The Nightingale

Author and musician Carol Russell Law gives readers a glimpse into the life of the first female superstar of opera, Maria Malibran. Maria Malibran's father, Manuel del Popolo Vicente Garcia, brought opera sung in Italian to the United States in 1825. Soon to become the toast of two continents, Maria had just begun to make a name for herself when her father whisked her off to the rough and tumble city of New York in the early 1800s. A dedicated opera tenor renowned in Europe's top musical circles, the Garcia family patriarch managed his daughter's career with despotic fury, even as he took pleasure with Maria when her mother was away from home. Forced to leave the man she was in love with, young Maria developed her prodigious singing talent in the New World, far from the sophisticated audiences of the Continent. The day before she turned 18, Maria married a ship owner whose fortunes were soon to fade. Maria would eventually return to Europe-and even greater fame and glory.