Personalities | Adelina Patti | High Romantic | Opera

1843–1919, Italian

The Italian soprano Adelina Patti was among the greatest of all prima donnas. As such, she enjoyed special privileges. One was exemption from rehearsals. Another was top pay for her time, amounting to $5,000 (£2,725) a performance after 1882. Patti made her singing debut at age seven, and first appeared on stage at the Academy of Music, New York in 1859, in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. After 1860, Patti travelled worldwide, singing in New Orleans (1860–61) and Covent Garden, London (1861–95), as well as Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Moscow, St Petersburg, Milan, Madrid and South America. She was 63 when she retired in 1906, but made occasional comebacks until 1914. Some of Patti’s best roles included Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello, Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust and the title role in DelibesLakmé.

Introduction | High Romantic | Opera
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