Lithograph portrait of Maria Malibran and Laure Cinti-Damoreau; Maria Malibran, "Au bord de la mer"

French soprano Laure Cinti-Damoreau (1801-1863) and Spanish mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran (1808-1836), two of opera’s most admired bel canto singers of their day, appear here in a lithograph reproducing portraits by Friedrich Elias.

Malibran wrote over 40 pieces of salon music, many published in multiple editions during her lifetime; this song, “Au bord de la mer,” sets a text by French Romantic poet Émile Deschamps, who later wrote the libretto for Hector Berlioz's opera Romeo and Juliette. Dedicated to Baron Paul Pérignon, the song was first published in the 1820s, then reprinted as part of the posthumous series Dernières pensées, album lyrique faisant suite aux Matinées musicales. 

Geolocation: The King's Theatre in London, where Malibran made her operatic debut in Rossini's The Barber of Seville in 1825.

Me. Malibran Garcia. Mme. Damoreau Cinti. Lithograph by Wenzel Pobuda and J. Ress after drawings by Friedrich Elias (Munich, Germany : Pobuda, Rees et Cie, [ca. 1835]).

Maria Malibran. “Au bord de la mer: romances nouvelles paroles d'Emile Deschamps; musique de Ma. Garcia de Beriot” (Paris: E. Troupenas & Cie., Rue Neuve Vivienne, 40, [1835?]).
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