[Gioacchino ROSSINI]. Pauline VIARDOT (1821-1910). Original - Lot 118

[Gioacchino ROSSINI]. Pauline VIARDOT (1821-1910). Original drawing; pen and brown and black ink wash, 20 x 31 cm sight (framed). Scene from Rossini's Otello, captioned "Figlia, ti maledi....!" [maledico]. The scene depicted is at the end of Act I (Scene 3). Present are Senator Elmiro cursing his daughter Desdemona, kneeling at his feet, Otello wearing a turban, Rodrigo in a feathered cap, and, on the left behind Desdemona, his companion Emilia (Iago's wife), identified as "Madame Bettini". Rossini's opera premiered in Naples in 1816. Rossini's Otello is something of a family affair for Pauline Viardot. Her father, Manuel Garcia, was one of the finest Otello interpreters of his time (he had created the role of Almaviva in Rossini's Barber of Seville), and her sister Maria Malibran (pictured here) an unforgettable Desdemona.