Born: 10 February 1843, Spain
Died: 27 September 1919
Country most active: Italy
Also known as: Adela Juana Maria Patti
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
Greatest Italian Vocalist of the Century
Her father and mother were both operatic singers. At the birth of Adelina the mother lost her voice and the family in distress removed to America. At four years of age the child showed remarkable musical talent and received piano instruction from her sister Carlotta and vocal lessons from her stepbrother Barili, and her brother-in-law Strakosch, who possessed splendid talents as a singer and had won a considerable reputation.
Thus having the advantage of musical taste and ability inherited from both parents, she grew up admit musical influences from birth and then received most careful and long continued training.
When nine years old she appeared in a concert with Strakosch and won splendid success. A series of concerts followed and Adelina received as her share of the profits $10,000. In this series Strakosch and Ole Bull were the instrumentalists. She was the infantile prima donna.
After several years of success in America she went to Europe with her brother-in-law, but the London manager would not even give her an opportunity to sing. When about to return to the United States the manager of the Covent Garden Theater gave her permission to sing three times, but without pay. She made her appearance in Bellini’s Sonnambula. Her triumph was immediate, her career was to the people of London like the blazing meteor. The way was opened for her in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia.
In 1868 she was married to the Marquis de Caux in London and ten years later divorced. In 1886 she was married to Signor Nicolini, an opera singer.
Besides a voice of exceptional beauty, range, and flexibility, she possessed rare powers as an actress. Though too small of stature to personate the great characters of the highest style of tragic opera, she did excel in parts requiring archness or coquetry, also in pathos and sentiment, notably in Donizetti’s Lucia or Gounod’s Marguerite.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Adelina Patti, an operatic singer of Italian parentage, born in Madrid, Spain. The daughter of opera singers, she was brought up in New York, where she was trained by Strakosch, and where her wonderful voice, when she was only in her seventh year, saved her family from poverty.
In November, 1859, she made her début in New York as Lucia, and in May, 1861, in London as Amina in La Somnambula, after which she was acknowledged one of the greatest artists of her day. Her success in all the European capitals was tremendous, partly because of her personal grace and charm as an actress, but mostly due to her voice, an unusually high soprano, of rich bell-like quality, and remarkable evenness of tone.
She frequently sang in New York where she was a great favorite, and in 1903 made an American concert tour, which showed that her vocal powers were only slightly impaired.
In 1868 she married the Marquix of Caux from whom she was divorced; in 1886 she married the tenor Niccolini, after whose death in 1898 she married Baron Cedarstrom.
She acquired a large fortune, and made her residence in her magnificent castle at Craig-y-Nos, Wales.
Adelina Patti was the first operatic singer in the world to be made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and European potentates vied with each other in bestowing upon her jewels, decorations and social distinctions.
Alexandre Dumas once said to her: “Being a man and a Christian, I love to listen to your singing; but if I were a bird I would die of envy.
The following is excerpted from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1900 and edited by George Grove.
PATTI, Adelina (Adela or Adèle Juaña Maria), born Feb. 19 [App. p.745 “Feb. 10”], 1843, at Madrid, was the youngest daughter of Salvatore Patti, an Italian singer, who died in 1869, and a Spanish mother, also a singer, well known in Spain and Italy, before her marriage with Patti, as Signora Barili. [App. p.745 “Both parents of Mme. A. Patti were Italians, her father having been born at Catania, Sicily, and her mother at Rome. The latter’s maiden name was Chiesa, and before her marriage with Signor Patti she had married a certain Signor Barilli. Their son, Antonio Barilli, a musician, died at Naples, aged 50, June 15, 1876. (Pougin, Supplement to Fétis.)”] The parents of Adelina went to America, and she was taken there as a child. Having shown great aptitude for music, Mlle. Patti received instruction in singing from Maurice Strakosch, who married her elder sister Amelia; she appeared in public in America at a very early age, and was well received; but was wisely withdrawn for some years for the purpose of further study. She reappeared Nov. 24, 1859, at New York, as Lucia, and played other parts, in all of which she was highly successful. Mlle. Patti made her début in England May 14, 1861, at the Royal Italian Opera, as Amina, with wonderful success, and from that time became famous, though quite unknown before. She repeated that part no less than eight times, and confirmed her success by her performance of Lucia, Violetta, Zerlina (‘Don Giovanni’), Martha and Rosina. She sang that autumn at the Birmingham Festival, in opera at Liverpool, Manchester, etc., and afterwards was engaged at Berlin, Brussels, and Paris. From 1861 to the present time Mme. Patti has sung at Covent Garden every year, and has maintained her position as perhaps the most popular operatic artist of the time. Mme. Patti made an operatic tour in the provinces in 1862; sang at the Birmingham Festival of 1864, notably as Adah on the production of ‘Naaman’; at the Handel Festivals of 1865, 1877, and 1880; at the Liverpool Festival of 1874, as well as in several brilliant provincial concert tours. She has enjoyed the same popularity on the continent, having fulfilled several engagements at Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc., and in various cities of Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.
Her voice is of moderate power but great compass, reaching to F in alt; her execution is brilliant and finished, and she has considerable charm both of person and manner. Her répertoire is extensive, upwards of 30 characters, chiefly of the Italian school, many of which, such as Maria, Norina, Adina, Linda, Luisa Miller, Desdemona, Ninetta, Semiramide, etc., were revived for her; she is also quite at home in the works of Meyerbeer and Gounod. The new parts which she has created in England are Annetta (‘Crispino e la Comare’), July 14, 1866; Esmeralda, June 14, 1870; Gelmina, June 4, 1872; Juliet, July 11, 1867; La Catarina (‘Diamans de la Couronne’), July 3, 1872;[2] Aida, June 22, 1876; and Estella (‘Les Bluets’) of Jules Cohen (Covent Garden, under the title of ‘Estella,’ July 3, 1880), perhaps with a little more success than when Mme. Nilsson played the part in Paris. Of the other parts, only as Juliet and Aida has she obtained any permanent popularity. The Zerlina of Mozart is the only character she has played in classical opera. Mme. Patti married, July 29, 1868, Henri Marquis de Caux, Equerry to Napoleon III. [App. p.745 “In 1885 Mme. Patti was divorced from the Marquis de Caux, and in 1886 married M. Nicolini. [See above, p. 731b.]”] Her elder sister, Carlotta, was born in 1840 at Florence. She was educated as a pianist under Herz, but abandoned the piano in favour of singing. She made her début in 1861 at New York as a concert singer, and afterwards fulfilled an engagement there in Italian opera, and was successful, but soon after abandoned the stage on account of her lameness. She made her début in England April 16, 1863, at a concert at Covent Garden Theatre, attracted attention on account of her pleasant and remarkable facility of execution, obtained a position here in concerts as a singer of the lighter class, and was for several seasons a great attraction at promenade and other concerts. Mlle. Patti has made several concert tours in the provinces, on the continent, and in America. She married, Sept. 3, 1879, Ernst de Munck, of Weimar, the violoncellist.
Carlo, their brother, born at Madrid in 1842, was taken to America, like his sisters, when a child, studied the violin, and at the of 20 became leader at the New Orleans Opera House, afterwards at New York, and the Wakefield Opera House, St. Louis, Missouri. He died at the last-named city March 17, 1873.
The following is excerpted from A Woman of the Century, edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary A Livermore, published in 1893 by Charles Wells Moulton.
PATTI, Mme. Adelina, prima donna, born in Madrid, Spain, 19th February, 1843. Her maiden name was Adelina Juana Maria Clorinda Patti. Her father was Salvatore Patti, a Sicilian operatic tenor, who came to the United States in 1848, and died in Paris, France, in 1859. Her mother, known by her stage-name, Signora Barilli, was a native of Rome, Italy, and a well-known singer. She sang the title role in “Norma” on the night before the birth of Adelina. The mother was twice married, and her first husband was Sig. Barilli. The Patti family removed to the United States in 1844 and settled in New York City.
Adelina’s great musical talent and her remarkably fine voice were early discovered by her family, and in infancy she was put under training. She learned the rudiments of music from her step-brother, Sig. Barilli, and her brother-in-law, Maurice Strakosch. She could sing before she could talk well, and at four years of age she sang many operatic airs correctly. When seven years old, she sang “Casta Diva” and “Una Voce” in a concert in New York City. In 1852 she made her debut as a concert-singer, in a tour in Canada with Ole Bull and Strakosch. In 1854 she sang again in New York City, and she then went with Gottschalk, the pianist, to the West Indies. She thus earned the money to complete her musical education, and she studied for five years. She made her debut in Italian opera in New York City, 24th November, 1859, in “Lucia.” Her success was instantaneous and unparalleled. She sang in other standard rôles and at once went to the front as a star. She sang first in London, Eng., in “La Sonnambula,” 14th May, 1861, and she carried the city by storm. She made her first appearance in Paris 16th November, 1862, and during the next two years she sang in Holland, Belgium, Austria and Prussia, winning everywhere a most unprecedented series of triumphs. After 1864 she sang in the Italiens in Paris, and went to London, Baden, Brussels and St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, in 1870, the Czar bestowed upon her the Order of Merit and the title of “First Singer of the Court.” She sang in Rome and returned to Paris in 1874. From 1861 to 1880 she sang every season in the Covent Garden Concerts in London, in the Handel festivals, and in concert-tours through the British provinces. In 1881 and 1882 she sang in concerts in the United States. She sang in opera in this country in the seasons of 1882-83, of 1884-85, and of 1886-87. In December, 1887. she started on an extensive tour of the United States, Mexico and South America. Her career has been one of unbroken successes. Her earnings have amounted to millions. She was married 29th July, 1868, to Marquis de Caux, a French nobleman. The wedding took place in London, Eng. The marriage proved uncongenial, and she separated from her husband. In 1885 she obtained a divorce from him, and in 1886 she was married to Ernesto Nicolini, an Italian tenor-singer. Her second union has been an ideal one. She has a tine estate, called “Craig-y-N’os,” in the Swansea valley, Wales, where she lives in regal fashion. She has there a private theater, costing $30,000, in which she entertains her visitors. In person Madame Patti-Nicolini is rather small. She as dark eyes and black hair, and a very mobile face. She has never been a great actor, but all other deficiencies were lost in the peerless art of her singing. Her voice is a soprano, formerly of a wide range, but now showing wear in the upper ranges. She has a faultless ear for music and is said never to have sung a false note. On the stage she is arch and winning, and even now she sings with consummate art. Her repertory includes about one-hundred operas.