Important Manuscripts, Continental Books and Music
Important Manuscripts, Continental Books and Music
Auction Closed
June 11, 02:50 PM GMT
Estimate
1,000 - 1,500 GBP
Lot Details
Description
VIARDOT, PAULINE
Autograph manuscript of the song "La calesera", signed ("Pauline")
and inscribed to the singer Caroline Unger ". . .A ce soir, chere Caroline---je compte bien vous embrasser apres la 4me Acte. Pauline"), being a Spanish song setting the words beginning "Ya suenan las campanillas Mi calesero ha Vegas", notated in brown ink on six systems of three staves each, with some alterations and corrections,
2 pages, oblong folio, no place or date, some tears and browning at the margins, repaired on versos with translucent adhesive tape, creasing, no place or date
Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) was arguably the greatest mezzo soprano of the nineteenth century; born in Paris of Spanish extraction, the daughter of Manuel Garcia and the sister of Maria Malibran. One of her greatest roles was that of Fidès in Meyerbeer's five-act opera, Le prophète (1849), which she sang over two hundred times. The dedication inscription to the contralto Caroline Unger (1803-1877; she sang in Beethoven premières), about the "4me Acte", may refer to Meyerbeer's opera.
LITERATURE:
C. Heitmann, VWV 6257