Adelina Patti

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Franz Xaver Winterhalter : Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti, lithograph by Vinzenz Katzler , 1863
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti, bust in the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, London
Adelina Patti sings Una voce poco fa from Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini (1905)
Caricature by Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti , actually Adela Juana Maria Patti (born February 18, 1843 in Madrid , † September 27, 1919 in Craig-y-Nos , Wales ) was a Spanish opera singer ( soprano , soprano sfogato ) of Italian descent. The artist was considered one of the great coloratura sopranos of her time.

Life

Adelina Patti, daughter of the Italian singers Salvatore Patti and Caterina Barili-Patti , was a student of her brother-in-law Moritz Strakosch . At the age of seven she is said to have sung the most difficult arias from memory without any errors. In 1852 she made her first public appearance in New York . She made her operatic debut in 1859 as Lucia in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor , a role (which places enormous demands on the soprano s coloratura) which was the cornerstone of her meteoric career. Due to her clear voice and considerable range, she has received the most important roles in operas by Vincenzo Bellini , Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi .

The artist has sung on numerous European theaters, in South America and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The “opera diva” was hired to Russia for one season, where she was showered with enormous wealth as a “court singer”. To her European guest appearances, Adelina Patti traveled in a custom-made private train with 50 suitcases, a menagerie of pets as well as her private secretary and personal chef.

No singer got higher salaries; she was the undisputed “superstar” of Italian opera in the second half of the 19th century. For her "irrevocably last" tour through the USA announced for November 1903, she is said to have demanded and received $ 5,000 plus profit sharing for 60 concerts within six months.

Her famous jewelry went into the possession of the soprano Eva Turner, who in turn bequeathed it to Gwyneth Jones .

On March 28, 1866, a critic wrote of Adelina Patti's role as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata :

“In my opinion, Miss Patti should only ever play the first act of 'La traviata', which so far has been one of the most wonderful flowers of her crown. The first act is like a frenzy. She sings with perfect brilliance, with a fresh voice, youthful exuberance and luxurious fioritur; that turn the hall into a ballroom ... For so much grace, glamor and virtuosity, the enthusiasm cannot be big enough "

- quoted n. Parouty n.d., p. 108

Contemporary witnesses

Oscar Wilde set a monument to Adelina Patti in his novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray :

“My dear Basil, how should I know? murmured Dorian Gray, sipping some pale yellow wine from the delicate, gold-rimmed goblet made of Venetian glass, and looked extremely bored. I was in the opera. You should have come too. I met Henry's sister, Lady Gwendolen, there. We were in her box. She is extremely charming and Patti sang divinely. "

family

Her two sisters Carlotta Patti (1835–1889) and Amelia Patti (1831–1915) were also respected singers. Her brother Carlo Patti (1842–1873) was a well-known violinist and conductor who u. a. at the New Orleans Opera, later in New York and St. Louis.

Adelina Patti was married three times. In 1868 she married the Marquis Sébastien Henri de Cahuzac, Marquis de Caux (1825-1889), who worked as a dancer and stable master at the French court. The marriage ended in divorce in 1885. Patti married the tenor Ernst Nocolini (actually: Ernest Nikolas) (* February 23, 1834, † January 19, 1898). He was previously married with five children and has now been through a scandalous divorce. After his death in 1899 she married the then 23-year-old Baron Olof Rudolf von Cederström . She spent her twilight years at Craig y Nos Castle near Brecknock in Wales. Her grave is, according to her wishes, in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris .

Literature (selection)

Discography (selection)

  • Adelina Patti 2-LP Box EMI RLS 711
  • Adelina Patti Pearl CD 9312
  • Adelina Patti - The Symposium Opera Collection Vol. 14
  • Adelina Patti and Victor Maurel

Web links

Commons : Adelina Patti  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sport & Salon , Vienna, March 21, 1903, p. 23
  2. ↑ No red gown for Dame Gwyneth or Haunted Craig-y-Nos Castle. In: Die Welt , July 29, 1995.
  3. ^ Men of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries , p. 755
  4. ↑ Short biography
personal data
SURNAME Patti, Adelina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Patti, Adela Juana Maria (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish opera singer (soprano) of Italian descent
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1919
Place of death Craig-y-Nos , Wales