Manuel García

Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez García (also known as Manuel García the Senior; 21 January 1775 – 10 June 1832) was a Spanish opera singer, composer, impresario, and singing teacher. He is often credited as a key figure in the development of modern vocal technique and vocal pedagogy.

Biography García was born in Seville, Spain, on 21 January 1775. In 1808, he went to Paris, with previous experience as a tenor at Madrid and Cádiz. By that year, when he appeared in the opera Griselda in Paris, he was already a composer of light operas. He lived in Naples, performing in Gioachino Rossini's operas. These included the premières of Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, in which he portrayed the Duke of Norfolk and The Barber of Seville, in which he portrayed the role of Count Almaviva. In 1816, he visited Paris and London. Between 1819 and 1823, he lived in Paris, and sang in operas such as The Barber of Seville, Otello, and Don Giovanni, often appearing at London's King's Theatre too. In the same period he presented new French-style operas of his own composition at the Paris Opera, the Opéra-Comique and the Gymnase-Dramatique.

His elder daughter was the celebrated singer Maria Malibran, and his second daughter was Pauline Viardot, a musician of consequence and, as a singer, one of "the most brilliant dramatic stars" of her time. His son, Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García, after being a second-rate baritone, became a world-famous vocal pedagogue, "the leading theoretical writer of Rossini vocal school".

In 1825, he and his company, four of eight of them Garcías, were recruited by a New York vintner, Dominick Lynch Jr. (1786–1857), who had been encouraged by Italian opera librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, then a professor of Italian at Columbia College, to introduce New Yorkers to Italian opera. They staged the first performances (a total of about 80) of Italian opera in New York. The García family took all the main parts in performances of The Barber of Seville, with García as Almaviva, his second wife Joaquina Sitchez (also called "la Briones") as Berta, Manuel Jr. as Figaro, and Maria as Rosina; Pauline was still very young at this time. Da Ponte particularly insisted on the company billing Don Giovanni, of whose libretto he was the author, and Mozart's opera was given its first American unabridged performance on 23 May 1826 in the presence of its librettist, with García singing the title role, la Briones as Donna Elvira, Maria as Zerlina, and Manuel Jr. as Leporello.

They also performed in Mexico, and García recounted in his memoirs that while on the road between Mexico and Vera Cruz, he was robbed of all his money by brigands.

García had planned to settle in Mexico, but following political troubles, in 1829 he had to return to Paris, where he was once again very warmly welcome by the public. His voice, however, was being impaired by age as well as fatigue, and, never ceasing to compose, "he soon dedicated himself to teaching, for which he seems to have been specially gifted". After having his last appearance on stage in August 1831, he died on 10 June the following year and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. His funeral oration was delivered by François-Joseph Fétis, who "honoured him above all as a composer, remarking that his best works remained unpublished – as is still true today". In fact, his "voice was, according to Fétis, a deep tenor": indeed, his singing had baritonal characteristics and has been presently referred to as baritenore, mainly in Italy. García possessed, however, an unusual vocal compass: although he was also able to cope with real baritone roles, the parts written for him by Rossini generally tend to be higher than those written for other baritonal tenors like Andrea Nozzari or Domenico Donzelli, it was García, and not Gilbert-Louis Duprez, the first singer able to utter the "C from the chest". Given his artistic background, however, García is not reported to have ever sung it in public.

Despite his range, he cannot be regarded as a tenore contraltino. He had, for instance, in his repertoire the role of Lindoro in L'italiana in Algeri, but, when he had to confront "the extremely high tessitura and the mainly syllabic writing of [his entrance aria] "Languir per una bella", he transposed the aria down a minor third, performing it in C major instead of E-flat". García was also able to master falsetto vocal phonation to such a point that, in a tonadilla of his, El poeta calculista, he could perform a duet with himself, where he sang both the tenor and the soprano parts.

