Pauline Viardot and Adela Bolska: Difference between pages

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{{picture|file=Pauline Viardot.jpg|caption='''Pauline Viardot''' (1821-1910)}}
{{picture|file=Adelina Bolska.jpg|caption='''Adelina Bolska''' (1864–1930)}}
French mezzo-soprano and composer of Spanish descent (b. 18 July 1821 in [[Paris]]; d. 18 May 1910 in [[Paris]]), born '''''Pauline García'''''; also known after her marriage as '''''Pauline Viardot-García'''''.
Russian soprano (b. 1864 in [[Moscow]]; d. 1930), born '''''Adelina Yulianovna Skompskaya''''' (Аделина Юлиановна Скомпская); known onstage as '''''Adelina Bolska''''' (Аделина Больска), or after her marriage as Countess '''''Adelina Dienheim-Brochocki-Szczawińska'''''.


==Biography==
After graduating from the [[Moscow]] Conservatory, Adelina toured Italy and [[Paris]], before returning to Russia to wide acclaim at the Mariinsky Theatre in [[Saint Petersburg]] and the Bolshoi Theatre in [[Moscow]]. In 1893 she married the Polish Count Alexander Dienheim-Brochocki-Szczawiński (1841–1907).
She was the daughter of the notable Spanish tenor, composer, and teacher Manuel García (1775–1832), and the younger sister of the mezzo-soprano María Malibran (1808–1836), whose fascinating personality, vocal technique, and stage presence, as well as her tragically early death, would make her into one of the idols of the Romantic generation. Pauline received music lessons very early on from her father, who was keen for her to become a concert pianist. In fact, this was probably her real vocation and as a girl she had a few memorable piano lessons with [[Liszt]], as well as composition classes with Anton Rejcha. She would always remain an accomplished pianist throughout her life, befriending [[Chopin]] and Clara Schumann in later years.
 
After Manuel García's death, however, Pauline's mother, the Spanish actress and singer Joaquina Sitches (1780–1864) increasingly forced her to concentrate on singing, and when ''La Malibran'' died four years later Pauline was expected to carry the family tradition on her shoulders. In 1839, she made her professional stage début in [[London]], as Desdemona in [[Rossini]]'s ''Otello'', and caused a great impression with her masterly technique (which made up for the flaws of her voice) and dramatic interpretation. Under the influence of George Sand, who had taken her under her wing, Pauline was persuaded in 1840 to marry Louis Viardot (1800–1883), a distinguished art critic, publicist, and director of the Théâtre Italien in [[Paris]]. Viardot thereafter managed her artistic career. They had four musically gifted children, two of whom would go on to become professional musicians: Louise Héritte-Viardot (1841–1918), a singing teacher and composer, and Paul Viardot (1857–1941), a notable violinist, who would play Tchaikovsky's ''[[Sérénade mélancolique]]'' at a concert in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 3/15 January 1881 <ref name="note1"/>.
 
{{picture|file=Pauline Viardot 2.jpg|align=left|caption=[[Pauline Viardot]] in an 1843 watercolour portrait by the Russian painter Pyotr Sokolov (1791-1848)}}
In the winter seasons of 1843–46 and 1852–53, Pauline Viardot appeared with the Italian Opera Company in [[Saint Petersburg]], where her performance of Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' and other belcanto roles, as well as her choice of arias and songs by [[Glinka]] at concerts, won her the affection of Russian audiences. Her admirers included [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] (who drew on his memories of her interpretation of Rosina for the 1848 story'' White Nights'') and even the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848), who was not otherwise much interested in music! Most fateful was her meeting with [[Ivan Turgenev]], who fell head over heels in love with her and thereafter followed her all over Europe, eventually resigning himself to the role of a family friend in the Viardot household.
 
