Heroic Artists, Critical Abuse, and the Death of Maria Malibran

Abstract

Maria Malibran (1808–36), the most famous opera star of her day, suffered a violent, protracted, and gory death. Although the story of her final days has been told time and again, this article offers a new reading, focusing on the abuse that she sustained as a child at the hands of her father, Manuel Garcia, and the subsequent trauma that followed her for the rest of her life. This rereading of Malibran’s death draws on the growing body of scholarship dedicated to understanding the daily life and contributions of performers, especially prima donnas. In reevaluating some of the key moments of her development as an artist and person, I nevertheless take a largely biographical approach, adding elements to her story while casting new light on other established narratives. In so doing, my aim is not only to correct long-standing assumptions surrounding the causes of her illnesses and death but also to illustrate that many of the pressures Malibran faced throughout her career reveal a set of burdens shared by many other prima donnas as well as some leading men. By exploring how Malibran responded to these pressures, I expand the picture of the conditions in which nineteenth-century prima donnas were trained and worked, and suggest that their heroism can be taken at face value, without the guise of mythical Romanticism.