Patti
Patti
Patti, family of prominent Italian singers:
(1) Salvatore Patti, tenor; b. Catania, 1800; d. Paris, Aug. 21, 1869. He was 2nd tenor at Palermo’s Teatro Carolino (1825–26). After singing throughout Sicily,Italy, and Spain, he settled in N.Y. (1844), where he became active as an opera manager. His wife was the soprano Caterina Chiesa Barilli-Patti (b. Rome, date unknown; d. there, Sept. 6, 1870). She studied with her first husband, Barilli, and created the role of Eleanora in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais (Naples, Nov. 19, 1836); later sang in N.Y. before retiring to Rome. She had 4 children by her first husband, all of whom became singers. She had 3 daughters by her 2nd husband:
(2) Amalia Patti, singer; b. Paris, 1831; d. there, Dec. 1915. She appeared in opera and concert in the U.S. until marrying Maurice Strakosch.
(3) Carlotta Patti, soprano; b. Florence, Oct. 30,1835; d. Paris, June 27,1889. She studied with her parents and with Henri Herz in Paris, making her concert debut in N.Y. (1861). She sang opera at the Academy of Music there (1862), but due to lameness decided to pursue a concert career, and toured in the U.S. and Europe. After marrying the cellist Ernest de Munck (1871), she settled in Paris as a voice teacher.
(4) Adelina (actually, Adela Juana Maria) Patti, greatly celebrated soprano; b. Madrid, Feb. 19, 1843; d. Craig-y-Nos Castle, near Brecon, Wales, Sept. 27, 1919. She was taken to N.Y. (1844), where she began study with her half-brother, Ettore Barilli, and made her first public appearance at a charity concert at Triplets Hall when she was 7. She then toured the U.S. as a child prodigy with her brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch, and with Ole Bull, and later toured with Gottschalk (1857). As the “little Florinda,” she made her formal debut as Lucia in N.Y. on Nov. 24, 1859; her European debut followed at London’s Covent Garden as Amina in La Sonnambula on May 16, 1861. She was hailed as the true successor of Grisi, and subsequently returned to Covent Garden each season for the next 25 years. She sang in Berlin (1861), then in Brussels, Amsterdam, and The Hague (1862). She appeared as Amina at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris (Nov. 19,1862), a role she sang at Vienna’s Karlstheater (1863); made her first tour of Italy in 1865–66. She married the Marquis de Caux in Paris in 1868; soon after their divorce in 1885, she married the tenor Nicolini; after his death in 1898, she married the Swedish nobleman Baron Rolf Cederstrom in 1899. Patti made her first appearance at Milan’s La Scala as Violetta on Nov. 3, 1877. She returned to the U.S. for a concert tour in 1881–82, then sang in opera there under the auspices of J.H. Mapleson during the next 3 seasons, earning as much as $5,000 per performance. In 1886–87 she again toured the U.S. under the auspices of H.E. Abbey, who presented her at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. in the spring of 1887, and then again in 1890 and 1892; her final tour of the U.S. followed in 1903. She made her last appearance at Covent Garden in 1895, and her operatic farewell took place in Nice in 1897. Her official farewell concert was given at London’s Albert Hall on Dec. 1,1906. Her last public appearance was at a benefit concert for the Red Cross in that same hall on Oct. 20,1914. Patti was one of the greatest coloraturas of the 19th century. Although her voice was not one of great power, it possessed a wide range, wonderful flexibility, and perfect evenness. In addition to Amina and Lucia, she was renowned for such roles as Zerlina, Rosina, Norina, Elvira, Martha, Adina, and Gilda; she was also esteemed as Aida and Gounod’s Marguerite.
Bibliography
T. de Grave, Le Biographie d’A. P. (Paris, 1865); G. de Charnace, A. P. (Paris, 1868); G. Dalmazzo, A. P.’s Life (London, 1877); L. Lauw, Fourteen Years with A. P. (London, 1884); H. Klein, The Reign of P. (N.Y., 1920).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire