Jump to content

Carlotta Patti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlotta Patti
1865 depiction
Born30 October 1835
Florence, Italy
Died27 June 1889
Paris, France
OccupationSoprano
Years active1861–1879
Spouse
​
(m. 1879)​
Relatives

Carlotta Patti (30 October 1835 – 27 June 1889) was an Italian operatic soprano who performed mostly in concerts. She was known for her extensive vocal range, reaching G♯ in altissimo. While not able to achieve her younger sister Adelina Patti's level of acclaim, Carlotta nonetheless received top billing in concerts in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia.[1][2]

Early life and family

[edit]

Carlotta Patti was born to Salvatore Patti [it], a Sicilian tenor,[3] and his wife Caterina Barili [it], a soprano,[4] in Florence, Italy, on 30 October 1835.[5][a] After learning the basics of music from her mother, she studied the piano with Henri Herz before concentrating on a vocal career.[1][3]

Patti had unequal leg length.[b] Due to this condition she avoided operatic performances and preferred to sing on the concert stage.[5] Her lack of success in opera has been attributed to her physical disability.[1][2][8] Family friend and conductor Luigi Arditi lamented that, without that "fatal limitation [...] she would have been equally renowned with her sister."[9]

Her younger sister Adelina Patti was a famed soprano[1] whose second husband was tenor Ernesto Nicolini.[10] Their older sister Amalia, also a soprano, married pianist and impresario Maurice Strakosch.[4] Her brother Carlo (1842–1873) was a violinist[11] who married actress Effie Germon.[12] Through her mother's first marriage to Francesco Barili, a Roman musician,[3] Carlotta also had four half-siblings: Ettore, Antonio, Nicolo, and Clotilda.[13] Antonio, a music teacher, also taught Carlotta.[3]

In 1879, Patti married the Belgian cellist Ernest de Munck.[14]

Career

[edit]
Carlo Alfredo Piatti sitting with his cello, Henri Vieuxtemps holding his violin, Alfred Jaëll sitting at his piano, and Patti standing while holding music sheets
Carlo Alfredo Piatti (cello), Henri Vieuxtemps (violin), Alfred Jaëll (piano), and Patti in 1864

The Patti family moved to the United States in 1848.[3] Patti moved to South America to nurse her older half-sister, Clotilda, who suffered a fatal illness; following her death, she returned to America and was coached vocally by Clotilda's widower, Carlo Scola.[15][c] Patti made her debut in January 1861 at the Academy of Music in New York City.[5][1] Patti made her Covent Garden debut on 16 April 1863.[17] In May 1863, she performed in the Crystal Palace Concerts.[18] Her impresarios included Bernard Ulmann[19][d] and Maurice Strakosch.[22] In 1866, she toured, organized by Ulmann, with Jules Lefort, violinist Henri Vieuxtemps, cellist Alexandre Batta, and pianist Eugène Ketterer.[23] She toured Europe in 1867.[24] In 1868, she again toured with Lefort, Vieuxtemps, Jean-François Berthelier, and Félix Godefroid.[23]

In 1869, Patti sang in the United States as part of Strakosch's company. She was praised for her performances as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute.[1][25] She performed in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale in Buenos Aires in 1870.[1] Patti went to America in the fall of 1872 as part of a six-member-troup, including Teresa Carreño and Émile Sauret, formed by Maurice Strakosch. They made their debut at Steinway Hall in New York before performing in Canada and Charleston, South Carolina.[26] In 1873, she performed in Paris with Lefort.[23]

Patti performed at the 1879 dedication of Central Music Hall in Chicago.[27] In December 1879, Patti was reported to be drunk during a performance in Leavenworth, Kansas, though she denied this, with her manager saying she had a cold.[28] She sued the Post-Dispatch for publishing an allegedly libelous article from the Leavenworth Times, asking for US$25,000 (equivalent to $817,500 in 2023) in damages,[29][30] and later abandoned the suit.[31]

In 1882, Patti studied voice with Hermine Küchenmeister-Rudersdorf.[32]

Retirement and death

[edit]

Following her marriage to Ernest de Munck in 1879, she retired from public life and focused on teaching. Patti died of cancer in her home at Rue Pierre Charron, Paris, on 27 June 1889.[1]

Voice

[edit]