As a singer of great dramatic power, and later as a fine teacher and adviser in musical matters, Pauline Viardot was held in great esteem by the leading composers of the time, including [[Glinka]], [[Meyerbeer]] (for whom she created the role of Fidès in ''Le Prophète'' in 1849), [[Berlioz]] (who conducted a memorable production of [[Gluck]]'s ''Orfeo ed Euridice ''with her in 1859), [[Wagner]], [[Gounod]], [[Saint-Saëns]] (who dedicated ''Samson et Dalila'' to her), and [[Brahms]] (who wrote his ''Alt-Rhapsodie'' for her in 1869). She retired from the stage in 1863, settling in Baden-Baden in Germany, and then in 1870 returning to [[Paris]], where (except for a brief spell in [[London]] in 1871) she would remain for the rest of her life. She devoted herself to composing songs and operettas, as well as teaching, her students including [[Désirée Artôt]] and a number of Russian singers, amongst them [[Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya]] and [[Aleksandra Panayeva]].
 
Partly thanks to the influence of [[Turgenev]], Pauline Viardot showed a great interest in Russian music and eventually acquired a reading knowledge of the language. She set to music poems by [[Pushkin]], [[Lermontov]], [[Fet]], and [[Turgenev]] himself (translated into French and German with the help of the latter). Three albums of her songs were published in Russia in 1864, 1869, 1871 (mainly at the expense of the quixotic [[Turgenev]]), but harshly criticized by [[César Cui]]. More importantly, [[Turgenev]], during his regular visits to Russia, would write to her with reports on musical developments in his native country (recording, for example, a memorable meeting with [[Musorgsky]] in 1874).
 
==Tchaikovsky and Viardot==
She first became acquainted with Tchaikovsky's music in April 1871, because [[Turgenev]] was so impressed by two songs from the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] which he had heard [[Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya]] sing at an all-Tchaikovsky concert in [[Moscow]] on 16/28 March 1871, that on his return to [[London]], where the Viardots were temporarily staying, he ordered a copy of Tchaikovsky's song album from Russia. On 27 April 1871, [[Turgenev]] wrote to Mariya Miliutina to thank her for having sent the album and told her that Madame Viardot had immediately played them through, and that she especially liked ''None But the Lonely Heart'' (Нет, только тот, кто знал)—No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]]. [[Turgenev]] also noted that Madame Viardot intended to perform this song at one of the regular musical matinées held in her house. A copy of Pauline Viardot's recent album of Russian songs was also sent to Tchaikovsky <ref name="note2"/>.
 
In the summer of 1874, Pauline Viardot also became acquainted with the overture-fantasia ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', as [[Turgenev]] had ordered a copy of its arrangement for piano. At the end of 1876 Tchaikovsky had the idea of attempting to organize a concert featuring his works to take place in [[Paris]] in March 1877, and he wrote two letters to [[Sergey Taneyev]] (who was then staying in the French capital) asking him if he could tactfully find out whether Madame Viardot would be willing to perform some of his songs at such a concert: "Would it be seen as madness on my part if I were to ask Viardot, through [[Turgenev]], to take part in my concert? After all, she has performed my songs, hasn't she? If it's a crazy idea, then just throw away the enclosed letter. But if you think it's all right, then please go to [[Turgenev]] and hand him this letter" <ref name="note3"/>. This shows that Tchaikovsky was aware of the fact that Pauline Viardot ever since 1871 had been championing his songs, especially ''None But the Lonely Heart'' (the last of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]], at the famous musical matinées which were held in her house in [[Paris]]. Although the concert envisaged by Tchaikovsky did not take place because he was ultimately unable to raise the necessary funds, we do know that [[Taneyev]] took part in one of Madame Viardot's matinées at some point between January and May 1877 and accompanied her at the piano while she sang ''None But the Lonely Heart'' "with her characteristic passion, expressiveness, and impeccable diction", according to a contemporary account <ref name="note4"/>.
 
