García, María-Felicia known as la Malibran (1808 - 1836)

French mezzo-soprano and composer

Mme Malibran Garcia, Lithographed from life by Vigneron, circa 1835

The eldest daughter of a singer and a choreographer (her father was the celebrated Spanish tenor Manuel García, creator of Almaviva in Rossini 's Barber of Seville in 1815), the future Malibran was destined for the stage from the cradle: a pupil of her father, she made her debut at the age of seventeen in London, in The Barber of Seville.

After two years on American stages and an express marriage to Eugène Malibran, she began to shine in Europe from 1828: in Paris at the Théâtre Italien, in London, Brussels, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Lucca, Venice...

An accomplished musician who performs works by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini to perfection, Malbran also composes her own canzone.

Her contemporaries praised her for her mezzo-soprano voice and incomparable virtuosity, her beauty and her talent as an actress. But it was above all her tragic end that made her a legend: she died aged just 28. Alfred de Musset immortalized her in his Stances à la Malibran, published in the Revue des deux mondes on October 15, 1836, just two weeks latermalibran ).

Discover the artist's world through various documents: each image opens the door to one of his interpretations, his portraits in civilian clothes, his autographs or press articles about him from the period