Adelina Patti, the opera diva reminds me that I’ll read nearly anything put in front of me. This includes ingredient lists on food boxes, consumer warnings for everyday products, and clothing labels. I like to steal a glance at anything printed out for someone else to read, or printed on a consumer product to avoid legal action.
A strange example of random reading was the old Wendy’s tabletop. These were covered in a pattern adapted from Victorian era newspaper ads. Unremarkable for sure, but one ad that stuck with me was for Adelina Patti Cigars. It featured a stout woman who looked out from the ad in a disengaged sort of way – nothing like the enthusiastic ladies selling the new Dodge Dart or Dawn detergent. Why an old matriarch I’d never heard of, hawking cigars?
Because Adelina recognized that she was a ‘brand,’ and could make money by attaching her name to promotions. This was about a century before it became standard practice for The Rock, or Morgan Freeman to endorse things unrelated to their acting prowess.
Starting way back in the 1840’s
Adelina Patti was a 19th Century entertainer of great renown. In fact, she was the leading opera singer of her day, and had remarkable staying power in the public eye. Patti was active for over 50 years, and in great demand the entire time. She also embodied the textbook definition of ‘prima donna’
Adelina Patti came by this honestly. She was born in Spain, the daughter of two Italian opera singers, in 1843. Her family moved to the United States, where her father managed the Old Italian Opera Theater in New York City. The theater failed, leaving the family destitute. They began putting seven year old Adelina on stage to pay the bills.
Luckily for them, Adelina demonstrated a startling gift for singing. A year later, the eight year old was warbling arias from the Barber of Seville on the stage of New York’s prestigious Tripler Hall. The success of this appearance led to an immediate three year US tour, from 1851-1854.
Adelina Patti the opera diva had nearly no formal education, although she was fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and French. The constant adoration of those around her, and lack of peer socialization led to her becoming pretty difficult to manage.
Little Adelina possessed a diva’s temperament in proportion to her outsized talent. She refused to perform unless she had a new doll or box of bonbons provided in advance of her performance. This became a consistent trait throughout her life.
The public tolerated this behavior as a trade-off for her effortless coloratura (elaborately ornamented vocal style). Opera Wire complimented her “perfectly equalized vocal registers and warm, satiny tone.” She seemed a natural for bel canto opera, a classic Italian style of singing with a full rich tone and smooth phrasing.
As a 12 year old, Adelina appeared in St. Louis. Attempting to find another child for her to interact with, Charles Balmer of Balmer and Weber Music Company put Adelina with his four year old daughter, Rosalie (Sally). In an article from April 1932, Rosalie, then 83, recalled the visit. She and Adelina, owner of a vast collection of dolls, played on the Balmer’s living room floor until the adults bade Adelina to sing for them, which she did.
Warbling up a fortune at an early age
In 1859, at the age of 16, Adelina made a sensational operatic debut at New York’s Academy of Music. She appeared at the White House shortly after the Lincolns lost their son William to typhoid in 1862. Adelina performed “Home Sweet Home,” and it so affected everyone in attendance that it became associated with her. Over her long career she generally closed performances with it.
Adelina became the darling of the Covent Garden theater set in London, returning every autumn for 25 years. The National Portrait Gallery of Great Britain contains 56 paintings associated with Adelina. Giuseppe Verdi pronounced her as having the greatest voice he ever heard.
She remained almost constantly in motion, through Europe and the United States. Opera music WAS the popular music of this time, and she was the chart topper in this regard. She could pick her city and venue, ensured of a rapturous response.
Of course, with supply so limited, and demand so great, all this fed into Adelina’s “greedy, rapacious and unpleasant” nature. She demanded up to $5,000 for one night’s performance. This had to be in gold, delivered 12 hours before the curtain was raised. Being able to command these fees, she could well afford the private rail car that shuttled her about. It featured embossed leather walls and gold embroidery, two staterooms, a piano and hot and cold running water.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Adelina Patti was the highest paid singer in the world. She once demanded $200,000 for a three night engagement and was told by a shocked theater manager that this was more than the US president made. “Then ask the president to sing,” sniffed the diva. She got the money.
As foreshadowed at the beginning with Patti cigars, Adelina Patti the opera diva would trade on her fame. For example, she usually stayed at the Southern Hotel when on tour in St. Louis. A new Steinway upright grand piano would be there for her use. When she left town, the piano made its way back to the Steinway showroom where it was put on display and offered for a sizable mark-up. “Recently played by the great Adelina Patti.” A nice side-arrangement.
Her paramour Ernesto Nicholini bought a Welsh castle for Adelina, that became her cherished home for life. There, she maintained a large collection of parrots, one of which was trained to squawk, “cash, cash!” on cue. The adoration of two continents conspired to make her supremely hard to deal with. She contractually refused to rehearse. Instead, she had a manager advise her stage partners where to stand and move during the upcoming performance. Adelina’s name had to be ⅓ larger than that of anyone sharing a newspaper ad or theater marquee.