Patti had a clear soprano voice with a range of C4 to G♯ in altissimo.[3] Her high range was praised, particularly in its performance of the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute.[1][25][3]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ While various sources list her birth year as 1840[6] and 1842,[2] current scholarship has confirmed her birth date as 30 October 1835.[5][1]
  2. ^ This limp occurred naturally.[7] However, it has been reported that Patti's physical disability was due to a fall, rumored to be caused by her mother[8] or her younger sister Adelina.[7]
  3. ^ Referred to as Signor Scola, his name was Carlo Scola.[16]
  4. ^ His name was frequently given simply as "Ulmann",[20] though his full name was Bernard Ulmann.[21]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Patti, Carlotta" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 56.
  2. ^ a b c "Carlotta Patti". The Argus. Melbourne. 3 April 1880. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Obituary: Carlotta Patti". Werner's Voice Magazine. 1889. p. 168.
  4. ^ a b Forbes, Elizabeth (2001). "Barilli-Patti, Caterina Chiesa". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000381275.
  5. ^ a b c d Forbes, Elizabeth (2002). "Patti, Carlotta". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000381275.
  6. ^ Klein 1920, p. 427, Appendix Q.
  7. ^ a b Klein 1920, p. 142.
  8. ^ a b "Carlotta Patti's Life: An Infirmity That Prevented Her Rivaling Her Famous Sister". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 14 July 1889. p. 7. ProQuest 577011451.
  9. ^ Edwards, E.J. (6 March 1913). "New News of Yesterday". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 4. ProQuest 496610278.
  10. ^ Klein 1920, p. 196.
  11. ^ "Carlo Patti: His Birth, Marriage, and Death—His Early Proficiency". The New York Times. 23 March 1873. p. 3. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  12. ^ "Effie Germon Buried: Baltimore Actress Had Remarkable Career on Stage". The Baltimore Sun. 9 March 1914. p. 7. ProQuest 534160459.
  13. ^ Klein 1920, p. 5.
  14. ^ "Foreign News: Marriage of Carlotta Patti to Ernest De Munck Arrest of German Socialists at Boulogne, France British Forces in Close Pursuit of King Cetewayo A Band of Sicilian Brigands Captured After a Fight Particulars of the Recent Riots in Santiago de Chile The British Isles". San Francisco Chronicle. 4 September 1879. p. 2. ProQuest 365509183.
  15. ^ Klein 1920, p. 143
  16. ^ Lawrence, Vera Brodsky (1999). Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong. Vol. 3. University of Chicago Press. p. 47.
  17. ^ Klein 1920, p. 144.
  18. ^ "Crystal Palace Opera Concerts". The Musical Standard. Vol. 1. 15 May 1863. pp. 289–290.
  19. ^ "Carlotta Patti: From 'La Presse Artistique'". The Musical World. 45. Duncan Davison & Co.: 229 13 April 1867.
  20. ^ Herz, Henri (1963). My Travels in America. Wisconsin Historical Society. p. 29.
  21. ^ Ahlquist, Karen (1998). "Mrs. Potiphar at the Opera: Satire, Idealism, and Cultural Authority in Post-Civil War New York". In Saffle, Michael (ed.). Music and Culture in America, 1861–1918. Garland Publishing. p. 34.
  22. ^ Knysak, Benjamin; Blažeković, Zdravko; Henderson, Ruth, eds. (4 February 2022). "Max Strakosch's Rediscovered Memoir". Musical History as Seen Through Contemporary Eyes: Essays in Honor of H. Robert Cohen. Hollitzer Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 83.
  23. ^ a b c Gänzl, Kurt (26 May 2021). "Jules Lefort: 'Delight of the Parisian salons'". Kurt of Gerolstein. Archived from the original on 23 November 2024. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  24. ^ "Music in Vienna: Mdlle. Carlotta Patti". The Musical World. 45. Duncan Davison & Co.: 653 21 September 1867.
  25. ^ a b Jenks, F. H. (1883). "Strakosch, Maurice and Max". In Grove, George (ed.). A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1880) by Eminent Writers, English and Foreign. Vol. 3. Macmillan Publishers. p. 734.
  26. ^ Stevenson, Robert (2004). "Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) Remembered on Her 150th Anniversary". Revista de Música Latinoamericana. 25 (2): 163–179. ProQuest 222849702 – via ProQuest.
  27. ^ Currey, Josiah Seymour (1912). Chicago: Its History and Its Builders. Vol. 3. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 251.
  28. ^ "Mme. Patti's Wrongs: The Atrocious Story Published in Leavenworth–Cards from Mme. Patti and Her Manager". Courier Journal. 6 December 1879. p. 4. ProQuest 1118675974.
  29. ^ "St. Louis: Carlotta Patti's Libel Suit – Charges Against a Court Clerk – An Abortion Case". Nashville Daily American. 17 December 1879. p. 1. ProQuest 939826971.
  30. ^ "Carlotta Patti Seeking Damages". The New York Times. 5 December 1879. p. 1. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  31. ^ "The Warbler Weakens: Carlotta Patti Desires to Abandon Her Libel Suit". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 14 January 1880. p. 1. ProQuest 576913275.
  32. ^ Page, Edson Ward (1946). "Semiramis in Boston". Chicago Review. 1 (2): 86–94. doi:10.2307/25292724. ISSN 0009-3696. JSTOR 25292724.

Bibliography

[edit]
Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Carlotta_Patti&oldid=1264597354"