During the [[Paris]] Exposition of 1878, at which [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] conducted four "Russian Concerts" between May and November, featuring several works by Tchaikovsky (''[[Sérénade mélancolique]]'' and ''[[Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34|Valse-Scherzo]]'', with [[Stanisław Barcewicz]] as soloist), [[Turgenev]] also found out that the vocal-piano reduction of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' had just been published in Russia. He immediately ordered a copy, and on 27 November 1878 he wrote to [[Tolstoy]] from [[Paris]] that Madame Viardot had been studying the opera in the evenings and that they both liked it very much <ref name="note5"/>. She also received a copy of the score of [[Aleksandr Borodin]]'s Second Symphony ("''Bogatyrskaya''") shortly after its first performance in Russia in 1877.
 
During his brief stay in [[Paris]] in January 1876 Tchaikovsky had deliberately avoided visiting Pauline Viardot's musical salon. On 2 March 1879, when he was in [[Paris]] again, he attended a performance of [[Berlioz]]'s ''Symphonie Fantastique'' which featured two of her children: Paul, and Marianne (1854–1919), who two years earlier had been briefly engaged to the composer Gabriel Fauré. Tchaikovsky praised their performance in letter 1116 of 20 February/4 March 1879 to his brother [[Anatoly]], but he added that, despite [[Nadezhda von Meck]]'s repeated urging, he had no wish to make the acquaintance of Pauline Viardot or [[Turgenev]] personally.
 
In April 1880, [[Turgenev]] sent Pauline Viardot a copy of the [[Six Romances, Op. 38]] from [[Saint Petersburg]], where he had just heard [[Anna Frideburg]] sing ''Amid the Din of the Ball'' (Средь шумного бала) at a private concert. Madame Viardot would often select her favourite songs by Tchaikovsky for the famous musical gatherings on Thursdays at her house on the Rue de Douai. Her performance of ''None But the Lonely Heart'' always moved [[Turgenev]] to tears, and it is reflected in his last published story of 1883, ''Klara Milich'' (Клара Милич), also known as ''After Death'' (После смерти), which was inspired by news of the tragic suicide of [[Yevlaliya Kadmina]]. In his letter-article ''[[The Last Days of N. G. Rubinstein's Life]]'' ([[TH 315]]) Tchaikovsky noted how Madame Viardot had been amongst the prominent figures from the French musical world who gathered at the Russian Orthodox church in [[Paris]] on 26 March 1881 {{NS}} to pay their last respects to the great Russian pianist and conductor. Even after [[Turgenev]]'s death in 1883, Pauline Viardot continued to take an interest in Russian music, organizing, for example, a special concert in [[Paris]] in 1887 at which [[Balakirev]]'s fantasy for piano ''Islamey'' was played.
 
It was finally during his stay in [[Paris]] in the summer of 1886 that Tchaikovsky decided to call on Pauline Viardot (now living at 297 Boulevard St. Germain) for the first time. He did so on 12 June {{NS}}, accompanied by the cellist [[Anatoly Brandukov]], and from an entry which Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary that very evening after returning to his hotel, we find out that Madame Viardot had showed him [[Mozart]]'s original manuscript score of '' Don Giovanni'', which she had bought at an auction in [[London]] back in 1855. Although Madame Viardot frequently showed this manuscript to the various distinguished musicians who visited her house, she had particular reason to do so in the case of Tchaikovsky, as at the start of their interview he would probably have told her of his life-long love for [[Mozart]], knowing that her father, the legendary tenor Manuel García, had been a notable Don Ottavio in his time. This is Tchaikovsky's diary entry for that day (the underlining indicates additional emphasis by the composer):
:"We ([[Brandukov]] and I] set off for Viardot's house. A storm. We were thoroughly drenched. What a way to make someone's first acquaintance! Still, they wouldn't let us go back to the hotel. This circumstance made it easier for us to become acquainted. Lunch. Old little ''Viardot'' enchanted me. Her hanger-on. In the drawing-room. A pupil of hers, a Russian girl, sang an aria from [[Delibes]]'s] ''Lakmé''. <u>Saw the orchestra score of [[Mozart]]'s ''Don Giovanni'', written IN HIS OWN HAND!!!!!!!!!!</u>. Back to the hotel…" <ref name="note6"/>.
 
