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| Portrait of Adelina Patti (c. 1863) by Franz Xaver Winterhalter |
By Cav. Charles Sant’Elia
Carlotta Patti was born in Florence in 1835, the second child of Salvatore Patti and Caterina Chiesa Barili-Patti. Carlotta took up piano studies under Henri Herz, the well-known Austrian virtuoso and teacher who taught and performed in the United States between 1845 and 1851. In 1852, the eldest sister, mezzo-soprano Amalia Patti, married impresario Maurice Strakosch. Carlotta became a good pianist and, in turn, taught her younger sister piano. Carlotta traveled to the West Indies and South America in 1856 to care for her ailing elder half-sister, Clotilde, from her mother’s first marriage to the composer Francesco Barili. Carlotta was in Lima, Peru, in April 1857, shortly before returning to New York from Panama on 14 May 1857.
It had been assumed there was some rivalry between Carlotta and Adelina, as Adelina had great success during her tour of the West Indies with Gottschalk, performing in Havana just weeks before her half-sister’s (Clotilde) death in March 1858. Carlotta, while studying piano, also studied voice. Her training may have been partly with Clotilde’s husband, Carlo Scola, who had returned to New York with Maurice Strakosch in September 1859 with several Italian opera singers. Adelina went on tour through eastern cities in the spring and summer of 1860 and on to Chicago with Amalia, the tenor Pasquale Brignoli, Strakosch at the piano, and others.
The youngest daughter Adelina (registered locally as Adela Juana Maria Patti),[4] would become the world-famous soprano. She was born in Madrid on 10 February 1843 and died at her estate in Craig-y-Nos Castle, near Brecon, Wales, on 27 September 1919.
As a child, Adelina was naturally steeped in music at home, and she sang and played for fun, wearing her mother’s clothes and stage costumes with her dolls as an audience. Her parents and brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch realized she was indeed a child prodigy and launched her career. Adelina developed into a coloratura soprano with equalized vocal registers and what was referred to as a velvety tone, studying under her father and Strakosch.
Adelina’s initial success enabled the family to build the Wakefield home (which is now in the Bronx). Built in 1855 at 4718 Matilda Avenue, it was the first brick house in the area, which was then part of Westchester County before its incorporation into the expanding Bronx. For a long time, it was forgotten until recent efforts of the Italian and opera communities to landmark it.
When she accompanied the family to New York in 1844, she began studying with her elder half-brother, Ettore Barilli. She made her first public appearance at a charity concert at Triplets Hall at the age of 7 and sang arias from Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She had become a noted success as an early review mentioned her:
“The programme included a fantasia from Lucia, and a portion of the Carnival of Venice, with two or three other pieces by Mr. Jaell, which were rendered with marvellous taste and delicacy. The piano-forte is a new instrument under his finished touch. Nor should the other musical wonder, the child Adelina Patti, be forgotten. A very successful imitation of the Echo Song of Jenny Lind Was vehemently encored” (New York Daily Times, 25 November 1851).
By her own account, it was Ettore who became her first and most influential singing teacher. She then toured the United States. as a child prodigy with her brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch,[5] and with Ole Bull, and later toured with at the age of twelve, Adelina went on a tour of Cuba and the Caribbean with Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the famous pianist. She had become incredibly successful, and her voice was almost ruined through overwork. Her family and entourage then had her rest and train at home (1857). As the “little Florinda,” she made her formal début as Lucia in New York on 24 November 1859, at the age of 16 at the Academy of Music; her European debut followed at London’s Covent Garden as Amina in La Sonnambula on 16 May 1861. She was hailed as the successor of the famed soprano Giulia Grisi and returned to Covent Garden each season for the next 25 years. On 24 August 1860, Patti and Emma Albani were soloists in the world premiere of Charles Wugk Sabatier’s Cantata in Montreal, which was performed in honor of the visit of the Prince of Wales.
She sang in Berlin (1861), then in Brussels, Amsterdam, and The Hague (1862). She appeared as Amina at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris (19 November 1862) and at Vienna’s Karlstheater (1863); and made her first tour of Italy in 1865–66.
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[4] Adelina Patti was baptized on 8 April 1843, having been born at four o’clock in the afternoon of the 10 February 1843, the daughter of Salvatore Patti, professor of music, born at Catania, in Sicily, and of Caterina Chiesa, born in Rome. The paternal grandparents were listed as Pietro Patti and Concetta Marino, and the maternal were Giovanni Chiesa, born in Venice, and Luisa Caselli, born in Marino, in the Papal States. Her parents were working in Madrid at the time of her birth. Because her father came from Sicily, Patti was born a subject of the King of the Two Sicilies, according to international law of the time whereby the legal status of the father or husband determined the citizenship of the whole family. She later held a French passport, as her first two husbands were French. While some later sources refer to the Pattis as a “Franco-Italian family,” this is misleading and inaccurate despite their activities and burial in Paris. Nota bene, many sources also erroneously list Adelina’s birth date as 19 February.
[5] Maurice and Max Strakosch were brothers who emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Maurice Strakosch was born in Moravia sometime around 1824. He became a concert pianist at the age of eleven. He became involved in opera, where he gained renown as a tenor. (See “Death of Maurice Strakosch,” The New York Times, 10 October 1887; “Forty Years A Manager,” The New York Times, 11 October 1887) In 1843 he moved to New York to travel with Salvatore Patti, who was managing a traveling opera troupe. Maurice eventually managed his own troupes and composed and performed his own pieces as well. Maurice then began his own company and developed a partnership with Bernard Ullman, which lasted until 1860. Maurice died in Paris on 9 October 1887 (See “Death of Maurice Strakosch,” The New York Times, 10 October 1887; “Forty Years A Manager,” The New York Times, 11 October 1887).
Max Strakosch was likewise born in Moravia on 27 September 1835, and followed his brother Maurice to the United States in 1853. While he was not known as a musical performer as was his brother, he was a respected theatre manager and impresario. In January 1862, Max wrote a letter to Gottschalk offering him a round of American concerts. Gottschalk accepted and began the concert series in New York in February. After Maurice left to tour Europe and manage his sister-in-law Adelina Patti’s shows, Max remained in the United States and continued to put on operatic performances, including Don Pasquale, Norma, Il Trovatore, La Favorita, Don Giovanni, and Lucrezia Borgia. In 1883 Max opened his own theatre in New York (See “Max Strakosch’s New Theatre,” The New York Times, 1 June 1883). In the obituary of Charles Ignatius Pfaff, Max is mentioned as one of the "Knights of the Round Table" who had made an impression on the establishment. In 1888 Max took ill and struggled with his health until he died on 17 March 1892.
