Pauline Viardot-Garcia
in Gluck's Alceste

Pauline Viardot-Garcia is seen here as the eponymous heroine of Gluck's Alceste, her last great triumph on the operatic stage. The first performance of the revival was 21 October 1861.

The second of Gluck's so-called ‘reform operas’ (after Orfeo ed Euridice), it was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 26 December 1767. A heavily revised version with a French libretto by Leblanc du Roullet premièred in Paris on 23 April 1776. The opera is usually given in the revised version, although this is sometimes translated into Italian. Both versions are in three acts.

The portrait on the left shows Viardot-Garcia with Pierre-Jules Michot (1832-1896), the tenor who sang the role of Admète [Italian: Admeto], one of the two principal male roles in the opera.