Pauline Viardot and the Last Sorcerer

Synopsis

“Name-dropping” can be VERY annoying, and we all know someone who can’t resist letting us know all the famous people they rub shoulders with–or DID, before social-distancing, that is.

Well, name-dropping is hard to avoid when talking about the remarkable mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, who lived from 1821 to 1910. She studied piano with Liszt, for example, and played duets with Chopin. Wagner asked her to sing through parts of his new opera, “Tristan und Isolde” with him.

She also composed her own music, and on today’s date in 1867, one of her chamber operas received its first performance. The work was entitled “Le Dernier Sorcier,” or “The Last Sorcerer.” The libretto was written by the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, who adored Viardot and followed her around Europe like a puppy dog.

Later private performances were attended by Clara Schumann and the German Kaiser, and Viardot’s old piano teacher Franz Liszt arranged for the opera’s public premiere in 1869 at the Weimar Court Theatre. That same year Viardot built a little theater in her own villa, and at a performance there Brahms was so impressed he offered to return the following evening to conduct the work himself.

Music Played in Today's Program

Pauline Viardot (1821 – 1910): Le dernier sorcier Eric Owens, bass-baritone; Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano; Manhattan Girls Chorus; Liana Pailodze Harron and Myra Huang, pianos Bridge 9515

On This Day

Births

• 1880 - Italian composer Ildebrando Pizetti, in Parma;

• 1885 - Frequently cited birth date of American composer and jazz pianist Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, in New Orleans; This date has been proven incorrect (See October 20, 1890);

• 1900 - Finnish composer Unno Klami, in Virolahti;

Deaths

• 1908 - Spanish violin virtuoso and composer Pablo de Sarasate, age 63, in Biarritz;

• 1957 - Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, age 91, in Järvenpää;

Premieres

• 1878 - Tchaikovsky: "Valse-scherzo" for violin and orchestra, in Paris, with Nicolai Rubinstein conducting and Stanislaw Barcewicz the soloist;

• 1930 - first public performance of Elgar: "Pomp and Circumstance" March No. 5, at Queen's Hall in London, Sir Henry Wood conducting; The first performance ever of this music occurred two days earlier, when Elgar himself recorded his new march at HMV's London studios;

• 1954 - Stravinsky: "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas," in Los Angeles, conducted by Robert Craft; Stravinsky had met the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas the previous year, and they had discussed collaborating on an opera project, but Thomas died on November 9, 1953;

• 1975 - Jack Beeson: opera "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" in Kansas City, Mo.