De Bériot returned to Paris, where Sontag and Malibran were engaged in
ardent artistic rivalry, about equally dividing the suffrages of the
French public. Mlle. Sontag was a beautiful, fair-haired, blue-eyed
woman, in the very flush of her youth, with an expression of exquisite
sweetness and mildness. De Bériot became madly enamored of her at once,
and pressed his suit with vehemence, but without success. Henrietta
Sontag was already the betrothed of Count Rossi, whom she soon afterward
married, though the engagement was then a secret. The lady's firm
refusal of the young Belgian artist's overtures filled him with a deep
melancholy, which he showed so unmistakably that he became an object of
solicitude to all his friends. Among those was Mme. Malibran, whose warm
sympathies went out to an artist whose talents she admired. Malibran,
living apart from her husband, was obliged to be careful in her conduct,
to avoid giving food for the scandal of a censorious world, but this
did not prevent her from exhibiting the utmost pity and kindness in her
demeanor toward De Bériot. The violinist was soothed by this gentle and
delightful companion, and it was not long before a fresh affection, even
stronger than the other, sprang up in his susceptible nature for the
woman whose ardent Spanish frankness found it difficult to conceal the
fact that she cherished sentiments different from mere friendship.
The splendid career of Mme. Malibran shines almost without a rival in
the records of the lyric stage, and her influence on De Bériot, first
her lover and afterward her husband, was most marked. Maria Garcia,
afterward Mme. Malibran, was one of a family of very eminent musicians.
She was trained by her father, Manuel Garcia, who, in addition to being
a tenor singer of world-wide reputation, was a composer of some repute,
and the greatest teacher of his time. Her sister, Pauline Garcia, in
after years became one of the greatest dramatic singers who ever lived,
and her brother Manuel also attained considerable eminence as singer,
song-composer, and teacher. The whole family were richly dowered with
musical gifts, and Maria was probably one of the most versatile and
accomplished musical artists of any age. At the age of thirteen she was
a professed musician, and at fifteen, when she came with her parents to
London, she obtained a complete triumph by accidentally performing in
Rossini's "Il Barbiere," to supply the place of a prima donna who was
unable to appear.
We can not tarry here to enter into the details of her interesting life.
Her father having taken her to America, where she fulfilled a number
of engagements with an increasing success, she finally espoused there
a rich merchant named Malibran, much older than herself. It was a most
ill-advised marriage, and, to make matters worse, the merchant failed
very soon afterward. Some go so far as to say that he foresaw this
catastrophe before he contracted his marriage, in the hope of regaining
his fortune by the proceeds of the singer's career. However that may be,
a separation took place, and Mme. Malibran returned to Paris in 1827.
Her singing in Italian opera was everywhere a source of the most
enthusiastic ovation, and, as she rose like a star of the first
magnitude in the world of song, so the young De Bériot was fast earning
his laurels as one of the greatest violinists of the day. In 1830 an
indissoluble friendship united these two kindred spirits, and in 1832 De
Bériot, Lablache, the great basso, and Mme. Malibran set out for a tour
in Italy, where the latter had operatic engagements at Milan, Rome,
and Naples, and where they all three appeared in concerts with the most
_éclatant_ success--as may well be imagined.
At Bologna, in 1834, it is difficult to say whether the cantatrice,
or the violinist, or the inestimable basso, produced the greatest
sensation; but her bust in marble was there and then placed under the
peristyle of the Opera-house.
Henceforward De Bériot never quitted her, and their affection seems to
have increased as time wore on. In the year following she appeared in
London, where she gave forty representations at Drury Lane, performing
in "La Sonnambula," "The Maid of Artois," etc., for which she received
the sum of three thousand two hundred pounds. De Bériot would not have
made this amount probably with his violin in a year.
After a second journey to Italy, in which Mme. Malibran renewed the
enthusiasm which she had first created in the public mind, and a series
of brilliant concerts which also added to De Bériot's prestige, they
returned to Paris to wait for the divorce of Mme. Malibran from her
husband, which had been dragging its way through the courts. The much
longed for release came in 1836, and the union of hearts and
lives, whose sincerity and devotion had more than half condoned its
irregularity, was sanctified by the Church. The happiness of the
artistic pair was not destined to be long. Only a month afterward Mme.
de Bériot, who was then singing in London, had a dangerous fall from
her horse. Always passionately fond of activity and exercise, she was an
excellent horsewoman, and was somewhat reckless in pursuing her favorite
pursuit. The great singer was thrown by an unruly and badly trained
animal, and received serious internal injuries. Her indomitable spirit
would not, however, permit her to rest. She returned to the Continent
after the close of the London season, to give concerts, in spite of her
weak health, and gave herself but little chance of recovery, before
she returned again to England in September to sing at the Manchester
festival, her last triumph, and the brilliant close of a short and very
remarkable life. She was seized with sudden and severe illness, and died
after nine days of suffering. During this period of trial to De Bériot,
he never left the bedside of his dying wife, but devoted himself
to ministering to her comfort, except once when she insisted on his
fulfilling an important concert engagement. Racked with pain as she was,
her greatest anxiety was as to his artistic success, fearing that his
mental anguish would prevent his doing full justice to his talents. It
is said that her friends informed her of the vociferous applause which
greeted his playing, and a happy smile brightened her dying face. She
died September 22, 1836, at the age of twenty-eight, but not too soon to
have attained one of the most dazzling reputations in the history of
the operatic stage. M. de Bériot was almost frantic with grief, for a
profound love had joined this sympathetic and well-matched pair, and
their private happiness had not been less than their public fame.*
* For a full sketch of Mme. Malibran de Beriot's artistic and
personal career, the reader is referred to "Great Singers,
Malibran to Tietjens," Appletons' "Handy-Volume Series."
The news of this calamity to the world of music spread swiftly through
the country, and was known in Paris the next day, where M. Mali-bran,
the divorced husband of the dead singer, was then living. As the fortune
which Mme. de Bériot had made by her art was principally invested in
France, and there were certain irregularities in the French law which
opened the way for claims of M. Malibran on her estate, De Bériot was
obliged to hasten to Paris before his wife's funeral to take out letters
of administration, and thus protect the future of the only child left by
his wife, young Charles de Bériot, who afterward became a distinguished
pianist, though never a professional musician. As the motives of this
sudden disappearance were not known, De Bériot was charged with the
most callous indifference to his wife. But it is now well known that
his action was guided by a most imperative necessity, the welfare of
his infant son, all that was left him of the woman he had loved so
passionately. The remains of Mme. de Bériot were temporarily interred
in the Collegiate Church in Manchester, but they were shortly afterward
removed to Laeken, near Brussels. Over her tomb in the Laeken churchyard
the magnificent mausoleum surmounted with her statue was erected by
De Bériot. The celebrated sculptor Geefs modeled it, and the work is
regarded as one of the _chefs-d'ouvre_ of the artist.