Talk:Pauline García-Viardot
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[edit] Name problem
_ _ My opera informant agrees with the surname-relevant events recounted here, but finds "Garcia-Viardot" totally unfamiliar, and of course she sang as Pauline Viardot (which should probably be the article title under our naming guidelines, and will probably become so soon if not contested.)
_ _ Main issue: cleanup inconsistencies w/in article, and describe if not explain the odd construction Pauline Viardot-Garcia in her case.
--Jerzy•t 20:18, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
GTests:
- 541 of about 14,000 for "Pauline Viardot-Garcia" [This is inflation rate (on the available 1K hits) of 459/541 = 84%.]
- 185 of about 510 for "Pauline Garcia-Viardot " [Inflation 325/185 = 176%]
with the twice-as-high inflation rate arguably reflecting disproportionate effect of the WP article's existing title, due to wide use of that article.
This establishes a strong presumption that the title is in error; barring evidence to overcome that presumption, i will soon rename & clean up name in the text if no one better qualified steps up to the plate.
--Jerzy•t 08:24, 27 & 17:43, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
How's this hist'l note from Harvard Library file on her for authoritative:
- Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910) was one of the most celebrated French mezzo sopranos of the 19th century, and a truly cosmopolitan woman artist. The collection reflects all aspects of her life: firstly as a singer, composer, and teacher; secondly as the mistress and muse of Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) whose papers she guarded after his death; and thirdly as the center of a large circle of friends, entertaining and collaborating with the intellectual and artistic elite of Paris, and, indeed, of Europe. Her support and friendship inspired Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Camille Saint-Saëns to write major works for her. Other close friends included Frédéric Chopin, Gustave Corot, Gustave Doré, Heinrich Heine, Franz Liszt, George Sand, and Clara Schumann. Many of them enjoyed the warm hospitality and happy family life that included Pauline Viardot-Garcia's four talented children. See: April FitzLyon. The price of genius; a life of Pauline Viardot (London, 1964).
(Copyright explicitly noted; discuss but don't quote in article.)
--Jerzy•t 01:48, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Loose notes
(Maybe already covered:)
Look into The Price of Genius & menage with Turgenev, with short-story-a-clef "A Month in the Country"(?) documenting it and the servants bringing both dying men's beds onto stair landing so they could embrace before Turgenev left the house to avoid her being alone with a man she wasn't married to once her husband died.
"Never sing for free", illustrated by her insisting on a fee to sing at Chopin's funeral.
--Jerzy•t 20:18, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Name problems
I understand your name problems. But today I moved the article from Pauline Garcia-Viardot to Pauline García-Viardot and some other Garcías (of this family) too. Gerhard51 22:08, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Appearance section suggestion
As a feminist, I object to some of the wording in this section:
Shockingly enough, Pauline's appearance, or lack thereof, apparently had no effect on her famed popularity with the masses and men in particular. She was widely pronounced as "strikingly ugly" or "atrociously homely," with dark and crude features, hooded eyes, a receding chin, a wide mouth with a heavy underlip and an H-shaped figure in a time when Italy adored beauty.
"Shockingly enough" and "crude" sound like judgements, not facts; and the word "beauty" at the end also expresses a judgement as to what beauty consists of.
Also, "famed popularity" is redundant.
I suggest rephrasing. Perhaps:
Pauline was widely pronounced as "strikingly ugly" or "atrociously homely." She had dark and coarse features, hooded eyes, a receding chin, a wide mouth with a heavy underlip and an H-shaped figure in a time when Italy adored delicate features and curved figures in women. Perhaps surprisingly, Pauline's appearance apparently had no effect on her popularity with the public in general and with men in particular.
Changing the sentence order puts "surprisingly" into context. The historical context explains why one might find it surprising that her popularity was undiminished by her looks.
Jessibird 21:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Appearance (again)
The italicized portion of this sentence -- "After her sister's death, Pauline was assigned to take over as a professional singer, never mind the fact that she had a flawed, second-tier voice and subpar looks" -- is POV (not to mention rather unkind, at least without a citation). Am removing. Dblanchar (talk) 13:40, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
