Adelina Patti and Two Sicilies and European Opera in New York and Beyond (Part 1)

Portrait of Adelina Patti (c. 1860)
by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

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By Cav. Charles Sant’Elia

Today, as memory of past opera greats fades a bit, especially that of singers and impresarios who largely predated the age of recording, it is impressive that one of the first truly worldwide celebrities was a daughter of the Two Sicilies who studied and came of age in New York. Adelina Patti and her parents, siblings, and extended family toured the Americas, Europe and Australia and were interconnected through collaboration and marriage to several prominent musicians and impresarios. In the 19th century, a unique circle of Italian opera families, and the Patti family in particular, had a far-reaching impact on the performance and availability of opera in the United States. Traveling and living in the United States before the Risorgimento and invasion of the Two Sicilies (the Pattis moved to New York in December 1844), the Patti family were among the small number of Duosiciliani or Southern Italians in North America, where the majority of Italian communities were comprised of largely humble and vocal politically discontent Northern Italians who left Piedmont (The Kingdom of Sardinia) and the Lombardo-Venetia territories then ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, despite a few notable exceptions such as merchants, artists and scholars.[1]

At the time the Patti family first lived in Manhattan and then settled in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, which was then still part of Westchester County, New York, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a staunch ally of the United States, having signed several treaties of friendship and free trade. The Kingdom maintained a Consul and Consulate in Manhattan, Boston, Philadelphia, Savannah, and New Orleans, and an embassy in Washington, DC, and trade and scientific exchange took place throughout the 19th century. The Kingdom and the United States jointly fought the Barbary pirates and enforced the abolition of the slave trade on the seas alongside Great Britain. Letters of friendship were exchanged between President Washington and King Ferdinand IV, which are still held in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. The young and expanding United States was an exciting market for opera. Many iconic composers and performers brought their work to the country almost contemporaneously with their playing in Europe’s cities. New York was particularly active as Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte had settled there and traced an important path. Ferdinando Palmo from Naples moved to New York in 1815 following the Napoleonic upheavals and opened a sweets shop. Not doing very well in the difficult New York economy created by the further Napoleonic turmoil in North America from the War of 1812, he opened a grocery business in Virginia and later became a restauranteur and impresario and ultimately opened the Palmo Opera House on Chambers Street in New York, where his fellow Duosiciliano Salvatore Patti would later team up with him and serve as manager. Out of this international crucible, the great Adelina Patti would launch her global career, bringing her Two Sicilies flair and generosity to the world stage under the tutelage of her parents and siblings.

Palmo expanded to a newly built space that offered an 800-seat theater and sold all tickets at $1. John M. Trimble designed Palmo's Opera House, officially opening on 3 February 1844 with a production of Bellini's I puritani staring Euphrasia Borghese as Elvira, Emma Albertazzi as Henrietta, and Michael Rapetti conducting. Palmo then offered Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda and the New York première of Donizetti's Belisario. In April 1844, he presented Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia with basso buffo Antonio Sanquirico making his début as Dr. Bartolo. The same year he presented La sonnambula and L'elisir d'amore for their first presentations in New York City.

Drawing of Palmo's Opera House by Flomian from 1882.
Based on a water color by Thomas J. McKee from 1850

The 1844 season opened with Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri with Laure Cinti-Damoreau as Isabella. She featured again in the company's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Notable that season was also Rossi's Chiara Rosenberg with Rosina Pico in the title role.

In 1847 the evolving Sanquirico-Patti Opera Company became the resident opera company at Palmo's Opera House. The company's first presentation for Palmo’s was the United States première of Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix on 4 January 1847, with Clotilda Barili in the title role and Sesto Benedetti as the Vicomte de Serval. The company also presented the first opera by Verdi ever staged in the United States, I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, on 3 March 1847. Other operas that year included the New York première of Lucrezia Borgia and another staging of The Barber of Seville.