Having an extravagant, even violent, personality and despotic attitudes even towards his children (who were also his pupils), he transported onto the stage something of his personal character, making his performances as Otello and Don Giovanni memorable, but he also succeeded in bridling his exuberance and in getting the style under perfect control, so that he could render his Mozart Count Almaviva a real, proud and elegant, grandee of Spain. Alceo Partenope festa teatrale Giuseppe Farinelli Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo 15 August 1814 (*) Don Rodrigo Donna Caritea, regina di Spagna dramma serio per musica Giuseppe Farinelli Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo 16 September 1814 (*) Dallaton Tella e Dallaton, o sia La donzella di Raab opera seria Manuel García Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo 4 November 1814 (*) Ermindo La gelosia corretta commedia per musica Michele Carafa Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini di Napoli carnival 1815 (*) Enrico V La gioventù di Enrico Quinto opera Ferdinand Hérold Naples, Teatro del Fondo della Separazione 5 January 1815 (*) Ataliba Cora opera seria Simon Mayr Real Teatro San Carlo di Napoli 27 Marzo 1815 (*) Norfolk Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra dramma per musica Gioachino Rossini Naples, Real Teatro San Carlo 4 October 1815 (*) Almaviva Almaviva ossia L'inutile precauzione (Il barbiere di Siviglia) dramma comico Gioachino Rossini Rome, Teatro della Torre Argentina 20 February 1816 (*) Lindoro L'italiana in Algeri melodramma buffo Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 1 February 1817 (**) Torvaldo Torvaldo e Dorliska dramma lirico semiserio Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 21 November 1820 (**) Giocondo La pietra del paragone melodramma giocoso (revision) Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 5 April 1821 (**) Otello Otello dramma tragico per musica (1st version) Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 5 June 1821 (**) Norfolk Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra dramma per musica Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 10 March 1822 (**) Florestan Florestan ou Le conseil des dix opéra Manuel García Paris, Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique 26 June 1822 (*) Osiride Mosè in Egitto azione tragico-sacra (3rd version) Gioachino Rossini Paris, Salle Louvois du Théâtre-Italien 20 October 1822 (**) Ilo Zelmira dramma serio per musica (2nd version) Gioachino Rossini London, King's Theatre in the Haymarket 24 January 1824 (**) Agorante Ricciardo e Zoraide dramma per musica (1st version) Gioachino Rossini London, King's Theatre in the Haymarket 24 March 1824 (**) Idreno Semiramide melodramma tragico Gioachino Rossini London, King's Theatre in the Haymarket 15 July 1824 (**) Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia dramma giocoso Gioachino Rossini New York, Park Theatre 29 November 1825 (**) Otello Otello dramma tragico per musica (1st version) Gioachino Rossini New York, Park Theatre 7 February 1826 (**) Narciso Il turco in Italia dramma buffo per musica (opera buffa, 2nd version) Gioachino Rossini New York, Park Theatre 14 March 1826 (**) Don Giovanni Don Giovanni opera buffa Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart New York, Park Theatre 23 May 1826 (**) Ramiro La Cenerentola melodramma giocoso Gioachino Rossini New York, Park Theatre 27 June 1827 (**)

Selected works The following lists are drawn from The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (article: "García, Manuel", by James Radomski), with possible details from different sources.

Performed

La maja y el majo (tonadilla, Madrid, 1798) La declaración (tonadilla, Madrid, 1799) El seductor arrepentido (opereta, Madrid, 1802) Quien porfía mucho alcanza (opereta, Madrid, 1802) El luto fingido (opereta, Madrid, 1803) El criado fingido (opereta, Madrid, 1804) El padrastro, o Quien a yerro mata a yerro muere (Madrid, 1804) El poeta calculista (monologue, Madrid, 1805) El cautiverio aparente (opereta, Madrid, 1805) El preso (monologue, Madrid, 1806) Los lacónicos, o La trampa descubierta (opereta, Madrid, 1806) Los ripios del maestro Adán (opereta, Madrid, 1807) Il califfo di Bagdad (opera buffa, Naples, 1813) Talla e Dallaton, o sia La donzella di Raab (opera seria, Naples, 1814) Le prince d'occasion (opéra-comique, Paris, 1817) Il fazzoletto (opera buffa, Paris, 1820) La mort du Tasse (tragédie lyrique, Paris, 1821) La meunière (opera comica, Paris, 1821) Florestan, ou Le conseil des dix (opéra, Paris, 1822) Les deux contrats de mariage (opera buffa, Paris, 1824) Astuzie e prudenza (London, 1825) L'amante astuto (comic opera in two acts, New York, 1825) Il lupo d'Ostenda, o sia L'innocente salvato dal colpevole (New York, 1825) La figlia del aria (semi-tragic opera in two acts, New York, 1826) La buona famiglia (New York, 1826) El Abufar, ossia La famiglia araba (Mexico City, 1827) Un'ora di matrimonio (opera buffa, Mexico City, 1827) Zemira ed Azor (Mexico City, 1827) Acendi (Mexico City, 1828) El gitano por amor (Mexico City, 1828) Los maritos solteros (Mexico City, 1828) Semiramis (Mexico City, 1828) Xaira (Mexico City, 1828)

Unperformed (or privately performed) Un avvertimento ai gelosi Le cinesi Il finto sordo L'isola disabitata I tre gobbi I banditi, o sia La foresta pericolosa Don Chisciotte (opera buffa in two acts) La gioventù d'Enrico V L'origine des graces Le tre sultane El Zapatero de Bagdad

Genealogy