lyrical theatre in Seville, his early artistic experience was exclusively confined to church music. He received the instructions successively of Ripa and Almarcha, and he distinguished himself so remarkably as a vocalist, a composer, and a conductor, that he was engaged for the theatre in Cadiz in 1792, and appeared there in a piece for which he wrote the chief part of the music. Despite his extreme youth, and his awkwardness as an actor, his singing commanded immediate success, and he was soon engaged at Madrid, where he produced his first operas. Ambitious to extend his reputation, he went at the beginning of 1808 to Paris, where he first appeared at the opéra comique in Paer's Griselda. His reception was most brilliant, and a month later, he was engaged at the Thèatre Italien where he remained as principal tenor until 1811, when he went to Italy. Murat, then king of Naples, appointed Garcia chief singer of his chapel in 1812, and this engagement induced his long sojourn in the Neapolitan capital. He made there the friendship of Anzani, a singer of the old pure Italian school, who imparted to him the principles of vocalization for which that school will always be famous, but which were wholly unknown to the teachers under whom he had studied in Seville. Garcia in fact had hitherto owed his success rather to his remarkable natural powers than to any true artistic skill in their employment, and his singing now assumed a new and far higher character. At the end of 1816 he was engaged at Rome, when Rossini's Barbiere, in which he was the Almaviva, was produced. The following year he reappeared in Paris, where the marked change in his style won him still greater admiration than he had before excited. He came to London in 1818, and made his début here in his original character of Almaviva. His success was commensurate with his transcendant talent, and the impression of his excellence is still fresh in the memory of those veterans who witnessed it. Besides his performances at the opera, he created a great sensation by singing at the chapel of the Bavarian embassy in Warwick Street, where several masses of his composition were given, which long remained in esteem. Garcia returned to Paris in 1819, and did not reappear in England till 1824, having in the interim carried on his justly celebrated course of vocal instruction. In 1825 he went to America, taking with him a complete opera company, which included his daughter, afterwards Mad. Malibran. He commenced his transatlantic career at New York, where the performances of his company are recollected as the most complete in themselves, and the most remarkable in their effect, that have ever been given in the United States. In 1827 Garcia migrated with his troupe to Mexico, to gather a new harvest of gold and good opinion. Finding there that the words of the Italian operas were not understood, and that the people had not the northern affectation of liking them better on that account, the diligent director of the company translated every work they performed into his native Spanish, and thus the Mexicans knew him in the threefold capacity of singer, composer, and poet. Eighteen months later he returned to Europe; but on his way to Vera Cruz where he was to embark, he was attacked by banditti, who despoiled him of nearly all his earnings, including a chest which contained one thousand ounces of gold. Garcia reappeared on the Italian stage in Paris at the end of 1829, where he was warmly welcomed by his old admirers, who perceived, however, that his travels and misfortunes, if not the advance of age, had much impaired his powers. He now resumed his important occupation of teaching, and through the singers he trained he has transmitted to our generation a tradition of his style. Besides several masses and countless detached pieces, Garcia composed seventeen operas to Spanish, fifteen to Italian, and eight to French words, all of which were performed; and some others which were not produced in public. Numerous as were his works, however, and even popular for a time, it is not as a composer that he is known to fame, but almost only as a singer. His voice was of very extraordinary compass, of great power, and of exquisite quality; it was singularly flexible, and his lively invention constantly furnished him with most original and florid passages with which he ornamented almost everything he sang, and which scarcely any one but himself could have executed. Still more was his singing remarkable for its dramatic expression, and he was accustomed to produce an effect peculiar to himself by his free use of the tempo rubato; and added to all these advantages, he became, after a little practice, one of the best actors that have appeared on the lyric stage.—G. A. M.
