n of verse won a prize from the French
Academy.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia was one of a remarkable musical family. Her
father, Manuel Garcia, was a singer and teacher of note, and, like her
elder sister, Mme. Malibran, she received the benefit of his tuition.
One of her earliest memories of his singing was connected with an
unexpected appearance in America, when a band of Mexican robbers, not
content with relieving them of the proceeds of their tour in this
hemisphere, added insult to injury by insisting upon hearing the great
tenor sing. Pauline became renowned in opera, and, after the early death
of her sister, held the foremost place on the European stage. She was
able to impersonate and create roles of the most diverse nature, ranging
from the lightest of Italian heroines to the most dramatic characters of
Meyerbeer. After a career of fame and honour, she left the stage and
devoted herself to teaching, and it is in that period of her life that
her compositions appear. Her house in Baden-Baden was the centre of
attraction for a circle including not only musicians, but artists,
poets, and nobility of the highest rank. There she produced her
operettas, "Le Dernier Sorcier," "L'Ogre," and "Trop de Femme." At first
arranged for private performance, they succeeded so well that they were
given to the public. Of her other works, twelve romances for piano,
twelve Russian melodies, and six pieces for violin and piano are the
most important. She numbered many famous names among her pupils, and her
singing exercises are of unusual value.

Her sister, Marie Felicitas, at first wife of M. Malibran, and afterward
married to the violinist De Beriot, was one of the world's greatest
singers, and her career is too well known to need description. Her fame
as a composer rests on a number of attractive romances and chansonettes,
of which an extensive collection was published in Paris. Louise Pauline
Marie Viardot, afterward Mme. Heritte, was a daughter of Pauline
Viardot, and possessed all her mother's talent for composition if not
for singing. After a sojourn at the Cape of Good Hope, where her husband
was consul, and a four-years' term as professor in the St. Petersburg
Conservatory, she settled down to teaching and writing in Paris. Among
her many works are the operas, "Lindoro" and "Bacchus Fest," and the
cantatas, "Wonne des Himmels" and "Die Bayadere." Her chamber music
includes four string quartettes and two trios. In the lesser for