29 June 2023
Diana García is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Manuel García, opera singer, composer, conductor and company director. Together with Maria Joaquina Sitches, known as Briones, he founded a dynasty that has left its mark on the history of music. Joaquina and Manuel's three children also left their mark on the history of the fourth art: Maria Felicia (known as La Malibran), Pauline García-Viardot and Manuel García Jr. Diana García talks about the impact of her family heritage and her family memories.
The "Memorabilia García" is a collection of memorabilia, objects and works that have belonged to the García family for several generations. The Centre Européen de Musique has acquired the collection and launched a campaign to move it from Canada to the Villa Viardot in Bougival.
Manuel García Jr, who was Diana García's great-great-grandfather, invented the forerunner of the laryngoscope and, in 1841, recovered the singing voice of the famous Swedish singer Jenny Lind by prescribing three months of absolute silence after a gruelling tour. She is thus a direct descendant of her lineage. Diana's mother often reminded her of the importance of the feats accomplished by these family figures. ''Your middle name is Pauline, in honour of your great-great-aunt, the family intellectual, and you are indeed a García", recalls the woman who wished to pass on her family memories "Memorabilia García" to the Centre Européen de Musique.
The first laryngoscope was invented by Manuel García Jr. This item belongs to the "Memorabilia García".
This father, although not as famous as his illustrious forebears, was a role model for Diana: "My father played with famous jazz bandleaders throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He ran the music department at the local grammar school and could play any instrument. His arrangements of vocal and instrumental music were amazing. I once saw him bring an audience to its feet with a drum solo on Sign of the Times. In his spare time, he gave singing lessons''. Born and raised in Canada, in Ontario, she then turned to biographical books about her family to "understand the responsibility she might have had in bearing this great name". What she discovered disturbed her. These included accounts of the harsh and very strict upbringing given by Manuel García to his children, particularly Maria (the future Malibran) and Manuel, Jr. She equated these stories with abuse, and felt rejected by them. At that time (during her adolescence), "In the whole ancestral line, only Pauline, who hosted Paris salons with the likes of Georges Sand and Turgenev, offered the kind of role model a young Garcia like me could possibly look up to".
''In the whole ancestral line, only Pauline, who hosted Paris salons with the likes of Georges Sand and Turgenev, offered the kind of role model a young Garcia like me could possibly look up to''
As an adult, Diana set aside her family history. She took a different career path, working with abused children. "So I pushed the skeleton firmly to the back of the closet. When I inherited the family portraits, I promptly covered them with sheets and stowed them out of sight, in back of a large cupboard". What changed things for Diana García was the contact she made with musicologists and authors, in particular Andrés Moreno Mengíbar, James and Teresa Radomski, who contacted her as part of their research into her family. "They encouraged me to ask myself the question of how to sort out a heritage as complex as ours. While they told me more stories of multi-generational bad behaviour, none of which surprised me, they also gave me a new insight into the important contributions of the García dynasty of singers. The Radomskis produced recordings of operas and compositions by the Garcias, which enabled me to hear their works and, for the first time, fully appreciate their musicality. I realised that these people had changed the landscape of music history and vocal pedagogy''.
Gradually, she began to see the García family in a "more tolerant and empathetic light'', gaining a sense of respect and admiration for their work and cultural contributions. She also experienced another unexpected change: "a sense of gratitude for the gift of music that growing up in the García family represents". In the end, these reflections and this long-term research work enabled her to come to terms with this history and with music: "I am not a professional musician but I am a contented amateur. I sang and played piano competitively as a child, and performed in various school bands and choral groups throughout my education. My life-long hobby has been writing and recording instrumental and vocal arrangements of existing tunes and of my own compositions, in my home recording studio. This ancestral endowment has enriched my life beyond measure. I am deeply thankful for it''.
The aim of the CEM's crowdfunding campaign is to be able to present and install the "Memorabilia García" at the Villa Viardot in Bougival.
It's a new-found serenity with regard to the García legacy. "The family portraits now hang in my house, and the recordings of the family operas are in my music library. Pauline's sketchbooks are no longer in boxes. I still don't fully understand opera, and I haven't yet accepted my middle name (Pauline). I still don’t fully understand opera, and I have yet to come to terms with my middle name. That said, music is my passion, my joy, and my solace''. It is these portraits and sketches of Pauline García Viardot, Manuel fils's laryngoscope and many other precious objects that she has decided to donate to the Centre Européen de Musique, which is currently organising a fund-raising campaign to transport them from Canada to France and present them at the Villa Viardot.
