Album releases devoted to re-creating the repertory of singers from the Baroque era have become common enough, yet those treating the major singers of the 19th century have not, even though the latter are closer to us in time. Here, mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti pays tribute to Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), the younger sister of Maria Malibran, who stepped into the spotlight after Malibran's death in a horseback riding accident. An evidently charismatic figure who attracted courtship from some of the top creative figures in Europe, Viardot had a long career that began in the 1830s and extended to at least 1870, when she gave the premiere of Brahms' Alto Rhapsody. She spoke Spanish, French, Italian, English, German, and Russian, the latter fluently enough that she could convince native speakers that she was one of them. Camille Saint-Saens, who dedicated his opera Samson et Dalila to her, said this of her voice: "It was not a velvet or a crystal voice, but rather harsh, pungent, like the taste of a bitter orange, made for tragedy or epic verse, superhuman rather than human." This does not quite describe Viotti's voice, but she has a rich, if rather monochrome, sound and an imperious quality that is appropriate here. Christophe Rousset, leading the historically oriented Les Talens Lyriques, gets fine results in the instrumental selections, notably the overture to Rossini's Semiramide. The program is well chosen; it doesn't showcase all of Viardot's languages, but the mix of French and Italian arias must have been characteristic of her programs. Of course, there is something speculative about recordings like this, but one can't help but think the figure of Pauline Viardot comes a bit more alive here and that 19th century opera buffs will be glad to have the album; enough felt that way to place the album on classical best-seller charts in the fall of 2022. ~ James Manheim