at a benefit concert in 1859 in Baden 547 . Jules Lefort, by 1875, had an established reputation as an excellent voice teacher and often performed with his students. Perhaps the work was conceived to be performed by Viardot-Garcia's friend and fellow singer for him and his students to perform.

  The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 59.546 Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist." 547 Etienne Carjat, "Courrier des Eaux," La Causerie: journal des cafés et des spectacles, September 4, 1859, Gallica.fr.

	544 Lubov Keefer, "The Operetta Librettos of Ivan Turgenev," The Slavic and East European Journal 10, no. 2
	(Summer 1966): 144.

545

Žekulin,

  551 Journal de EugèneDelacroix: Tome Troisième 1855-1863, vol. 3 (8, Rue Garancière 6e, Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie, Imprimeurs-Éditeurs, 1893), 86-87. 551 Original text: "Il n'y a pas, à mon âge, de plaisir plus grand que de se trouver dans la société de gens intelligents et qui comprennent tout et à demi-mot … C'est avec un de ces hommes là, pensant et jugeant, et surtout jugeant par eux-mêmes, qu'il fait bon se trouver …Les gens qui s'intitulent les sectaires de la société par excellence ne savent guère à quel point ils sont privés de la vraie société, c'est-à-dire des plaisirs sociables. Ôtez-leur la pluie et le beau temps, les bavardages sur le voisinage et les amis, il n'y a plus que le whist qui puisse les consoler au milieu de ces longues heures qu'ils passent en face les uns des autres…" Artists and friends in the Viardot circle, looked down to some degree or another on this mania for the card game, though Louis was an avid (and silent!) player. One can picture the Viardot salon alight with laughter as this operetta re-enacted what can only be interpreted as a ridiculous version of the game.

548 Wm. B. Hall Jr., "The Evolution of Whist," 463.

549

Waddington, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia as Berlioz's Counselor and Physician," 338. 550 Eugène Delacroix,

  Génie du Whist: Méconnu jusqu'à présent, Quoique joué avec une espece de fureur par toute l'Europe: Avec ses explications et des maximes certaines pour gagner/ par le Général Bon de V...., 4.553 Original text: "Tous les gestes au whist doivent être étudiés, et, de plus, on doit s'interdire toute indication plus ou moins directe de la nature de son jeu." pleasant words of a famous diplomat: "You don't know whist young man? What a sad old age you are preparing for yourself 555 !"(MT) 556

552

Vautré, Victor, 554 "Traité Du Jeu de Whist," Almanach Des

Jeux, 1850, 83.

the

  Cependant on a des heures de loisir qui s'allongent à mesure que la vie avance. Comment les remplir? Le jeu agite le sang par ses alternatives ; il s'oppose à son épaississement ; voilà pour la santé. Le jeu vous rend utile et vous mêle aux plaisirs, qui sont souvent les affaires ; voilà pour les intérêts. Ceux qui ne savent pas jouer cherchent des ressources qui leur échappent : causer sans cesse, c'est à se faire éviter comme une peste ; rester calme, c'est l'assoupissement. Je parle pour le grand nombre et non pas pour des exceptions artistiques ou des missions à remplir ; encore connaît-on le propos plaisant d'un célèbre diplomate :There are also four names listed on the back of the manuscript: Lefort' probably refers to Mr. Lefort. Viardot-Garcia performed with M. Lefort at multiple salons and concerts. She mentions him by name as "an agreeable baritone" in a letter to Julius Rietz Sept. 20 1859, having sung two duets with him at a concert in Baden 557 .

	Mr. Pierrot
	Mr Robert 2e tenor
	Mr Lericotcin Basse
	Mr. de la Percerie Basse
	'Mesr.

555

François-Lubin Passard, Petit traité du jeu de whist, par Van Tenac et Delanoue (Paris: Passard, Librairie-Éditeur, 1854), https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k14237231. 556 Original text: "'Vous ne savez pas le whist jeune homme? Quelle triste vieillesse vous vous préparez!'" 216

  The first rule of whist, silence, is stated by the two tenors, and whist partners: "If you speak, we won't finish until tomorrow 561 "(MT) 562 . The piece transitions again in meter to 2/4 and to C minor for a brief interlude of complaining by Tenor 1, or player 1. The melodramatic tone grows as the Tenor 1 bemoans his fate, echoed by Tenor 2. Original text: "Allons, pas un atout!/ Je vois, ça recommence/De basses cartes plein la main/Je n'ai jamais aucune chance/Vit on jamais un jeu plus nul et plus villain/Allons pas un atout! 561 Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 5.