Tchaikovsky also wrote about this visit to Madame Viardot in various letters to relatives and friends the following day, but for some reason he did not yet mention the fact that he had been shown the original score of ''Don Giovanni''. To his sister-in-law [[Praskovya]] he wrote on 1/13 June: "Yesterday I had lunch with little old Viardot. She is such a wonderful and interesting woman that I am wholly enchanted by her. In spite of her seventy years, she manages to come across as a woman of forty; she is lively, merry, kind, and courteous, and she made me feel quite at home from the very first minute" <ref name="note7"/>. On the same day he completed a letter to [[Yuliya Shpazhinskaya]] which he had started writing a few days earlier: "Of all the new acquaintances I have made, it was ''Madame Viardot'' who produced the most enchanting impression on me. She is a little old woman of 70, so full of energy; she is literally sparkling with life, takes an interest in everything, knows about everything, and is exceedingly kind!" <ref name="note8"/>. To his brother [[Modest]] he wrote of how annoying it was to have to make so many new acquaintances in [[Paris]], but added: "There are, though, pleasant moments as well. Yesterday, for example, I went, with the greatest reluctance, to have lunch at ''Madame Viardot'''s place, but she turned out to be such a sweet and enchanting ''little mother'' [мамаша], that during the three hours I spent at her house I must have kissed her hand about ten times, and the day after tomorrow I will go to have dinner at her house with great pleasure" <ref name="note9"/>.
 
However, this dinner on 15 June {{NS}} to which Tchaikovsky had been invited by Madame Viardot did not take place due to some "misunderstanding" <ref name="note10"/>. On that day, though, Tchaikovsky reported to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] his impressions of that first visit to the famous singer: "Of the new acquaintances I have made here, the most agreeable was getting to know Viardot, who produced the most gratifying impression on me thanks to the genuinely cordial sympathy and interest which she has manifested towards me" <ref name="note11"/>. On Friday, 18 June, Madame Viardot would herself write a small note to Tchaikovsky, again inviting him to dine at her house the following Monday (21 June) <ref name="note12"/>. Unfortunately, on that day she unexpectedly had to travel to Fontainebleau, just outside [[Paris]], in order to visit a friend of hers who was ill, and she wrote to Tchaikovsky asking if he could come to her house the following day instead <ref name="note13"/>. The composer's stay in [[Paris]] was, however, coming to its end, and it seems that due to other pressing commitments he was unable to accept this new invitation. He left for Russia on 24 June, taking with him his three-year-old nephew [[Georges-Léon]].
 
Once he was back in [[Maydanovo]], where he would spend the rest of the summer and early autumn, Tchaikovsky received a letter from [[Nadezhda von Meck]], who was keen to find out about his impressions of [[Paris]]. She asked him, amongst other things, whether Pauline Viardot still remembered [[Turgenev]] <ref name="note14"/>. This is what Tchaikovsky replied to his benefactress on 28 June/10 July 1886: "With regard to your question as to whether Viardot still remembers [[Turgenev]], I can assure you that not only does she remember him, but we spent almost all the time talking about him, and she told me in detail how together they wrote ''The Song of Triumphant Love''. Did I mention to you, dear friend, that I spent two hours at Viardot's house looking through an ''original score'' by [[Mozart]] (''Don Giovanni''), which some thirty years ago Viardot's husband acquired by chance and quite cheaply, too? I cannot describe the feeling which came over me when I looked through this musical ''holy of holies'' [святыня]! It was as if I had shaken hands with [[Mozart]] himself and talked with him" <ref name="note15"/>.
 
