Manuel Garcia (1775-1832): Chronicle of the Life of a bel canto Tenor at the Dawn of Romanticism (review)

Manuel García (1775-1832): Chronicle of the Life of a bel canto Tenor at the Dawn of Romanticism. By James Radomski. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. [xiv, 367 p. ISBN 0-19-816373-8. $80.]

One of the recent trends in musicological research, especially in opera studies, is a heightened interest in the history of performance. As scholars have recognized the degree to which the text and music of an opera can vary depending on the circumstances of a production, the role of performers in shaping a work's composition and reception is looming ever larger in music history. The study of performance can tell us much about the tastes of audiences, the kinds of careers pursued by musicians, and the operation of theaters, to name only three of the various social and economic factors affecting opera history.

By these criteria, Manuel García certainly merits investigation. A tenor, composer, and influential teacher whose career spanned four decades and covered a number of cities throughout Europe and North America, García easily qualifies as one of the most prominent singers of the early nineteenth century. Among other achievements, he created the role of Count Almaviva in Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, promoted Italian opera in America, taught a number of prominent singers, and composed stage works in Spanish, Italian, and French. James Radomski's book, a revision of his dissertation (The Life and Works of Manuel del Populo Vicente García [1775- 1832]: Italian, French, and Spanish Opera in Early Nineteenth-Century Romanticism [University of California, Los Angeles, 1992]), is the first large-scale study devoted to the Spanish tenor.

Drawing heavily on archival sources and contemporary reviews, Radomski presents a richly detailed study of García's life. In doing so, he provides a solid basis for future research by establishing basic factual matters (such as the dates and itineraries of García's journeys in Europe and America), and he also presents a nuanced, balanced view of the singer's character. Earlier studies of his daughter Maria Malibran, for instance, have painted a rather one-sided portrait of García as a cruel father. While Radomski does not deny that García was a demanding teacher of his daughter and reacted harshly to her marriage to Eugène Malibran, he also demonstrates that the charge of incest, advanced by April Fitzlyon in her book Maria Malibran: Diva of the Romantic Age (London: Souvenir Press, 1987), rests on flimsy evidence. Furthermore, he presents documentation that suggests Malibran was reconciled with her father before his death.

An especially valuable part of the book is Radomski's examination of García as a teacher. Instead of relying solely on García's treatise on singing, which is "disarmingly simple" (p. 262), he draws on an array of sources, primarily press notices and accounts of students, to give the reader a more detailed view of García's methods. Radomski rightly places emphasis on García's ability to improvise, and he gives a fascinating description of a lesson with the French tenor Adolphe Nourrit: when Nourrit rehearsed the aria "Pria che spunti in ciel aurora" from Domenico Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto, García expected him to be able to improvise at least ten different cadenzas on the spot. The ability to improvise as an integral part of vocal training marks perhaps the greatest difference between García's method and those of today's instructors. Consequently, Radomski observes that the closest modern equivalent to García's performance style might be found in jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald.

A key feature of the book, and one that presents both advantages and drawbacks, is Radomski's decision to include many letters and reviews in their entirety. On the one hand, we gain access to many details of early...