	Let's not have an argument! 559 (MT) 560
	Bass 1
	Let's not have an argument!
	I see, it starts again
	Bass 2
	Nothing but low cards fill my hand
	B1
	I never have any luck
	Tenor 1
	There's never been a worse or more villainous game
	219

559

Viardot and Turgenev, 4-5. 560 562 Original text: "Si vous parlez, nous finirons demain"

Chapter 5 Cendrillon: Viardot-Garcia peoples her musical world

	T1 Le Whist est un jeu difficile,
	Mais c'est tout bonnement à se faire damner son valet était maître qui demande de jugement. (All: du jugement)
	Ah messieurs, calmez votre bile,
	B1 vous en aurez plus d'agrément.
	Mon valet était maître!
	T2
	B2 Mais c'est épouvantable, vous ne comptez donc pas?
	Bass 1 Il a pu l'oublier, Vous oubliez mon neuf, et vous coupez son as
	T2 T1
	Allons pas un atout! Jouer un singleton! Mais c'est de la folie Mais c'est impardonnable!
	Je vois, ça recommence Vous ne comptez pas
	T1
	Bass 2 Avec ce sot jeu que voilà, moi je défie T1, T2, B1
	De basses cartes plein la main Qu'on puisse faire un point, je ne dis que cela mais c'est impardonnable
	Vous me coupez mon as
	B1 T2
	Je n'ai jamais aucune chance Nous avons perdu la levée tout en ayant quatre d'honneur! T1
	Ah, le Whist est un jeu difficile qui demande du jugement, mes amis
	Tenor 1 ALL (All: du jugement)
	Vit on jamais un jeu plus nul et plus vilain Il fallait jouer coeur, Calmez votre bile, Nous aurons plus d'agrément,
	La chose était aisée
	T 1 and 2 Ne répliquez rien T2, B1 and B2
	Si vous parlez, nous finirons demain Oui, calmons notre bile
	T2 Nous en aurons plus d'agrément
	T 1 La chose était aisée
	Quand l'atout tourne rouge, All
	J'ai le jeu tout noir T1 Gagné le triple! (T1 first)
	Mais… Mais… Mais je n'avais pas de coeur! Et nous avons gagné le triple
	T 2 Mais puis que l'on m'accuse
	Moi, je l'ai toujours rouge quand l'atout tourne noir B2
	B1 and B2 Au Whist, sachez le bien, chaque faute toujours trouve son châtiment.
	T1 and 2 Ce n'est pas une excuse
	Toujours ainsi, T1 and T2
	Jamais rien ne m'a réussi B1 and T2 Ah nous deux la dernière manche, messieurs, la victoire est à nous!
	C'est bien entendu!
	B1 B1 and B2
	Quoi vous ne savez pas répondre à mon invité? T2, B1 and B2 A vous deux la dernière manche
	Parler au whist est défendu
	T2 C'est défendu! All
	J'avais une fourchette Eh bien, demain c'est le revanche,
	T1 Allons, amis, consolons nous,
	B1 Allons! voilà que vous coupez! Le Whist est un jeu difficile.
	Allez vous promener avec votre fourchette C'est bien habile. S'il vous fait remuer la bile (B2 Il cause aussi)
	Je vous en fais mon compliment Il cause aussi de l'agrément!
	T2
	Oh monsieur, pas si vite! J'avais une fourchette B2

  The Price of Genius: A Life of PaulineViardot, 339. 588 G. Miran also published "Alza Pepita", a song for piano, 2 Airs for ballet published between 1904and 1906 that can be found at the BNF.589 Jouvin Benoît, "Courrier Musical," Figaro, September 30, 1912, Gallica. 590 Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 328-29. 591 Original text: "l'opérette intitulée Cendrillon ; outre le clin d'oeil à l'opéra éponyme de Massenet, créé en 1899, elle semble avait tout un ultime hommage au personnage féerique qu'elle a si souvent chanté dans l'ouvrage rossinien du même nom. Dédié à son ancienne élève Mlle de Nogueiras et créé chez elle le 23 Avril 1904, Cendrillon peut avoir été écrite au cours de plusieurs années avant qu'une dernière main n'y soit mise dans les mois précédents la création, couronnée de succès"

	Reprise : Il était jadis…	Cendrillon	A maj	2/4
	Princes entrance (fanfare and	Piano	F maj	4/4
	Scène VI)
	Trio: Je serai charmante	Maguellonne, Armelinde,	G maj, g min, 2/4
			Cendrillon	Eb maj, G maj
	Hier je vis circuler une voiture	Baron	C maj	6/8
	Reprise du Trio	Maguellonne Armelinde,	G maj	2/4
			Cendrillon
	Trio:Chères soeurs, soyez heureuses Cendrillon, Maguellonne,	G maj	3/4
			Armelinde
	Scène XIII	Il était Jadis/fairy	Cendrillon. The Fairy	G min, A maj 2/4, 3/4
		Entrance/ Cendrillon's
		Dream
	Je viens te render à l'espèrance	The Fairy	Eb,	4/4, 2/4
	Scène des transformations	The Fairy, Cendrillon	C maj, Bb maj 6/8
				B maj, G maj,
				C maj
	Tu quitteras la fète avant minuit	The Fairy, Cendrillon	G maj Eb maj 4/4, 2/4
				G maj
	DEUXIÈME TABLEAU
	Puisque me voilà Prince	Barigoule	Bb maj, Eb maj 4/4, 3/8
				G min, A maj, 2/4, 3/8
				G min, Bb maj 2/4
				G min
	Scène II La bal	Le Prince, Barigoule	G maj	2/4
	Quel est cette belle inconnue?	Cendrillon, Maguelonne,	Eb maj, G min 4/4
			Armelinde, Le Prince,	Eb maj
			Barigoule, Pictordu
	Menuet			C maj	3/4
				Eb maj	6/8
	Duo: C'est moi! Ne craignez rien	The Prince, Cendrillon	G maj	3/4
	Chorus: La belle fille toi qui vends The chorus	Eb maj	6/8
	des roses
	TROISIÈME TABLEAU
	Introduction		Pictordu	F maj	6/8
	Duo Votre Altés me fait l'honneur Pictordu, Barigoule	F maj, Eb maj 4/4
				C maj, F maj 2/4, 4/4
				C maj, G maj
				G min	3/8
	Choeur des Dames	Chorus	C maj	2/4
	Silence! Le Prince avance	Chorus , Barigoule	F maj	4/4
			The Prince
	Essayage
					238

587

Fitzlyon,

747

  Kotnick, 250. 748 Kotnick, 238. 749 Esse, "The Sexual Politics of Operatic Collaboration Gounod, 'Ô Ma Lyre Immortelle' (Sapho), Sapho, Act III." 750 Rosalba Agresta, "Viardotiana: Pauline Viardot Cantatrice et Musicienne à La Lumière Des Sources Conservées à La Bibliothèque Nationale de France" (L'IreMus Présente, IreMus 2 rue de Louvois 75002, Paris, March 8, 2021).

John GlenPaton, and Patricia Adkins Chiti, eds., Songs and Duets of Garcia, Malibran and Viardot: Rediscovered Songs by Legendary Singers (U.S.A.: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1997).

"Es Corredor" is arranged by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, the melody was written by her father Manuel Garcia

April Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of PaulineViardot (Calder Publications, 1964).

Michèle Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance (Hermann Éditeurs des sciences et des arts, 2008).

Patrick Barbier, Pauline Viardot (Paris: Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle, 2009).

Patrick Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique (Pygmalion (département des éditions Flammarion), 2005).

Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 222; Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 383.

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 383.

"Obituary: Michelle Ferdiande Pauline Viardot-Garcia," The Musical Times 51, no. 808 (June 1, 1910): 376.

Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman, Rev. ed (Ithaca, [N.Y.]: Cornell University Press, 2001).

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life ofPauline Viardot,

Susan McClary, Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002), 27.

Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique,[15][16][17]

Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 21.

Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique, 229.

Simon P. Keefe, "Antoine Reicha's 'Dialogue': The Emergence of a Theoretical Concept," Acta Musicologica 72, no.1 (2000): 44.

Jairo Moreno, "Challenging Views of Sequential Repetition: From 'Satzlehre' to'Melodielehre,'" Journal of Music Theory 44, no. 1 (2000): 146, https://doi.org/10.2307/3090672.

[START_REF] Waddington | Pauline Viardot-Garcia as Berlioz's Counselor and Physician[END_REF] Nicholas G. Žekulin, The Musical Works of Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910), Online (Heretaunga, New Zealand, 2011), 1.

Barbier, La Malibran: Reine de l'opéra Romantique, 222.

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of PaulineViardot,[START_REF]Ah Sotte Existence[END_REF]

Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture," 55.

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 52.

Original Text: "si Pauline Garcia a la voix de sa soeur, elle en a l'âme en même temps, et, sans la moindre imitation, c'est le même génie; je ne crois, en le disant, ni exagérer, ni me tromper ….elle se livre à l'inspiration avec cette simplicité pleine d'aisance qui donne à tout un air de grandeur… Elle chante comme elle respire"

Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de PaulineViardot 1839Viardot -1849, 91. , 91.

 91.

Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de PaulineViardot 1839Viardot -1849, 24. , 24.

Launay, "Compositrices et mariées au XIXe siècle,

Pierre Azoury, Chopin through His Contemporaries: Friends, Lovers, and Rivals, Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 155.

Mark Everist, "Enshrining Mozart: Don Giovanni and the Viardot Circle," 19th-Century Music 25, no. 2-3 (November 2001): 175, https://doi.org/10.1525/ncm.2001.25.2-3.165.

Azoury, Chopin through His Contemporaries: Friends, Lovers, and Rivals, 163.

Azoury, 162.

Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de PaulineViardot 1839Viardot -1849, 159. , 159.

Original text: "C'est que la France et l'Angleterre sont trop blasées et trop corrompues dans leur goût pour ne pas étouffer autant qu'elles pourront le développement d'un jeune artiste surtout quand cet artiste est femme….Il faut revenir dans ces froides contrées avec une renommée si bien faite au loin, que les cabales ne puissant plus server qu'a le consolider…Il faut dans des pays moins scéptiques et moins dogmatiques régner par l'enthousiasme, et que pendant quelques années les pays à journaux n'aient à enregistrer et à signaler que vos succès sans pouvoir les analyser et les éplucher."

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 110.

Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de PaulineViardot 1839Viardot -1849, 152. , 152.

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 372-74.

Original text: "Ich fürchte mich nicht vor der responsabilité auch andere Leben zu besitzen, denn das weiss ich, ich kann so viel Freundschaft, beständige, aufopfernde, uneigennützige, strenge, unermüdliche Freundschaft geben wie ein Mensch nur fühlen kann-unaussprechlich kann ich lieben…Die seltsame Erziehung die ich gehabt habe, ganz nördlich, hat Festigkeit und Ausdauer seinem schwungvollen Herz gegeben…lessen Sie noch einmal den ersten Theil Consuelo-ich will sehen ob Sie die andere Ähnlichkeit mit mir finden."

Marix-Spire, Lettres Inédites de George Sand et de PaulineViardot 1839Viardot -1849, 159. , 159.