Clearly, this meeting with Pauline Viardot on 12 June 1886 {{NS}} was one of the most memorable and agreeable events during his short stay in [[Paris]] that summer, and it is very likely that her account of how [[Turgenev]] had written ''The Song of Triumphant Love'' induced Tchaikovsky, in February 1887, to read this mysterious story. A diary entry for 1/13 February 1887 records the "strong impression" it had made on him, and also that he had had a "strange dream" about Madame Viardot <ref name="note16"/>. Even more significant is the fact that at around the same time Tchaikovsky made some sketches for a vocal work based on [[Turgenev]]'s story — unfortunately Tchaikovsky's own ''[[Song of Triumphant Love]]'' ([[TH 227]]) was not realised. On the other hand, the unforgettable experience of seeing [[Mozart]]'s autograph score of ''Don Giovanni'' at Madame Viardot's house may have directly encouraged him to complete his work on[[Suite No. 4]] ("''Mozartiana''"), which Tchaikovsky had intended as his contribution to the festivities that were to be held all over Europe later that year to mark the hundredth anniversary of the premiere of [[Mozart]]'s masterpiece in [[Prague]] on 29 October 1787 {{NS}}.
 
During Tchaikovsky's first tour to Western Europe (January–March 1888) as the conductor of his own works one of the stops on his itinerary was [[Paris]], where he gave three concerts. On 2 March 1888 {{NS}}, two days before the second of these concerts, he paid a visit to Pauline Viardot <ref name="note17"/>. Despite the fact that Tchaikovsky's schedule was very busy, with receptions in his honour almost every evening, rehearsals, and meetings with such eminent French colleagues as [[Charles Gounod]], [[Jules Massenet]], and [[Léo Delibes]], he still accepted another invitation to Madame Viardot's house on 9 March. This is what he recorded in his diary: "Dinner and soirée at Viardot's. Her son-in-law. Singing. A wonderful song by Viardot" <ref name="note18"/>.
 
The last time that Tchaikovsky saw Pauline Viardot, as far as we can tell, was during his second concert tour to Europe (January–March 1889), when he stayed for almost three weeks in [[Paris]]. Although Tchaikovsky did not actually conduct any concert there on this occasion, Madame Viardot must have found out from mutual acquaintances that he was in town, for she sent him a letter on 29 March {{NS}}, inviting him to come to her salon on 8 April to attend a private performance of her operetta ''Trop de femmes'' (1867) <ref name="note19"/>. The revival of this comic work, with a libretto in French by [[Turgenev]], was reportedly a success, and among the audience were [[Ambroise Thomas]], director of the [[Paris]] Conservatoire, [[Brandukov]], and Tchaikovsky, who had postponed his departure to [[London]] (the last stop of his concert tour) by one day in order to be able to attend the performance <ref name="note20"/>. In a letter which he sent to his nephew [[Vladimir Davydov]] from [[London]] two days later Tchaikovsky shared his impressions of ''Trop de femmes'': "The day before my departure [from [[Paris]]] I was at a soirée in Viardot's house. There was a performance of an operetta of hers, which she composed twenty years ago to a libretto by [[Turgenev]]. The cast featured her two daughters, as well as her students, amongst whom one Russian girl performed a Russian dance, to the great delight of the audience" <ref name="note21"/>.


==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
4 letters have survived from Tchaikovsky to Pauline Viardot, dating from 1886 to 1889, all of which have been translated into English on this website:
3 letters from Tchaikovsky to Adelina Bolska have survived, dating from 1889 to 1893, all of which have been translated into English on this website.
* '''[[Letter 2964a]]''' – 4/16 June 1886, from [[Paris]]
* '''[[Letter 3887]]''' – 26 June/8 July 1889, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 2968a]]''' – 9/21 June 1886, from [[Paris]]
* '''[[Letter 4662]]''' – 11/23 April 1892, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 3507a]]''' – 25 February/8 March 1888, from [[Paris]]
* '''[[Letter 4946]]''' – 29 May/10 June–30 May/11 June 1893, from [[London]]
* '''[[Letter 3824a]]''' – 18/30 March 1889, from [[Paris]]
 
3 letters from Pauline Viardot to the composer, dating from 1886 and 1889, are preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in [[Moscow]], and a further 2 letters from Pauline Viardot to the composer, dating from 1886, are preserved in the [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive.
 
