Désirée Artôt (; 21 July 1835 – 3 April 1907) was a Belgian soprano (initially a mezzo-soprano),ésiréeArtô who was famed in German and Italian opera and sang mainly in Germany. In 1868 she was engaged, briefly, to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who may have coded her name into works such as his First Piano Concerto and the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture. After her 1869 marriage to the Spanish baritone Mariano Padilla y Ramos, she was known as Désirée Artôt de Padilla or Désirée Artôt-Padilla.
Biography
Family background
Marguerite-Joséphine-Désirée Montagney Artôt was the daughter of Jean Désiré Montagney Artôt, a horn player at La Monnaie in Brussels and professor at the Brussels Conservatory. Her uncle was the violinist Alexandre Artôt (1815–1845). He had been born Alexandre Joseph (or Joseph-Alexandre) Montagney, but adopted the surname Artôt professionally, and the rest of his family followed suit. Another uncle was the Belgian portrait painter Charles Baugniet (1814–1886).
Early career
She studied with Pauline Viardot and Francesco Lamperti in London and Paris. She appeared in concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands and on 19 June 1857 at a State Concert in England. Giacomo Meyerbeer engaged her for the Paris Opéra, where she made her debut on 5 February 1858 as Fidès in his Le prophète, to great success. She also sang the title role in a condensed version of Gounod's Sapho. Hector Berlioz and others praised her singing in the Journal des Débats on 17 February. However, she abandoned the French repertoire and went to sing in Italy in 1859. She also sang in Berlin that year, at the opening of the Victoria Theatre with Lorini's Italian company. She was highly successful in The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola, Il trovatore and other roles there.
Artôt sang in London in 1859-60 and again in 1863 (at Her Majesty's Theatre), in La fille du régiment, La traviata, and Norma (as Adalgisa, with Thérèse Tietjens in the title role). In 1861, she was briefly engaged to the Welsh harpist John Thomas.
She returned to England in 1864, where she sang at Covent Garden, and 1866, in Gounod's Faust and other roles.
Russia and Tchaikovsky
In 1868 she visited Russia with a touring Italian company that also include Roberto Stagno. She captivated Moscow: at a reception for her at the home of Maria Begicheva, the hostess knelt before Artôt and kissed her hand. (Maria Begicheva was the wife of the repertory director of the Moscow state theatres, and the mother, from her first marriage, of one of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's future lovers, Vladimir Shilovsky.)
Désirée Artôt met Tchaikovsky briefly at a party at the Begichevs in the spring. He also visited her after her benefit performance, for which he wrote additional recitatives for a production of Daniel Auber's opera Le domino noir. They again met by chance at a musical party, where she expressed her surprise that he had not visited her more often during the autumn. He promised he would do so, but he did not intend to keep his promise, however Anton Rubinstein persuaded him to see her at the opera. She then started to send him invitations every day, and he became accustomed to visiting her every evening. He later described her to his brother Modest as possessing "exquisite gesture, grace of movement, and artistic poise". He had put aside his work on his symphonic poem Fatum in order to give her all his attention. It seems plausible that Tchaikovsky was more captivated in her as a singer and actor than as a romantic interest, and had difficulty in separating the artist from the person. Tchaikovsky dedicated his Romance in F minor for piano, Op. 5, to Artôt.