Original text: "... vous êtes la prêtresse de l'idéal en musique et vous avez pour mission de le répandre, de le faire comprendre d'amener les récalcitrans et les ignorans à un instinct et à une révélation du vrai et du beau. Vous avez quelque chose de plus grand à faire que votre réputation et votre fortune."

Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 95.

Waddington, "Turgenev and Pauline Viardot:An Unofficial Marriage," 45.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Lettres à Madame Viardot, ed. E. Halpérine-Kaminsky, Amazon (England: Amazon, 2019), 62.

Waddington, "Turgenev and Pauline Viardot:An Unofficial Marriage,[START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF]

Waddington,[START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF]

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 156.

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 372.

Original text: "Die Liebe tötet, wo sie nicht aufflammen darf. Sie auszulöschen, ach, das ist eine grausame Qual-schmerzlich, schrecklich, tödlich. Ohne die heilige Freundschaft wäre ich längst gestorben."

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship) [Continued]," 532.

Waddington, "Turgenev and Pauline Viardot:An Unofficial Marriage,

Katherine LaPorta Jesensky, "The Life of Pauline Viardot: Her Influence on the Music and Musicians of Nineteenth Century Europe," Journal of Singing 67, no. 3 (February 2011): 268.

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 366.

Original text: "…Im Paris ist es mir unmöglich was Gutes zu leisten-ich müsste schlechte Musik hübsch singen (ich hasse das Hübsche in der Kunst). Und noch andere Sachen tun die ehrliche Frauen nicht thun sollten. Ach, liebster Freund, Sie haben keinen Begriff von der Unwürde die jetzt in der Kunst um überhaupt in dem öffentlichen Leben hier herrscht-ich kann es nicht sehen ohne dass sich mein Herz nicht schwer fühlt. Fast alle Sängerinnen sind Courtisanes. Paris ist kein Ort für mich-Wir leben ein sehr ruhiges Leben-das ist mir gerade so angenehm."

Nicholas G. Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by Pauline Viardot and Ivan Turgenev, Vortrage Und Abhandlungen Zur Slavistik, Band 15 (München: Verlag Otto Sagner, 1989), 9.

Žekulin, 9.

Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 231.

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 11.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Petit Thèmes -Pauline Viardot-Garcia" (Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, undated), Viardot-Garcia additional papers.

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 14.

Žekulin, 14.

Nicholas G. Žekulin, "Humour in Turgenev's Operetta Le Dernier Sorcier," Russian Literature 16, no. 4 (November 1984): 425, https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3479(84)90035-8.

Sextius Durand, "Correspondance de Bade," La France Musicale,[START_REF] Durand | Correspondance de Bade[END_REF]

Original text: "Ils en out déjà composé trois [opérettes]: L'Ogre, Trop de Femmes et Le Dernier Sorcier. C'est ce dernier que j'ai entendu, je vous promets qu'il vaut cent fois mieux que ceux qu'on voit jouer sur nos théâtres…"

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 28.

ŽEKULIN, Nicolas G.« The Story of an Operetta II: The History», Iwan Turgenjew und die europäische Musikkultur: Internationales und interdisziplinäres Symposion, Heidelberg, Germany May 31-June 2, 2018 p.10

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 32.

Žekulin, 51-54.

Perten, "Liszt as Critic: Virtuosity, Aesthetics, and the Artist in Liszt's Weimar Prose"," 171.

Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 322.

Figes, The Europeans, 327; Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Lettre de Pauline Viardot à Madame Crémieux," 1870, Bibliothèque de L'Opéra BNF.

Original text: "Comment! Est-ce que parce que je connais la Reine de Prusse depuis bientot 30 ans que l'on pourrait soupçonner le patriotisme de mon mari? Ainsi douc, après avoir toute sa carriere aura été sacrifié à ma carriére d'artiste, alors qu'enfin par l'amour pour la France, par horreur de gouvernement Imperial, nous nous sommes éxilés dans la G. Duchi de Bade,aux portes de notre cher pays, on [sic] penses quoi? Je ne sais pas, Que nous sommes devenus allemands? Oh la mauvaise plaisanterie!"

Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance,[START_REF]A Sotte Existence[END_REF]

Original text: "Je sais bien ce qu'il faudrait faire pour leur plaire et obtenir d'emblée leurs applaudissements et suffranges, mais je ne veux pas le faire ; car il faudrait aller à eux en les flattant de leur mauvais gout : je préfère qu'ils viennent à moi -n'ai-je pas raison ?"

Jules Massenet, My Recollections (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1997), 81.

 Regards Sur Mes Contemporains, 190.

Original text: "…lui avait conseillé, quand sa voix parut fléchir, de se consacrer au piano ; elle eût trouvé là une nouvelle carrière et une seconde célébrité"

Nicholas N. Sergievsky, "The Tragedy of a Great Love. Turgenev and Pauline Viardot," 70.

When discussing the construction of genius there is currently a parallel trajectory in musicology that questions the musical canon based on the white supremacy inherent in its formation. These questions are important and ones I intend to address in subsequent research projects.

Viardot-Garcia, "Pauline Viardot-Garcia to Julius Rietz (Letters of Friendship)," 374.

