The Maria Malibran collection is the donation, made in 1913 by the widow of the Belgian lieutenant general Henri Emmanuel Wauwermans [1] to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, of a part of her husband's collection of documents and belongings from the illustrious mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran and her close family.
Consisting of some 250 pieces of considerable historic value, the Malibran collection contains several archival sections including autograph letters, contracts, books, scores, busts, portraits and iconographic documents, relics and personal objects, as well as various documents related to the diva. The collection was catalogued electronically by the Flemish Brussels Conservatory (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel). [2]
This historically significant section comprises three types of letters: a handwritten letter of Malibran, copies of letters addressed to the cantatrice (and to her second husband, Charles Auguste de Bériot), and some forty letters from famous rivals or admirers such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Spontini, Auber, Halévy and Liszt, or the librettist and playwright Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, paying homage to the « angel, enchanting siren, putting spectators on fire ».
Drafted in Italian or French and extending over an eight-year period (1828-1836), the twenty-four contracts of the collection shed light on the working conditions, the – sometimes steep – remuneration, or the repertoire imposed on the singer by some European theatres. As such, Alfred Bunn, the precautious director of the Drury Lane Royal Theatre in London, obliges the artist to share with him part of her fee to cover incurred expenses and risks.
Relatively modest – the Malibran library supposedly having stayed between the hands of her husband or transferred to her sister, the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot – this part nevertheless contains some remarkable pieces, such as two bound missals, Le petit paroissien complet and La voie du salut, or a small in-12 format brochure with the English version of the Fidelio libretto, published in London in 1835 to prepare for the performances at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden the year after, and carrying handwritten notes from Malibran.
This section is completed by a series of music scores – two autograph compilations of works of the cantatrice, [3] three collections of dedicated romances and a few music manuscripts – press clippings, concert programs and posters, as well as a series of poems, stanzas or texts devoted to the prima donna.
One of the most attaching parts of the collection, this section holds several artworks given to the diva during her tournées, such as this very delicate, signed and dated bust of white marble, [4] a large gold medal commemorating her interpretation of Norma at La Scala (1836) and some fifteen portraits of her – lithographs, black-lead drawings, pastels or photographic reproductions – including an interesting lithograph (1851) from her nephew Léon Viardot. Other documents have a more sentimental value: they include Malibran's travel watercolours as well as a small sketchbook by her hand, revealing her unsuspected drawing talent. This aptitude also transpires in the two surprising La Réforme du Théâtre volumes, an initiative of the singer to modernize theatre costumes and assembling some fifty colour projects.
Some of Malibran's personal objects, familiar or charged with history, form the very core of the collection: a small salt flask, an incised crystal bedside lamp, a score briefcase in leather, a travel writing desk, the riding whip used during her fatal cavalcade, a long hairpiece cut after her death, a death mask, a shred from the pall torn in pieces by the crowd attending her funeral at the Laeken Cemetery, where de Bériot had an impressive cenotaph erected to her memory.
This last part includes documents related to Malibran's death – in particular the original act, [5] on parchment, by which the ecclesiastical authority of Manchester authorizes, following the demand of Charles Auguste de Bériot, the exhumation and transfer of the body to Belgium, as well as the French translation [6] of the poignant funerary report made in London by Malibran's GP, Dr. Jos Belluomini, who stayed at her bedside for a week and attested her death on the morning of 23 September 1836.
Pauline Viardot was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, she came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer.
Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. He is also known for playing what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin of superior workmanship.
Charles Auguste de Bériot was a Belgian violinist, artist and composer.
Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García, was a Spanish singer, music educator, and vocal pedagogue. He invented the first laryngoscope.
Maria Felicia Malibran was a Spanish singer who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death in Manchester, England, at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary.
Julianus Marie August De Boeck was a Flemish composer, organist and music pedagogue. He was the son of organist and director Florentinus (Flor) De Boeck (1826-1892)
Laeken Cemetery in Brussels, Belgium, is the city's oldest cemetery still in function and the resting place of the Belgian royal family. It is known as the Belgian Père Lachaise, after Paris' famous cemetery, because it is the burial place of the rich and the famous and for the abundance of its funerary heritage.
The Royal Conservatory of Brussels is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Providing performing music and drama courses, the institution became renowned partly because of the international reputation of its successive directors such as François-Joseph Fétis, François-Auguste Gevaert, Edgar Tinel, Joseph Jongen and Marcel Poot, but more because it has been attended by many of the top musicians, actors and artists in Belgium such as Arthur Grumiaux, José Van Dam, Sigiswald Kuijken, Josse De Pauw, Luk van Mello and Luk De Konink. Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, also studied at the Brussels Conservatory.
Tilman-François Suys or Tieleman Frans Suys was a Belgian architect who also worked in the Netherlands.
Hugo Heermann was a German violinist. He studied the violin with Lambert Joseph Meerts at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, and later with Joseph Joachim. From 1864 he lived in Frankfurt am Main, where he taught violin from 1878 to 1904 at the Hoch Conservatory. He played 1st violin with Hugo Becker, Fritz Bassermann and Adolf Rebner in the "Museums-Quartett". Between 1906 and 1909 he taught at the Chicago Musical College, in 1911 at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and 1912 at the Conservatoire de musique in Geneva. In 1909 and 1910 he briefly was a member of The Dutch Trio, which transposed into the Heermann-van Lier String Quartet. He served as concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a period beginning in 1909; he was succeeded in that post by his son Emil. He has the distinction of having been the first to have played Brahms' Violin Concerto in Paris, New York City and Australia. After his retirement in 1922 he lived mostly in Meran, Italy.
Paul Viardot was a French violinist and composer who appeared with great success in Paris and London.
Gustave García was an Italian baritone opera singer and singing teacher.
Jacqueline, Baroness Fontyn is a contemporary Belgian composer, pianist and music educator. She was born in Antwerp, and has received the title of baroness from the King of Belgium in recognition of her many artistic contributions.
Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot was a French pianist, teacher and composer.
Louise Pauline Marie Héritte-Viardot was a French singer (contralto), pianist, conductor and composer. She was born in Paris, the eldest child of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Louis Viardot, niece of Maria Malibran and sister to composer and conductor Paul Viardot.
Giovanna Gray is a tragic opera in three acts composed by Nicola Vaccai. The libretto by Carlo Pepoli is based on the last days of the English noblewoman Lady Jane Grey who was executed for treason in 1554. The opera premiered on 23 February 1836 at La Scala, Milan, with Maria Malibran in the title role. It was a failure at its premiere, and the work never entered the repertoire. Malibran's performances in Giovanna Gray were the last time she appeared on the stage of La Scala.
Joaquina Sitches, also known under the stage name of Joaquina Briones or, after her marriage, of Joaquina García, was a Spanish actress and operatic soprano.
The Jean-Lucien Hollenfeltz collection consists of the private collection of physician, humanist, and scholarly musician Jean-Lucien Hollenfeltz, which is held by the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. The collection contains books and musical documents from Constanze Mozart (1762–1842) and her youngest son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791–1844).
The Edmond Michotte collection is a donation to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels phased between 1897 and 1913, by the Belgian homonymous composer and musicographer, of an important part of the private library of Rossini with whom he became friendly.
Louis Viardot was a French writer, art historian, art critic, theatrical figure, and translator. As a translator, he mostly contributed to the development of Russian and Spanish literature in France. He was the older brother of the artist Léon Viardot (1805–1900).