==External Links==
* [[wikipedia:Pauline_Viardot|Wikipedia]]
* {{IMSLP|Viardot,_Pauline Works by Pauline Viardot at the}}
==Bibliography==
* {{bib|1960/66}} (1960)
* Fitzlyon, A. {{und|The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot}} (London, 1964)
* Žekulin, N. G. {{und|The Story of an Operetta: 'Le Dernier Sorcier' by Pauline Viardot and [[Ivan Turgenev]]}} (Munich, 1989)
* {{bib|2006/19}} (2006)


==Notes and References==
[[Category:People|Bolska, Adelina]]
<references>
[[Category:Correspondents|Bolska, Adelina]]
<ref name="note1">See {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 247. Tchaikovsky was not present at this concert, since he was in [[Kamenka]] at the time. Paul Viardot had added the ''[[Sérénade mélancolique]]'' to his repertoire thanks to [[Turgenev]], who had been greatly impressed by the piece when he heard it at one of the Russian Concerts during the [[Paris]] ''Exposition Universelle'' in the summer of 1878 (for more details, see the entry on [[Turgenev]]).</ref>
[[Category:Nobility|Bolska, Adelina]]
<ref name="note2">See also [[Turgenev]]'s letter to Mariya Milyutina, 15/27 April 1871, sent from [[London]] in {{und|И. С. Тургенев. Полное собрание сочинений и писем ; том 9}} (Leningrad, 1965), p. 77. Mariya Ageyevna Milyutina (née Abaza; 1834–1903) was the sister of the civil servant Aleksandr Ageyevich Abaza (1821–1895) and thus the sister-in-law of the amateur singer [[Yuliya Abaza|Yuliya Fyodorovna Abaza]] (née Stubbe; 1830–1915), with whom Tchaikovsky had taken some lessons in piano accompaniment in the 1860s and at whose house in [[Saint Petersburg]] a private performance of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' (sung from the vocal-piano reduction) took place on 6/18 March 1879 (with [[Aleksandra Panayeva]] singing Tatyana). It seems that the copy of Pauline Viardot's song album(s) was forwarded to Tchaikovsky by Pavel Annenkov, one of [[Turgenev]]'s friends who was then living in [[Saint Petersburg]].</ref>
[[Category:Singers|Bolska, Adelina]]
<ref name="note3">[[Letter 535]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 12/24 January 1877. In an earlier letter to [[Taneyev]] of 25 December 1876/6 January 1877 ([[letter 528]]), Tchaikovsky had asked: "I kindly ask you to find out in a tactful fashion whether Viardot might like to perform two or three of my songs". Unfortunately, the message enclosed for [[Turgenev]] in the later letter to [[Taneyev]] seems to have been lost.</ref>
<ref name="note4">From the reminiscences of [[Turgenev]] by Yelena Blaramberg (1846–1923), in in Fridliand, V. G. and Petrov, S. M. Petrov (eds.). {{und|И. С. Тургенев в воспоминаниях современников, том 2}} (Moscow, 1983), p. 192. The Russian revolutionary German Lopatin (1845–1919), who was in [[Paris]] in the 1870s also recalled one of these matinées at which Pauline Viardot performed ''None But the Lonely Heart'': "She was an old woman. But when she uttered: 'I am suffering' (Я стражду) it made my flesh creep. How much expressiveness she put into it. Her eyes, those pale hollow cheeks. You should have seen the audience!" Quoted in {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 103.</ref>
<ref name="note5">Letter from Ivan [[Turgenev]] to [[Lev Tolstoy]], 15 November/7 December 1878, in {{und|И. С. Тургенев: Полное собрание сочинений и писем, том 12, кн. 1}} (Leningrad, 1966), p. 383–384.</ref>
<ref name="note6">Diary entry for 31 May/12 June 1886, in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 64.</ref>
<ref name="note7">[[Letter 2961]] to [[Praskovya Tchaikovskaya]], 1/13 June 1886.</ref>
<ref name="note8">[[Letter 2960]] to [[Yuliya Shpazhinskaya]], 28 May/9 June–1/13 June 1886.</ref>
<ref name="note9">[[Letter 2962]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 1/13 June 1886.</ref>
<ref name="note10">See also the diary entry for 3/15 June 1886: "Misunderstanding with regard to ''Viardot''. He [i.e. [[Brandukov]]] went to her house to explain." See {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 66.</ref>