29 June 2023
Diana García is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Manuel García, opera singer, composer, conductor and company director. Together with Maria Joaquina Sitches, known as Briones, he founded a dynasty that has left its mark on the history of music. Joaquina and Manuel's three children also left their mark on the history of the fourth art: Maria Felicia (known as La Malibran), Pauline García-Viardot and Manuel García Jr. Diana García talks about the impact of her family heritage and her family memories.
The "Memorabilia García" is a collection of memorabilia, objects and works that have belonged to the García family for several generations. The Centre Européen de Musique has acquired the collection and launched a campaign to move it from Canada to the Villa Viardot in Bougival.
Manuel García Jr, who was Diana García's great-great-grandfather, invented the forerunner of the laryngoscope and, in 1841, recovered the singing voice of the famous Swedish singer Jenny Lind by prescribing three months of absolute silence after a gruelling tour. She is thus a direct descendant of her lineage. Diana's mother often reminded her of the importance of the feats accomplished by these family figures. ''Your middle name is Pauline, in honour of your great-great-aunt, the family intellectual, and you are indeed a García", recalls the woman who wished to pass on her family memories "Memorabilia García" to the Centre Européen de Musique.
The first laryngoscope was invented by Manuel García Jr. This item belongs to the "Memorabilia García".
This father, although not as famous as his illustrious forebears, was a role model for Diana: "My father played with famous jazz bandleaders throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He ran the music department at the local grammar school and could play any instrument. His arrangements of vocal and instrumental music were amazing. I once saw him bring an audience to its feet with a drum solo on Sign of the Times. In his spare time, he gave singing lessons''. Born and raised in Canada, in Ontario, she then turned to biographical books about her family to "understand the responsibility she might have had in bearing this great name". What she discovered disturbed her. These included accounts of the harsh and very strict upbringing given by Manuel García to his children, particularly Maria (the future Malibran) and Manuel, Jr. She equated these stories with abuse, and felt rejected by them. At that time (during her adolescence), "In the whole ancestral line, only Pauline, who hosted Paris salons with the likes of Georges Sand and Turgenev, offered the kind of role model a young Garcia like me could possibly look up to".
''In the whole ancestral line, only Pauline, who hosted Paris salons with the likes of Georges Sand and Turgenev, offered the kind of role model a young Garcia like me could possibly look up to''
As an adult, Diana set aside her family history. She took a different career path, working with abused children. "So I pushed the skeleton firmly to the back of the closet. When I inherited the family portraits, I promptly covered them with sheets and stowed them out of sight, in back of a large cupboard". What changed things for Diana García was the contact she made with musicologists and authors, in particular Andrés Moreno Mengíbar, James and Teresa Radomski, who contacted her as part of their research into her family. "They encouraged me to ask myself the question of how to sort out a heritage as complex as ours. While they told me more stories of multi-generational bad behaviour, none of which surprised me, they also gave me a new insight into the important contributions of the García dynasty of singers. The Radomskis produced recordings of operas and compositions by the Garcias, which enabled me to hear their works and, for the first time, fully appreciate their musicality. I realised that these people had changed the landscape of music history and vocal pedagogy''.
Gradually, she began to see the García family in a "more tolerant and empathetic light'', gaining a sense of respect and admiration for their work and cultural contributions. She also experienced another unexpected change: "a sense of gratitude for the gift of music that growing up in the García family represents". In the end, these reflections and this long-term research work enabled her to come to terms with this history and with music: "I am not a professional musician but I am a contented amateur. I sang and played piano competitively as a child, and performed in various school bands and choral groups throughout my education. My life-long hobby has been writing and recording instrumental and vocal arrangements of existing tunes and of my own compositions, in my home recording studio. This ancestral endowment has enriched my life beyond measure. I am deeply thankful for it''.
The aim of the CEM's crowdfunding campaign is to be able to present and install the "Memorabilia García" at the Villa Viardot in Bougival.
It's a new-found serenity with regard to the García legacy. "The family portraits now hang in my house, and the recordings of the family operas are in my music library. Pauline's sketchbooks are no longer in boxes. I still don't fully understand opera, and I haven't yet accepted my middle name (Pauline). I still don’t fully understand opera, and I have yet to come to terms with my middle name. That said, music is my passion, my joy, and my solace''. It is these portraits and sketches of Pauline García Viardot, Manuel fils's laryngoscope and many other precious objects that she has decided to donate to the Centre Européen de Musique, which is currently organising a fund-raising campaign to transport them from Canada to France and present them at the Villa Viardot.
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