usiasm of the masses and the reasonable admiration of
connoisseurs. Pianist, composer, poet, she drew and painted with taste;
spoke fluently five languages; was expert in all feminine work, skilled
in sport and outdoor exercises, and possessed of a striking originality.
Such was Malibran in part, for the whole could never be expressed."

Her genius developed under the iron control of her father, Manuel del
Popolo Garcia, who compelled to submission her seemingly intractable
voice until it became sonorous, superb, a brilliant and fascinating
contralto, with a range of over three octaves, reaching E in alt. Her
own indomitable will and exceptional artistic intelligence were prime
factors in the training. In her heart-searching tones and passionate
acting her glowing soul was felt. When she was but seventeen, her
father, seeking an ideal climate, started with his family for Mexico. In
New York she contracted her unfortunate marriage with the French banker,
M. Malibran. She soon returned to Paris and the stage, and later having
obtained a divorce, married the famous violinist De Beriot, with whom
she had a brief but happy union.

Madame Malibran was said to be equally at home in any known school of
her time. Mozart and Cimarosa, Boieldieu and Rossini, Cherubini and
Bellini were all grasped with the same sympathetic comprehension. Sontag
was her rival, Pasta was yet in the height of her fame, but no contrasts
whatever dimmed the glory of Malibran. A rare personal charm added to
her artistic graces. Mr. Chorley describing her, in his recollections,
said that she was better than beautiful, insomuch as a "speaking Spanish
human countenance by Murillo is ten times more fascinating than many a
faultless face such as Guido could paint." When her death was announced,
in 1836, Ole Bull, who had known her well, exclaimed: "I cannot realize
it. A woman with a soul of fire, so highly endowed, so intense. How I
wept on seeing her as Desdemona! It is not possible she is dead."

Pauline Garcia, thirteen years younger than her remarkable sister, and
with a voice similar in quality, also did justice to her father's
rigorous discipline and became famous. She married M. Viardot, opera
director and critic, and after a brilliant career as a singer, gave long
and valuable service as a vocal teacher in Paris. She remained in the
full tide of her activity until she was long past the allotted
threescore years and ten. It is an interesting fact tha