<ref name="note11">[[Letter 2964]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 3/15 June 1886.</ref>
<ref name="note12">Letter from Pauline Viardot to Tchaikovsky, 18 June 1886 {{NS}}. See {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 208, p. 103.</ref>
<ref name="note13">Letter from Pauline Viardot to Tchaikovsky, 21 June 1886 {{NS}}. See {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 209, p. 103. See also Tchaikovsky's diary entry for 9/21 June 1886, in which he records the receipt of this letter, as well as the fact that he had sent a reply. See {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 69.</ref>
<ref name="note14">Letter from [[Nadezhda von Meck]] to Tchaikovsky, 22 June/4 July 1886.</ref>
<ref name="note15">[[Letter 2988]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 28 June/10 July 1886. [[Turgenev]] started writing ''The Song of Triumphant Love'' in November 1879, while in Bougival, but he did not complete it until his last stay in Russia, on his family estate at Spasskoye, in the summer of 1881, so it is possible that he sought Pauline Viardot's advice during the initial stages of his work on this short story, which was eventually published in the November 1881 issue of the journal ''Herald of Europe'' (Вестник Европы). According to {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 374, Tchaikovsky wrote a letter to [[Yuliya Shpazhinskaya]] on the same date, 28 June/10 July 1886, also describing what this opportunity to see the original score of ''Don Giovanni'' had meant to him, but unfortunately this letter has not been traced.</ref>
<ref name="note16">Diary entry for 1/13 February 1887 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 125.</ref>
<ref name="note17">See also diary entry for 19 February/2 March 1888 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 201.</ref>
<ref name="note18">Diary entry for 26 February/9 March 1888 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 202. The son-in-law referred to here was evidently Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (1842–1907), who was married to Pauline Viardot's youngest daughter Marianne (1854–1919). Duvernoy was a pianist and composer of some repute.</ref>
<ref name="note19">Letter from Pauline Viardot to Tchaikovsky, 29 March 1889 {{NS}}. Quoted from {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 209, p. 104.</ref>
<ref name="note20">In a number of publications it was assumed that the operetta which Tchaikovsky saw at Madame Viardot's salon on 27 March/8 April 1889 was ''Le Dernier Sorcier'' (also dating from 1867, and also with a libretto by [[Turgenev]]), but Nicholas Žekulin, in his monograph ''The Story of an Operetta. 'Le Dernier Sorcier' by Pauline Viardot and Ivan Turgenev'' (Munich, 1989), p. 71, 75–76, was able to show conclusively that it was in fact ''Trop de femmes''.</ref>
<ref name="note21">[[Letter 3830]] to [[Vladimir Davydov]], 29 March/10 April 1889. Both of Pauline Viardot's youngest daughters Claudie (1852–1914) and Marianne (1854–1919) were musically gifted, but they did not take up a career in music, unlike their elder sister Louise and their brother Paul.</ref>
</references>
[[Category:People|Viardot, Pauline]]
[[Category:Composers|Viardot, Pauline]]
[[Category:Correspondents|Viardot, Pauline]]
[[Category:Singers|Viardot, Pauline]]

Revision as of 15:48, 24 September 2020

Adelina Bolska (1864–1930)

Russian soprano (b. 1864 in Moscow; d. 1930), born Adelina Yulianovna Skompskaya (Аделина Юлиановна Скомпская); known onstage as Adelina Bolska (Аделина Больска), or after her marriage as Countess Adelina Dienheim-Brochocki-Szczawińska.

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory, Adelina toured Italy and Paris, before returning to Russia to wide acclaim at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In 1893 she married the Polish Count Alexander Dienheim-Brochocki-Szczawiński (1841–1907).

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

3 letters from Tchaikovsky to Adelina Bolska have survived, dating from 1889 to 1893, all of which have been translated into English on this website.