100Singers's video: 100 Singers - ADELINA PATTI

Adelina Patti, Soprano (1843-1919) Vincenzo Bellini: NORMA "Casta Diva" Piano accompaniment by Alfredo Barili Recorded 1906 My personal opinion: The oldest surviving photograph was created in 1826, seventeen years before a girl named Adela Juana Maria was born 1843 in Madrid. She became later known to the world as one of the most acclaimed sopranos in history: Adelina Patti. One of her own oldest photos shows her as a twelve-year-old teenager, standing next to a painting of Jenny Lind, the "Swedish nightingale" - the idol of petite Adelina. This little gem was made in 1855, five years after Patti's first appearance as a singer in public at the age of seven. So we have images of her when she was almost still a child, and we also have images of her when she was already a prima donna. On the climax of her popularity, Patti was the highest paid soprano of her time with a fee of 5.000 Dollars per performance. Furthermore we have many contemporary reports about her art, her meaning and her affectations (she required that her name appeared on all posters in a separate line of large letters). We know a lot about her, but what we don't know is how she sounded at the time of her vocal prime ... It is said, that from the day of her operatic debut as LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR in 1859 at the age of only sixteen (!) to her last concert in 1914, Patti never had a vocal crisis. But she was far past her heyday, when the brothers Fred and Will Gaisberg persuaded her to accept recording sessions in 1905 and 1906. By the time she was over sixty; not the best age to preserve her voice for posterity. Nevertheless, she made more than thirty phonograph cylinders at her Welsh home - a legacy with limitations. Striking is her shortness of breath. In the NORMA cavatina she breaks the phrase already after the first word "Casta". Everyone, who loves Bellini's long-floating melodies, must find this disturbing. "Casta diva" is a test piece for soft legato singing, and - as the saying goes - so difficult to handle, that every prima donna would sacrifice a hand for just one perfect rendition. But who could have expected such a perfection after a career of forty-seven years? Already in 1890, critic George Bernard Shaw remarked, that "time has transposed Patti a minor third down" ... At her pinnacle, Patti obviously was a coloratura queen par excellence who allowed herself extravagant liberties in her vocals. The influental Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904) has described Patti as follows: "I've heard greater artists as singers and more brilliant voices. I recall more sophisticated actresses and more beautiful women. But Patti's charm consists in making one forget them. What she offers is so completely hers, so harmonious and loveable, that one allows oneself to be captivated and accepts it with great pleasure." It's a criticism that is veiled as a nice compliment. For my part, I do agree with Henry T. Finck (1854-1926), an opponent of pure displaying of vocal virtuosity: "Adelina Patti was infinitely more interested in showing off her lovely voice than in the music she sang. The composer was for her a mere peg to hang on her trills and frills." Her very late recordings seem to confirm Finck's claim. She missed no opportunity to demonstrate her still amazing trill (admittedly a remarkable achievement for a woman of her age), as you can hear in "Casta diva", "Ah, non credea mirati" from LA SONNAMBULA (both transposed to F), in the beginning of Marguerite's Jewel Song from Gounod's FAUST and, skillfully done with a diminuendo, in the delightful song "Pur dicesti" by Italian baroque composer Antonio Lotti. John Steane even suggested, that this is probably the finest trill we have on records at all ... Well, may her unrivalled graceful trill have made her famous, I tend more to another feature: A vital spirit and great devotion in the singing of this elderly lady is ever-present; it's a quality that even survived on wax cylinders. Luigi Arditi's "Il bacio" is a telling example for Patti's seemingly unbroken joy of music. It contains something intangible that I would like to call human warmth. And perhaps it is just this characteristic which makes us forget, that the recordings of the sixty-two-year old soprano are imperfect and stylistically disputable. Who cares? I think, it is fascinating enough that her voice is still with us, one hundred years after she passed away. Henry T. Finck has drew a short resume: "Adelina Patti was a nightingale. Why ask for more of her? In her own way, she was absolutely perfect. And this should be honored ..." Patti died 100 years ago ...