Pauline Viardot-Garcia

Pauline Viardot-Garcia 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.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.