Original text: "Le génie ne peut pas contenir dans une forme toute faite déjà. C'est un géant qui ne peut entrer dans les vêtemens [sic] d'un homme de taille ordinaire. Il faut qu'il soit habillé. J'en conviens, d'après les règles de notre civilisation, mais il n'est pas indispensable que son costume soit celui de tout le monde. Puisque toutes les dimensions sont autres on peut bien lui laisser le choix de l'étoffe et de la forme. D'abord il ne se laissera pas habiller autrement qu'à son goût. -Quelle jolie comparaison, elle est digne d'Homère, ne trouvez vous pas? -vous me direz que les fous aussi s'habillent à leur goût et qu'ils n'en ont pas plus de génie pour cela"

Original text: "Gross ist die Macht unserer göttlichen Kunst, unt glücklich der, der sich ihr ganz hingeben kann. Sie ist aber wie der Gott der Bibel ein eifersüchtiger Gott, und verlässt, und bestraft sogleich den Frevler der sie vernachlässigt für einen andern Abgott."

Moreno, "Challenging Views of Sequential Repetition: From 'Satzlehre' to'Melodielehre,'" 146.

Ray McDermott, Situating Genius, vol. 249, Learning in Places: The Informal Education Reader(Peter J. Lang AG, 2006), 287.

Joan Kelly, "Early Feminist Theory and the 'Querelle Des Femmes', 1400-1789," Signs 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1982): 4.

Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, and Deborah J. Tippins, "The Nature of Genius," in The Stigma of Genius: Einstein, Conciousness and Educatoin(Peter J. Lang AG, 1999), 96.

Christina Mercer, "The Philosophical Roots of Western Misogyny," Philosophical Topics 46, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 183-208.

Kincheloe, Steinberg, and Tippins, "The Nature of Genius," 96.

Laqueur, Making Sex, 235.

Mercer, "The Philosophical Roots of Western Misogyny," 195.

Joan Busfield, "The Female Malady? Men, Women and Madness in Nineteenth Century Britain," Sociology 28, no. 1 (February 1994): 273.

Ellis, "Female Pianists and Their Male Critics in Nineteenth-Century Paris," 370-71.

Original text: "Il y a dans la plupart des femmes musiciennes quelque chose de mignard qu'elles prennent pour la grâce, quelque chose d'affecté qu'elles prennent pour de l'expression, et une manière de dire qui n'appartient qu'à elles et qu'elles prennent pour de l'originalité. Au fond, elle[s] apprêtent, blanchissent, repassent et pliant proprement leur talent comme on fait d'un joli bonnet, d'un élégant canezou ou de toute autre pièce de toilette, et presque toutes les virtuoses féminines ne sont que des modistes plus ou moins habiles, qui coiffent et habillent et affaiblent les pauvres auteurs à leur guise. Vraiment, j'ai peine souvent à réprimer un sourire en entendant s'exclamer toute cette plèbe élégante des salons sur la profondeur, sur l'originalité, sur le génie de pareilles fleuristes et couturières au style décousu, à l'expression affectée, et qui se donne des airs d'une Pythonisse inspiré en traduisant l'oracle des Dieux tels queBeethoven, Mendelssohn, etc."

Ellis," 371.

Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius.

Young, "On the Enshrinement of Musical Genius."

Tia DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803 (University of California Press, 1997).

Young, "On the Enshrinement of Musical Genius," 48.

Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius, 13.

DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 8.

DeNora, 9.

Schrade, Beethoven in France: The Growth of an Idea,[START_REF]Scene two[END_REF]

Schrade, 36.

Schrade, 18.

DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 16.

DeNora,[START_REF]Par ici[END_REF][58]

Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius,

Dijkstra, 70.

Paliyenko, 43.

Original text: "Comment appeler une créature dont le sein, destiné à allaiter des enfants et à renfermer les joies maternelles, demeure stérile et ne bat que pour des sentiments d'orgueil?"

Paliyenko, Genius Envy, 32.

Original text: "Le génie est donc la virilité de l'esprit, sa puissance d'abstraction, de généralisation, d'invention, de conception, dont l'enfant, l'eunuque et la femme sont également dépourvus".

Jenny P. D'Hericourt, La Femme Affranchie: Réponse à MM. Michelet, Proudhon, E. de Girardin, A. Comte et Aux Autres Novateurs Modernes (Bruxelles: A. Lacroix Van Mennen et Cie. Editeurs, 1860).

Letzter and Adelson, "French Women Opera Composers and the Aesthetics of Rousseau," 89.

Olympe de Gouges, "Déclaration Des Droits de La Femme et de La Citoyenne," 1791.

Olympe de Gouges.

Original text: La Femme naît libre et demure égale à l'homme en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l'utilité commune.

Jenny P. D'Hericourt, La Femme Affranchie: Réponse à MM.Michelet, Proudhon, E. de Girardin, A. Comte et Aux Autres Novateurs Modernes, 139.

Paliyenko, Genius Envy, 11.

Paliyenko, 50.

Jenny P. D'Hericourt, La Femme Affranchie: Réponse à MM.Michelet, Proudhon, E. de Girardin, A. Comte et Aux Autres Novateurs Modernes, 176.

Original text: "Vous dites: l'homme seul produit les germes physiques, l'anatomie répond; C'est la femme qui produit le germe; l'organe qui chez elle, comme chez les autres femmes, remplit cette function, est l'ovaire."