While Palmo produced works by Donizetti and Verdi, among the others mentioned above, it sadly did not survive long. Despite the achievements of the Sanquirico-Patti Opera Company, its rival, the touring Havana Opera Company, overtook it due to its nicer accommodations at the Park Theatre. In the Fall of 1847, the Sanquirico-Patti Opera Company left Palmo's for the newly built Astor Opera House, which catered to a wealthy clientele. Palmo then ceased presenting opera at the house, and the theater was leased in 1848 to William Evans Burton, who began offering English language plays. The new theatre opened with a production of Verdi’s Ernani on 27 November 1847.[2]

To further understand the context and importance of opera development in New York, one must return to the Two Sicilies. The Patti family was a family of cultivated multilingual prominent singers and musicians. The father, Salvatore Patti, from a noble Sicilian family, was born in Catania in 1800 and died in Paris on 21 August 1869. He was second tenor at Palermo’s Teatro Carolino (1825–26) and was considered an important interpreter of Donizetti roles. After singing throughout the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the states of the Italian peninsula, and Spain, he decided to pursue opportunities in the New World as more cities sought quality opera. He settled in New York in 1844 and became an opera manager. The mother was the soprano Caterina Chiesa Barilli-Patti,[3] who was born in Rome ca. 1810 and died there on 6 September 1870. She studied with her first husband, the noted composer Francesco Barilli, and is credited with creating the role of Eleanora in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais (Naples, 19 November 1836). She was prima-donna in various Italian opera houses and played Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. In the early 1840s, she was engaged by the Madrid Opera, as was her husband. Caterina also sang in New York with her husband before retiring to Rome. By the end of the 1840s, however, the New York Herald argued that she was losing her voice when she performed in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Castle Garden. After Barilli’s death, she married Patti.

Caterina had four children with her first husband: Clotilda, Ettore and Nicola, all of whom became singers, and Antonio, a singer and orchestra conductor. She had three daughters with her second husband. The oldest was Amalia Patti (Paris, 1831-December 1915). She appeared in opera and concerts in the United States until she married Maurice Strakosch, the Moravian-born musician. The middle daughter Carlotta Patti (Florence, 30 October 1835-Paris, 27 June 1889), was a soprano. She studied with her parents and Henri Herz in Paris, making her concert début in New York in 1861. She sang opera at the Academy of Music in 1862, but due to lameness, she decided to pursue a concert career and toured in the United States and Europe. She married the cellist Ernest de Munck (1871) and settled in Paris as a voice teacher.

It should be noted that Adelina’s elder sister Carlotta Patti was a talented singer and a respected performer who added to the family’s prestige. She has not truly received the same attention from scholars. She suffered from a limp caused by a congenital disorder or horse-riding accident, which has been cited as limiting her engagements on stage, and her career mainly consisted of recitals and solo concerts, accompanied by some of the most esteemed musicians of the day ranging from New Orleans pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) to her husband, the Belgian cellist and composer Ernest de Munck (1840-1915). She is credited with disseminating art music in the United States.

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[1] Before the unification of the Italian peninsula, most mass “Italian” emigration was from the northernmost regions and was directed largely toward France, England, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, with significant seasonal migration to Austrian and German territories, and even to French colonies in North Africa, which would persist deep into the 20th century. After unification, this phenomenon was essentially reversed, with Southern Italians and islanders forming the largest diaspora.

[2] Management sought to offer strictly operatic performance, but unfortunately, as they struggled to turn a profit, it was decided to offer other theatrical genres. Amid the slow business, the Astor Place Riot of 10 May 1849 took place when escalating tensions between supporters of American actor Edwin Forrest and English actor William Charles Macready came to a head. The New York militia had to be called in, and estimates of between 22 and 31 deaths resulted. The theatre’s reputation suffered as the moniker “DisAstor Place” took hold, and the venue closed in 1852. 

[3] She was also referred to as Caterina Barili-Patti and Caterina Chiesa Barilli-Patti, often professionally known as Barilli.