Diva, composer, pianist, queen of one of Paris’s most sought-after salons, friend to the great, and a scandalous third of one of the 19th-century’s most famous ménage à trois. Was there anything Pauline Viardot didn’t or couldn’t do, or anyone worth knowing that she didn’t know?

Pauline Viardot (1821–1910)

Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García Sitches in Paris in 1821, her father was Manuel García, a singing teacher, composer, impresario and famous tenor for whom Rossini wrote the role of Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. Always well connected, her middle names came from her godparents, the composer Ferdinando Paer and Princess Pauline Galitsin.

Her sister, Maria Malibran, was 13 years older and one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century, famous for a range that encompassed both mezzo and soprano roles. Despite Pauline’s interest in the piano – she had studied with Liszt – her mother, the soprano Joaquina Sitchez, wanted her to follow in her sister’s footsteps and pushed her into vocal lessons. When the 28-year-old Malibran died in England following a fall from a horse, Pauline was devastated, but three years later in 1839 she made her own successful...