Kivy, The Possessor and the Possessed; Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and the Idea of Musical Genius,[60][61]

Paliyenko, Genius Envy, 11.

Jenny P. D'Hericourt, La Femme Affranchie: Réponse à MM.Michelet, Proudhon, E. de Girardin, A. Comte et Aux Autres Novateurs Modernes, 183.

Original text: "La femme ne peut être artiste. -Et tout le monde sait que le plus grand artiste littéraire de notre époque est une femme, G. Sand; et tout le monde s'est incliné devant Duchesnois, Mars, Georges, Maxime Ristori, Rachel, Dorval; et tout le monde s'est arreté devant les belles toiles de Rosa Bonheur; et depuis le réveil des beauxarts, chaque siècle a enregistré quelques femmes célèbres."

 332 Paliyenko, Genius Envy,

 13. 333 Alice Parker, "Did/Erotica: Diderot's Contribution to the History ofSexuality" 22 (1986): 98.

DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 6-7.

Garber, Loaded Words, 125.

Vaughn Schmutz and Alison Faupel, "Gender and Cultural Consecration in Popular Music," Social Forces 89, no. 2 (December 2010): 688.

Anna Kijas, "What Does the Data Tell Us?: Representation, Canon, and Music Encoding" (Music Encoding Conference, University of Maryland: medium.com, 2018), https://medium.com/@kijas/https-medium-com-kijaswhat-does-the-data-tell-us-926ba830702f.

Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture," 10.

Melina Esse, "The Sexual Politics of Operatic Collaboration Gounod, 'Ô Ma Lyre Immortelle' (Sapho), Sapho, Act III," Cambridge Opera Journal 28, no. 2 (2016): 171; Charles Gounod et al., Lettres de Charles Gounod a Pauline Viardot (Arles : [Venice, Italy]: Actes sud ; Palazzetto Bru Zane, 2015), 127.

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 75.

Jeffrey Pompe, Lawrence Tamburri, and Johnathan Munn, "Factors That Influence Programming Decisions of US Symphony Orchestras," Journal of Cultural Economics 35, no. 3 (August 2011): 169-70.

Žekulin, "The Story of an Operetta II: The History," 10.

Waddington, "Turgenev and Pauline Viardot:An Unofficial Marriage,[START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF][START_REF]Par ici[END_REF]

Tomaszewski, Mieczysław, "Le Style de Chopin et Ses Transformations. Entre Les Inspirations Contemporaines et La Motivation Intérieure," Revue de Musicologie 75, no. 2 (1989): 199.

Original text: "Comme d'habitude je suis dans les mondes étrangers. Ce sont sans doute des espaces imaginaires."

Thomas S.Grey, "New German School," in Grove Music Online, 2001, oxfordmusiconline.org.

Barbier, Pauline Viardot, 96.

Žekulin, "The Story of an Operetta II: The History," 2.

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 51.

Žekulin, "Humour in Turgenev's Operetta Le Dernier Sorcier," 423.

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 51.

Žekulin, 54.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 37.

 Le Dernier Sorcier,[64][65]

Original text: "quand il a perdu sa puissance, ma vie est un enfer, je ne suis as de fer, c'est à n'y pas tenir"

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 39; Pauline Le Dernier Sorcier, 65.

446 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 40.

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 17.

 Le Dernier Sorcier, 87.

 89.

Original text: "Vous vous taisez, il est vrai -mais dans votre silence même je me plais à reconnaître l'ivresse respectueuse de vos sentiments dévoués, heu, heu. Je ne m'étonne pas de voir que mon nom n'a rien perdu chez vous de son prestige -Je suis aussi et toujours très fort chez moi-fort comme un turc, ha ha…"

[START_REF]Ronde des Lutins[END_REF]

 72.

 Le Dernier Sorcier,

Žekulin, The Story of an Operetta: Le Dernier Sorcier by PaulineViardot and Ivan Turgenev, 32.

" 73.

 73.

 90.

" 93.

 Le Dernier Sorcier, 195.

 Le Dernier Sorcier,

Irina Klyagin and Bonnie B. Salt, "Collection Overview/Additional Description/Immediate Source of Acquisition MS Mus 264 Pauline Viardot-Garcia Additional Papers," 2015 2005, Hollis archives.

Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist: Autograph Manuscript Libretto Drafts with Autograph Manuscript Corrections, Undated."

Ex 4.1 La Partie de Whist m. 1-15 transition from introduction to opening theme m.9 p. 1 558 558 Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 1.

Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 5-6.

Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 5.

 13; Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 7.

Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist: Autograph Manuscript Libretto Drafts with Autograph Manuscript Corrections, Undated.," 6.

Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist: Autograph Manuscript Libretto Drafts with Autograph Manuscript Corrections, Undated.," 13.

Pauline Viardot,[START_REF]Scene two[END_REF]

Garber, Loaded Words, 133; Francis Galton, F.R.S., Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences, Second (London: Macmillan and Co, 1892).

Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture," 41.

Garber, Loaded Words, 16.

Painter, "Mozart at Work: Biography and a Musical Aesthetic for the Emerging German Bourgeoisie," 187-88.

Roland Barthes, Annette Lavers, and Roland Barthes, Mythologies, 47. [print.] (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2006), 29.

Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon, 186.

Paliyenko, Genius Envy, 18.

Esse, "The Sexual Politics of Operatic Collaboration Gounod, 'Ô Ma Lyre Immortelle' (Sapho), Sapho, Act III," 172.

Painter, "Mozart at Work: Biography and a Musical Aesthetic for the Emerging German Bourgeoisie," 197.

DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, 6.

McClary, Feminine Endings.

Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon.

Bennett Fairbank, "Devastating Diva: Pauline Viardot and Rewriting the Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century French Opera Culture."

Friang, Pauline Viardot: Au Miroir de Sa Correspondance, 222; Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 383.

Fitzlyon, The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot, 383.

"Obituary: Michelle Ferdiande PaulineViardot-Garcia."

Cusick, Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power.

McClary, Feminine Endings.

Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon.

McClary, Feminine Endings, 27.

Žekulin, "Novye materialy o sovmestnykh khudožestvennykh proizvedeniïakh Turgeneva i Poliny Viardot v Houghtonskoï biblioteke Harvardskogo universiteta."

McClary, Feminine Endings.

Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon.

Ex. 3.8 "Ramasse cette Rose" p. 29 426

Krakamiche's "Ah Sotte existence"

The opening chord of the following piece, Krakamiche's first aria "Ah, Sotte existence" turns the G octaves, the tonal center of the Romance, into the dominant of the new tonality of C minor -the key of the original draft from 1851. This aria, rich with allusions and word painting, pairs well with Turgenev's clever and graceful text. The melodic as well as harmonic movement is marked by descent and allusions to impotence. The melodic sequences in the introduction give way to the descent of a fourth in Krakamiche's main theme "Ah Sotte Existence".

426 Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 29.

Ex. 4.6 La Partie de Whist m.75-78 p. 5 567

The comedic aspects continue with a hilarious, but demanding ornamented phrase on the word "dificile" (difficult) sung by Bass 2. Ex. 4.7 La Partie de Whist m. 105-109 p. 13 568

Names and origin possibilities

Though I agree with Dr. Žekulin that there is a distinct possibility that the work was written for Jules Lefort and his voice students, why would Viardot-Garcia have given the most difficult part

Ex. The aria closes as Krakamiche's ascending octave laments underline his despair but also hope at reversing his fate. This hope, however, is underscored by the same descending sequence that opened the aria bringing the character's lament not further advanced than the beginning 446 .

In the final eight measures, the melody stalls a moment, allowing Krakamiche's ruminations to come to end on the words "je n'ai plus qu'à mourir" (I have nothing left but to die) with a descending line spanning a minor sixth and then finally with an exclamation that ends on second inversion tonic chord, perhaps implying once again his impotence in the story's events.

Viardot-Garcia deftly treads the line between pathos and comedy in Krakamiche's aria; references to the sorcerer's impotence are tempered by musical references to a beloved friend and composer.

The aria ends much more on a note of bemusement at Krakamiche's descent rather evoking fear.

Though his character is comparable to the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute, there is no horror or revulsion, no grand moment of discovery of his treachery. His character is laid bare from With each exchange between father and daughter, both the accompaniment and the melody provide more information about the personality of each individual. Stella's motives use material from her father's melodic lines, perhaps showing her respect for her parent but also her clever efforts to negotiate and convince him. Krakamiche's motifs, on the other hand are melodic efforts at subjugation, forceful descents with wide and accented leaps. His efforts are focused on reclaiming the authority with which he once ruled the forest. Finally, in measures 108 and 111, the music modulates to A Major which allows Stella to invent her own melody in her own key for the first time. Stella declares her independence from measure 137 as she sings; "My life is ahead of me. I desire. I want to live. My wings have grown. I am ready for happiness 494 "(MT) 495 Her father, however, isn't listening to this crucial declaration nor her confession, that repeats the melody from her duo with Lelio, that she must be careful not to betray their relationship.

Krakamiche simultaneously continues to musically dwell on his own power theme and his magic book of spells. Stella's melody is placed in contrast with Krakamiche's insistent repeated notes.

Ex. 3.44 "Si tu ne sais pas" m.228-231 p. 79 496

494 Pauline Le Dernier Sorcier, Original text: "La vie est devant moi, Je veux, J'espère vivre. Mes ailes on poussé, Je m'apprête au bonheur" 496 Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Le Dernier Sorcier, 165; Pauline Viardot-Garcia, "Le Dernier Sorcier: Autograph Manuscript -Vocal Parts Score.," 79.

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to be published of Viardot-Garcia's works, that this operetta will be included, so that it may be once again staged and performed. This chapter represents the beginning of a still-incomplete history and the analysis of this strange little work that makes a bridge between the profoundly worked Le Dernier Sorcier and Viardot-Garcia's final operetta Cendrillon. Hopefully taking a closer look at this previously unknown operetta will provide more context into Viardot-Garcia's compositional process, and her world as a woman of creative genius.

A piece of the puzzle, a puzzle of a piece

The operetta La Partie de Whist was first noted and studied by Dr. Nicholas Žekulin, a scholar specializing in nineteenth and twentieth century Russian literature and Ivan Turgenev. Dr. When referencing the score, I will use the autograph manuscript and the copyist's manuscript, found in the Hollis Archives of Harvard. I will also use Dr. Nicholas Žekulin's unpublished transcription with his permission. I will use the Žekulin transcription for clarity purposes, when the manuscript score may be too difficult to read, after verifying that there are no changes between the two scores.

