Maria Malibran was one of the most famous singers of the early 19th century. The painting shows her during a performance of Rossini’s Otello: hair untied, slight of waist, she enthralled Parisians with her beauty and personality, thus becoming one of the first Romantic divas. She helped revolutionise the art of singing, thanks to her extraordinary dramatic gifts.
‘La Malibran, it must be acknowledged, contributed to bringing the genre into fashion. She threw herself with abandon into every movement, every gesture, into all possible means of rendering her thought; she walked brusquely, she ran, she laughed, she cried, she smacked her forehead, mussed her hair, all this without thinking of the stalls; but, at least, she was truthful in her unrestrainedness.’
Alfred de Musset, Concert de Mademoiselle Garcia, La Revue des deux mondes, 1 January 1839