* GARCIA, Manuel, son of the preceding, was born in Naples in 1813; ruined his fine voice by singing too much at the period of its breaking; devoted himself therefore to the analytical study of his father's method; was appointed professor of singing in the Conservatoire at Paris; resigned this office when he came to London in 1849; was engaged as a professor in the Royal Academy, and has since then been one of our most esteemed teachers.—G. A. M.
GARCIA DE MASCARENHAS, Braz, a Portuguese poet and adventurer, born in 1596. While studying at Coimbra, he killed his opponent in a duel arising out of a love affair. Being imprisoned for this offence, he contrived to escape, and resided for a year in Madrid, cultivating the friendship of the most eminent poets of the day. He travelled through Italy, France, and Spain, enlarging his knowledge and his friendships, and finally returned to Portugal. In 1614 he embarked in an expedition to Brazil, and remained there nine years fighting against the Dutch. Returning to Portugal on the accession of John IV., he was nominated governor of Alfaiates, a fortified town in Beira, and gallantly defended the place against an attack by the Spaniards. Accused, however, of conspiring with the king's enemies, he was again thrown into prison. Ere long, however, he was restored to his government, and advanced to further honours, but he retired to his birthplace, Avo, and devoted himself to literature till his death in 1656. The only extant work of his is "Viriato tragico," a poem on the defence of Portugal by Viriatus, Lisbon, 1854. His other works are lost.—F. M. W.
GARCIA Y PAREDES, Diego, a renowned Spanish captain, and follower of the great captain, Gonsalvo de Cordova, born in 1466. From the age of twelve years he followed the wars, first against Portugal, then against the Moors, and distinguished himself at the sieges of Ronda, Bæca, Malaga, and Grenada. In 1496 he obtained a command in the papal guard, but soon afterwards again joined the Spanish army, then besieging Ostia, to the capture of which he mainly contributed. He then raised a band of eight hundred men, to assist in the war which Ferdinand V. was then waging against France for the crown of Naples. He was despatched to aid the Venetians, who were endeavouring to rescue the island of Cephalonia from the Turks. The stories of his valour during this siege, as recorded by the old chroniclers, we may be excused from accepting as facts; but it is certain that he succeeded in conquering the island for the christian king. In 1501 Garcia returned to the papal service, and was successful in his operations against the faction of the Orsini; he afterwards wrested from the French Cosenza, Manfredonia, and Canosa. He attacked with his single sword a bridge over the Garigliano, defended by a formidable battery, and promptly made way for his followers. In 1508 he was sent to aid the Emperor Maximilian, then the head of the league of Cambray, formed for the purpose of humbling the Venetians, and partitioning their territories. At Pavia in 1525 he was again distinguished for his achievements, and received the order of the golden spur at the coronation of Charles V. in 1530. He died soon afterwards from the effects of a fall from his horse. He has left a memoir of his own life, which is preserved in Fernan del Pulgar's Claros Varones, &c.—F. M. W.
GARCIA. See Malibran.
GARCIAS LASSO. See Garcilasso.
GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, a Spanish poet, born in 1503 at Toledo. His father was the ambassador of Ferdinand and Isabella at Rome: his mother was the daughter of Fernan Perez de Guzman. At a suitable age he was sent to court, and about 1530 married an Arragonese lady. From this time to the close of his short life, he seems to have been almost incessantly engaged in the wars waged by the Emperor Charles V. In 1532 he distinguished himself at the defeat of the Turkish expedition of Soliman, which had almost reached the very gates of Vienna. Soon afterwards, it appears that he incurred the imperial anger by promoting the marriage of his nephew with one of the ladies of the court. He was imprisoned for a short time on an island in the Danube, where he poured forth his lamentations in the poem which passes as the third "cancion" of his works. Soon, however, he rose to higher favour than he had previously enjoyed. In 1535 we find him at the siege of Tunis, where he was twice wounded, and returned to Spain by way of Naples. Either at this time or during a previous visit to Italy, he gained the friendship of Bembo and Tansillo. The next year, 1536, we find him again attending the emperor in his disastrous