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Viardot-Garcia uses dissonance to signal conflict or heightened emotion, staying close to the theatrical, and comedic theme of the Turgenev's libretto as she does here, moving from C major to the C# that will begin the process of moving through the keys of D, A G and others.

Ex. This moment represents one of the only sketches found in her notebooks to date, though the melody as well as the accompaniment were changed for the autograph score:

Viardot-Garcia uses tonal fluidity and chromatic passages to emphasize the melodramatic and comedic aspects of Turgenev's text, underlining phrases of false pathos like this one: "We lost the trick even with a four in the trump suit" (MT) 566 with a chromatic descending line in the second tenor part as well as in the music. 565 Viardot-Garcia and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 8; Viardot and Turgenev, "La Partie de Whist," 4. 566 Original text: "Nous avons perdu la levée tout en ayant quatre d'honneur".

her disdain of the superficial trappings of wealth and status and earns her the Prince's love 592 .

Viardot-Garcia takes her heroine even further than Rossini and gives her Cendrillon the power to dream and to desire a life of her own.

Organizing the analysis

Each character, their musical and lyrical personalities provide a better understanding into Viardot-Garcia's late composition style as well as her personal philosophies and aesthetics.

Before beginning my analysis, here is a table with each piece in the operetta, the characters involved, either passively (present on stage) or singing. Confirmed keys (with a cadence) are listed as well as the meters found in each piece. Though no strong correlation between meter or key and each charater was found, there are still some alliances to be drawn from this table. As will be discussed, the character Cendrillon has a somewhat close relationship with the key of G, both major and minor, A major and The Fairy with Eb major. The meter of 6/8, which had such importance in Le Dernier Sorcier is now seen in moments of transition.

Schematic of pieces and characters

Cendrillon's dream and tonal ambiguity

After her sisters leave her for the ball, Cendrillon drifts off to sleep. The piano softly moves from the dominant of G minor through a chromatic transition where multiple tonalities are briefly implied but never confirmed, using augmented chords whose harmony chromatically ascends for the remainder of the transition on page 25 until it rests on Bb7, the dominant of the key of the following piece 607 . The dream is indicative of the central nature of Cendrillon, that her desires and needs are what is at stake here, making the tonal ambiguity more fitting of a dreamlike and uncertain moment in the work.

Chapter 6 A Meeting with the Myth: the great and powerful Oz

Folklore, legends, myths, and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal 666 .

As Mr. Baum so aptly states in the introduction to his book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, there is a natural fascination with the fantastic and the magical. But this fascination doesn't end with childhood, it merely is transformed into the admiration of war heroes, athletes and, of course, creative geniuses. Musical geniuses give us the opportunity of believing in the magical without feeling silly or childlike. We can marvel at their accomplishments and the seemingly endless ingenuity of their creations. We can own all the recordings of their works, and marvel, as Pauline

Viardot-Garcia did at the works of Mozart. No one laughed when she had a box constructed to house his manuscript score of Don Giovanni, which was then placed on a pedestal. "The object in which the autograph was in fact preserved is nothing short of a reliquary 667 ". Her friends and colleagues came to gaze in awe (and occasionally touch the relic if they were worthy!) 668 . But is there space to hold onto reverence and awe and still ask questions? Can we still give credit to other contributors and collaborators? Peter Kivy, a musicology professor and author, advocates for the wonder of great musical works to remain relatively unexamined, or rather, that the reasons for our wonder remain unexamined. There are those, like Kivy, who believe that knowing why great works became great, just as knowing that "comets are just dirty ice 669 " would rob us of some of our enjoyment and of our wonder. Can we deconstruct genius and believe in it at the same time? This Turgenev, 14, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 33, 34, 35, 61, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 75, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 87, 88, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 169, 170, 173, 176, 177, 179, 180, 182, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201, 202, 203, 204, 207, 208, 209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 235, 249, 250, 270, 303, 307 Vega, Marcus, 50 Viardot, Claudie, 79, 82, 209 Viardot, Louis, 14, 22, 33, 52, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68, 70, 78, 88, 154 Žekulin, Nicholas, 6, 16, 26, 27, 53, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 137, 138, 141, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147, 168, 181, 182, 185, 187, 197, 203, 204, 205, 206, 209, 211, 212 Three operettas by Pauline Viardot-Garcia and female musical genius in the nineteenth century Summary Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a well-known mezzo-soprano from the mid nineteenth century inspired a generation with her incredible instrument and intelligent performances on stage. Viardot-Garcia was also a profoundly talented composer and lived center of the creative musical world during her lifetime. Through a study of her life and three of her operettas, this thesis endeavors to answer the question of why she is not remembered with the same fervor and reverence as her male counterparts such as Charles Gounod and Camille Saint-Saëns. The idea of a composer as genius developed significantly during the nineteenth century in literary, creative, and philosophical circles. This development actively excluded extraordinary women such as Viardot-Garcia for philosophical, religious, and physiological reasons. This study of Pauline Viardot-Garcia's life and works endeavors to present a new view of genius its heritage and a possible, more inclusive future.

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