Preface

IN presenting this Memoir of Don Manuel Garcia, I wish to thank those friends and pupils of the Maestro who have assisted me with reminiscences, photographs, and other material. But especially I would thank Mrs Alec Tweedie for the kind way in which she read through the MS., when it was still in a rough state, and made many invaluable suggestions with regard to its arrangement and improvement generally.

>M. S. M.

Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club,
Leicester Square,
March 1908.

CONTENTS.

FIRST PERIOD. PREPARATION. (1805-1830.)

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY

II. GARCIA'S CHILDHOOD IN SPAIN (1805-1814)

III. NAPLES (1814-1816)

IV. PARIS AND LONDON (1816-1825)

V. OPERA IN AMERICA (1825-1826)

VI. NEW YORK AND MEXICO (1826-1827)

VII. OPERATIC CAREER ABANDONED (1828-1830)

SECOND PERIOD. PARIS. (1830-1848.)

VIII. MARIA MALIBRAN'S TRIUMPHS (1830-1836)

IX. PAULINE VIARDOT-GARCIA (1837-1841)

X. JENNY LIND (1841-1842)

XI. SOME FAMOUS PUPILS (1842-1848)

XII. CLOSE OF PARIS CAREER (1848)

THIRD PERIOD. LONDON. (1848-1895.)

XIII. ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND (1848-1854)

XIV. THE LARYNGOSCOPE (1854-1857)

XV. CHARLES SANTLEY AND ANTOINETTE STERLING (1857-1873)

XVI. TWENTY YEARS OF MUSIC (1853-1873)

XVII. THREE-SCORE YEARS AND TEN (1874-1890)

XVIII. AN OCTOGENARIAN AUTHOR (1890-1895)

FOURTH PERIOD. RETIREMENT. (1895-1906.)

XIX. A NONAGENARIAN TEACHER (1895-1905)

XX. THE CENTENARY HONOURS (MARCH 17, 1905)

XXI. LAST DAYS (1905-1906)

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CENTENARY PORTRAIT OF MANUEL GARCIA
Painted by John S. Sargent. Frontispiece

TO FACE PAGE

THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN Dedication

MANUEL GARCIA'S MOTHER

MANUEL GARCIA'S FATHER

MARIA MALIBRAN

PAULINE VIARDOT

JENNY LIND

MANUEL GARCIA
From a Drawing by Mme. Viardot.

CHARLES SANTLEY

ANTOINETTE STERLING

CHARLES HALLÉ AND MANUEL GARCIA
From a Drawing by Richard Doyle.

HERMANN KLEIN

MADAME MELBA

FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN BY MANUEL GARCIA AT 91

FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 99

FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 94

FACSIMILE PAGE OF MUSIC WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDREDTH YEAR

FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDRED-AND-SECOND YEAR