[Michelle Ferdinande Pauline]. French actress and singer, daughter of the great tenor, Manuel García, and sister of Madame Malibran; born at Paris on the 18th of July 1821. She was reared in an atmosphere of genius, and became proficient in languages, painting and music. She was drilled by her father in the pianoforte, though her mother was her “singing-master.” She traveled with her father in England, the United States and Mexico, and after his death in 1832, lived in Brussels, where she appeared, in 1837, as a singer, under de Beriot. In 1838 she made a brilliant success in a Cadence du Diable at Paris. In 1839 she appeared at London, as Desdemona, in Otello, and in the same year she appeared in Paris, at the Théâtre Lyrique, under Louis Viardot, the impressario, critic and writer, whom she married in 1840. A tour of Europe followed, after which she returned to Paris for the special purpose of taking the part of Fidès in Meyerbeer’s Prophète. For the next ten years she appeared annually in London. Her voice was a mezzo-soprano, with a compass of three octaves. Her face lacked regularity of feature, but her presence was picturesque, and her genius illumined her every movement on the stage. Her répertoire included Desdemona, Cenerentola, Rosina, Norma, Lucia, Maria de Rohan, Ninette, Leonora, Azucena, Donna Anna, Zerlina, Rahel, Iphigénie, Alice, Isabelle, Valentine, Fidès and Orphée. She retired in 1862, and in 1871 commenced to teach and compose; and was for several years professor of singing at the Conservatoire in Paris.
