García, Manuel del Popolo Vicente (EN)

García Manuel del Popolo Vicente Rodríguez, *21 January 1775 Seville, †9 June 1832 Paris, Spanish opera singer (tenor), teacher, and composer. He was a member of the Seville Cathedral choir and a student of e.g., A. Riba. He made his debut as a singer and composer in Cadiz at the age of 17, then performed in Madrid, in tonadillas staged there; in 1799 he sang in G. Paisiello’s opera Nina. His own stage works also brought him recognition abroad (including the operetta El seductor arrepentido, 1802; the opera El poeta calculista, 1805). In 1808, he made his first appearance in Paris at the Théâtre Italien in the opera Griselda by F. Paër. He travelled to Italy in 1811, where he studied the Italian method of singing and was permanently employed as a tenor at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. There he presented, among other works, his opera Il Califo di Bagdad (1812). However, he gained his greatest fame in Italy for his appearances in Rossini’s operas, where he performed roles such as Norfolk in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra (Naples, 1815), and especially Almaviva (in a part written especially for him) in The Barber of Seville (Rome, 1816). He is considered to be the creator of Almaviva’s canzone Se il mio nome. He enjoyed success in Paris, London, and New York performing in The Barber of Seville and other operas by Rossini. After returning to Paris (1816), García sang at the Théâtre Italien in Rossini’s Otello, among others, and also staged his own operas, including La morte di Tasso (1821) and Il Fazzoletto (1823). In 1824 he performed in London; in 1825, with a group of Italian artists and his family, he went to New York and then to Mexico. García’s troupe staged Rossini’s operas, Mozart’s Don Juan and 2 of García’s operas for the first time in non-European countries. In 1829 García returned to Paris to the Théâtre Italien, however, he devoted himself mainly to teaching. He was married twice and had 4 children, all of whom also became singers. His son Manuel Patricio, and two of his daughters, Pauline Viardot and Maria Malibran, became particularly famous.

García was one of the most outstanding tenors of his era; endowed with a voice with a vast scale that reached into the baritone register, he displayed an outstanding talent for acting and a dramatic flair. The craftsmanship of his famous vocal school was benefited by, among others, A. Nourrit, H. Méric-Lalande, his son Manuel and daughter Maria. He wrote the textbook Metodo di canto, on which his son modelled his work. García’s numerous compositions (tonadillas, around 40 operas and operettas, songs), despite their popularity during García’s lifetime, have not survived to the present day.

Literature: G. Newburn The García Family, London 1932; J. Levien The García Family, London 1932, 2nd edition, reworked 1948; J. Subirá El operetista M. García, “Revista de la Biblioteca Archivo y Museo Ayuntamiento de Madrid” I, 1935.