The opera diva attracts the notables in St. Louis
Returning to the US in 1881, Patti initiated coast to coast tours that continued through 1904. Her fans went wild. After one engagement in Brooklyn, appreciative audience members unhitched the horses from her carriage and dragged it to her hotel. One newspaperman dryly noted that he failed to see any reason for replacing the horses with asses.
She had a talent for sensing what sold, and was an early adopter of a trick now popular among prizefighters, the farewell tour. From 1882 on, promotional ads warned of the final opportunity to hear Adelina’s dulcet tones. Her concert in St. Louis that year sold out within 12 hours, and $2.00 seats were sold by speculators at up to 15 times that amount.
When Henry Shaw was 84, he rarely ventured out to the theater. However, he did in 1884 to catch Adelina Patti the opera diva:
He attended with his niece, and it would have been difficult to know which was the bigger fan. By 1906, when she gave her final opera concert at the Royal Albert Hall, fully three generations of music fans had thrilled to the voice of Adelina Patti.
One occurrence, odd in retrospect, was Adelina’s account of meeting Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden. As she told it, he came to see her after the February 24 1884 show. Backstage, he kissed her, saying “Madame Patti, I may never see you again, and I cannot help it,” “Before I knew it he threw his arms around me and was kissing me.” She laughed merrily at the recollection of it. When asked if that was a privilege restricted to governors, she replied, “Now it wouldn’t do to have anybody washing my face, but an old nice looking gentleman? The truth is he kissed me so quick I didn’t have time to object. What could I do?”
Adelina Patti possessed a sensational collection of jewelry. Whenever she performed for royalty, the diva was presented with some terrific bauble. The value of these added up to nearly $375,000 by 1897. An 1885 article in the Globe-Democrat noted that her sable coat was valued at $40,000.
Her 1887 St. Louis concert sold out 3,500 seats in a day. After the performance, the Globe-Democrat rhapsodized over “the absolutely perfect quality of her voice. Like divinity, it is the sum of perfection, and that is why its owner is known the world over as “The Divine Patti.”
“The flower of St. Louis society and the chivalry and wealth of the community were all there in their richest raiment. The diva, looking young and handsome as ever, wore a rich and graceful costume that carried a load of diamonds sparkling like specks of fire.”
After the requisite singing of “Home Sweet Home,” she received three ecstatic curtain calls.
The later years of a prima donna
Adelina Patti the opera diva recorded in 1905 and 1906, among the earliest years of recording. It was a bit unfortunate that she was 60 years old by then, and her voice was well past its prime. It didn’t matter. Orchestras were told to tune down the written music to her register, which added more expense to her engagements. Regardless, experience counts, and this gal knew what she was doing. Here’s a sample:
A woman of “small stature and gigantic ego,” Adelina Patti gave her final performance in 1918, and died a year later at the age of 76. She was buried in Paris, as close to the composer Rossini as possible, in accordance with her request.
Circling back, the 1932 story told by Rosalie (Sally) Balmer Smith caught a world-famous diva at a time when she made a childhood association with Lafayette Park. She said she never missed taking a long walk through it when visiting St Louis, which she did at least 4 times. This excerpt is from a visit in January of 1882:
Charles Balmer lived at 1918 Lasalle Street in Lafayette Square. He owned music publisher and retailer Balmer and Weber, and played host to many visiting artists. Balmer’s daughter Sally married the son of Sol Smith, who also mixed in thespian circles. Sol owned the plats on either side of Mississippi Avenue at Lafayette. His name appears in the 1860 Priest and Rust plat map of Lafayette Square:
Sol Smith owned and operated the St. Louis Theatre, noteworthy as the first formal performance theater west of the Mississippi River. He was a remarkable character himself, and will appear in a future essay. Sally was from a rare lineage, and after all, got to play dolls with a diva that a governor once stole a kiss from. Crazy times in a buttoned up era.
Thanks to research sources, including:
The Reign Of Patti; Herman Klein; The Century Co. New York; 1920
stagebeauty.com http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/patti/patti-a2.html
operawire.com https://operawire.com/artist-profile-adelina-patti-one-of-the-greatest-bel-canto-sopranos-of-her-time/
encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/patti-adelina-1843-1919
A Day In The Life at http://a-day-in-the-life.powys.org.uk/eng/cult/eu_patti.php
Find A Grave.com
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – February 3, 1882; Feb 24, 1884;
St. Louis Globe-Democrat – January 2, 1882; January 13, 1882; December 25, 1883; March 28, 1885; February 20, 1987; February 22, 1887; March 13, 1887; April 17, 1932
There is also a fine wikipedia essay on Adelina at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelina_Patti
National Portrait Gallery at https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp03470/adelina-patti
University of Rochester Library, at https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2434
You so entertained me tonight
I appreciate your gorgeous neighborhood
How lucky your neighbors are to have you
Jannie
Thank you, Jannie; to entertain an accomplished educator makes me feel like my time is put to good use!