Singer and Composer Maria Malibran
The Daughter of Manuel Garcia and Sister of Pauline Garcia-Viardot
Garcia Family
Maria Malibran was a celebrated singer in her short lifetime and is still remembered today as a member of the illustrious Garcia family.Her father Manuel Garcia (who created the role of Count Almaviva in Rossini's Barber of Seville) and sister Pauline Garcia-Viardot were both famous singers.
Malibran was born in Paris, France, in 1808 and died in Manchester. England, in 1836. During her very short life she became a celebrated singer and a composer of nocturnes, songs and chansonettes. A Spanish mezzo-soprano, she often took on soprano roles and was very successful.
In her 17th year the family went to the United States on a tour, and here Maria met and married Francis Eugene Malibran, who was over 40 years her senior. After a year of an apparently disastrous union she left him and resumed singing in public.
In 1830, at the age of 22, Maria met and began a longtime common law association with the famous Belgian violinist Charles de Beriot. They built a villa on the outskirts of Brussels in 1831 and lived there for several years. In December of 1832 Maria delivered a son and was still trying, to no avail, to annul her marriage to Malibran.
Italy
In 1834 Maria went to Italy, where she was greeted by a trumpet fanfare upon her arrival in Venice. At an appearance in that city she was applauded for 30 minutes, and she was followed to her hotel by a group of enthusiastic admirers.
Her last performance on that tour took place in Lucca, where fans unhitched the horses and pulled the carriage along themselves.
A woman of great energy and determination, she was fluent in five languages and enjoyed riding, swimming, fencing and painting. Her passion and spontaneity shone through in her performances, and Rossini was known to have said about her "I have met in my life only 3 singers of real genius: La Blanche, Rubini and that spolied child of nature, Malibran."
Malibran's Fatal Accident
Malibran married de Beriot in March of 1836, after her first marriage was finally annulled. However, the following month she fell from a horse and the resulting head injuries proved to be fatal. Even though she was not well, Malibran refused to slow down. In September of that year she sang for 3 consecutive days in Manchester, while in great pain.
On the third day of the 3-day marathon, Malibran and a rival were singing encores, each trying to outdo the other. When it became her turn she said to the conductor, "If I sing it again, it will kill me."
"Then don't," he said. "I will talk to the audience." Malibran insisted on singing, after which she fell into a faint and was carried off the stage, never to recover.
Such will to carry on is an example either of pure courage or pure folly. In Malibran's case it turned out to be the latter.
Source
The Great Singers of the Past, privately printed, Berlin, Germany, 1856.
For more articles on women in music see:
Polish Mistress of the Harpsichord
Dramatic Soprano Gerda Nielsen
Maria Malibran
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