ered Maria Malibran's tomb with immortal flowers and
he also told us the story of Pauline Garcia's debut. There is also
something about it in Theophile Gautier's writings. It is clear from
both accounts that her first appearance was an extraordinary occasion.
Natures such as hers reveal themselves at once to those who know and do
not have to wait to arrive until they are in full bloom. Pauline was
very young at the time, and soon afterwards she married M. Viardot,
manager of the Theatre-Italien and one of the finest men of his day. She
went abroad to develop her talent, but she returned in 1849 when
Meyerbeer named her to create the role of Fides in _Le Prophete_.

Her voice was tremendously powerful, prodigious in its range, and it
overcame all the difficulties in the art of singing. But this
marvellous voice did not please everyone, for it was by no means smooth
and velvety. Indeed, it was a little harsh and was likened to the taste
of a bitter orange. But it was just the voice for a tragedy or an epic,
for it was superhuman rather than human. Light things like Spanish songs
and Chopin mazurkas, which she used to transpose so that she could sing
them, were completely transformed by that voice and became the
playthings of an Amazon or of a giantess. She lent an incomparable
grandeur to tragic parts and to the severe dignity of the oratorio.

I never had the pleasure of hearing Madame Malibran, but Rossini told me
about her. He preferred her sister. Madame Malibran, he said, had the
advantage of beauty. In addition, she died young and left a memory of an
artist in full possession of all her powers. She was not the equal of
her sister as a musician and could not have survived the decline of her
voice as the latter did.

Madame Viardot was not beautiful, indeed, she was far from it. The
portrait by Ary Scheffer is the only one which shows this unequalled
woman truthfully and gives some idea of her strange and powerful
fascination. What made her even more captivating than her talent as a
singer was her personality--one of the most amazing I have ever known.
She spoke and wrote fluently Spanish, French, Italian, English and
German. She was in touch with all the current literature of these
countries and in correspondence with people all over Europe.

She did not remember when she learned music. In the Garcia family music
was in the air they breathed. So she protested against the tradition
which represented her father as a