Geneviève Vix

Geneviève Vix (née Brouwer; December 31, 1879 – August 25, 1939) was a French soprano. She was a descendant of the Dutch painter Adriaen Brouwer.

Life and career Vix studied at the Nantes Conservatoire and then at the Paris Conservatoire as a pupil of Lhérie where she won the first prize for opera in 1904 (as well as second prize for opéra comique). She made her debut at the Palais Garnier on 27 January 1905 in the title role in the premiere of Daria by Georges Marty, following this with Marguerite in Faust, Mélisse in Armide, and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. On 21 February 1908 she sang Geneviève in a revival of Geneviève de Brabant at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris.

Vix later enjoyed an international career with appearances in Madrid, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Chicago, New York, Boston, Rome, Cairo and Constantinople, adding Sapho, Salomé, Mélisande and Thaïs to her repertoire. She retired from the stage in 1935, and died in Paris.

She recorded airs from Carmen, Tosca, Thais, and Werther.

Her first marriage was to M. Muller de Cordevart (ended in divorce); the second to Kirill Vasil'evich Naryshkin (15 February 1877 – 25 October 1950) at Cannes on 2 October 1921. He was the son of Vasilii L'vovich Naryshkin and Princess Fevronia Pavlovna Jambakurian-Orbeliani, and had previously been married to Vera Sergeevna Witte (née Lisanevich), the adopted step-daughter of the Russian prime minister Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte. Vix was also the sometime mistress of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

She is buried at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery near Paris.