Carlotta Patti

Carlotta Patti was born to {{Ill|Salvatore Patti|it|Salvatore Patti}}, a Sicilian tenor,{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUE9AQAAMAAJ&dq=carlotta+patti&pg=PA168 |title=Werner's Voice Magazine |year=1889 |pages=168 |chapter=Obituary: Carlotta Patti}} and his wife {{Ill|Caterina Barili|it|Caterina Barili}}, a soprano, in Florence, Italy, on 30 October 1835.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Patti, Carlotta |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |last=Forbes |first=Elizabeth |date=2002 |author-link=Elizabeth Forbes (musicologist) |doi=10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000381275|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 }}{{efn|1=While various sources list her birth year as 1840{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=427|loc=Appendix Q}} and 1842, current scholarship has confirmed her birth date as 30 October 1835.|group=n}} After learning the basics of music from her mother, she studied the piano with Henri Herz before concentrating on a vocal career.

Patti had unequal leg length.{{Efn|This limp occurred naturally.{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=142}} However, it has been reported that Patti's physical disability was due to a fall, rumored to be caused by her mother{{Cite news |date=1889-07-14 |title=Carlotta Patti's Life: An Infirmity That Prevented Her Rivaling Her Famous Sister |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |pages=7 |id={{ProQuest|577011451}}}} or her younger sister Adelina.{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=142}}|group=n}} Due to this condition she avoided operatic performances and preferred to sing on the concert stage. Her lack of success in opera has been attributed to her physical disability. Family friend and conductor Luigi Arditi lamented that, without that "fatal limitation [...] she would have been equally renowned with her sister."{{Cite news |last=Edwards |first=E.J. |date=1913-03-06 |title=New News of Yesterday |work=The Atlanta Constitution |pages=4 |id={{ProQuest|496610278}}}}

Her younger sister Adelina Patti was a famed soprano whose second husband was tenor Ernesto Nicolini.{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=196}} Their older sister Amalia, also a soprano, married pianist and impresario Maurice Strakosch.{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2001 |title=Barilli-Patti, Caterina Chiesa |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |last=Forbes |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Forbes (musicologist) |doi=10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000381275}} Her brother Carlo (1842–1873) was a violinist{{Cite news |date=1873-03-23 |title=Carlo Patti: His Birth, Marriage, and Death—His Early Proficiency |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1873/03/23/archives/carlo-patti-his-birth-marriage-and-death-his-early-proficiency-a.html |access-date=2024-10-10 |work=The New York Times |pages=3}} who married actress Effie Germon.{{Cite news |date=1914-03-09 |title=Effie Germon Buried: Baltimore Actress Had Remarkable Career on Stage |work=The Baltimore Sun |pages=7 |id={{ProQuest|534160459}}}} Through her mother's first marriage to Francesco Barili, a Roman musician, Carlotta also had four half-siblings: Ettore, Antonio, Nicolo, and Clotilda.{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=5}} Antonio, a music teacher, also taught Carlotta.

In 1879, Patti married the Belgian cellist Ernest de Munck.{{Cite news |date=September 4, 1879 |title=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 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |page=2 |id={{ProQuest|365509183}}}}

File:Alfred Jaëll au piano.jpg (cello), Henri Vieuxtemps (violin), Alfred Jaëll (piano), and Patti in 1864]]

The Patti family moved to the United States in 1848. 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.{{Harvnb|Klein|1920|p=143}}{{Efn|1=Referred to as Signor Scola, his name was Carlo Scola.{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Vera Brodsky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR3UkbYqueMC&dq=signor%20scola&pg=PA47 |title=Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1999 |volume=3 |pages=47|isbn=978-0-226-47016-0 }}|group=n}} Patti made her debut in January 1861 at the Academy of Music in New York City. Patti made her Covent Garden debut on 16 April 1863.{{Sfn|Klein|1920|p=144}} In May 1863, she performed in the Crystal Palace Concerts.{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXZHAQAAMAAJ&dq=patti&pg=PA289 |title=The Musical Standard |date=1863-05-15 |volume=1 |pages=289–290 |chapter=Crystal Palace Opera Concerts |issue=20}} Her impresarios included Bernard Ulmann{{Cite journal |date=1867-04-13 |title=Carlotta Patti: From 'La Presse Artistique' |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CosPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA229 |journal=The Musical World |publisher=Duncan Davison & Co. |volume=45 |pages=229}}{{Efn|1=His name was frequently given simply as "Ulmann",{{Cite book |last=Herz |first=Henri |author-link=Henri Herz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjl1AAAAMAAJ |title=My Travels in America |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |year=1963 |pages=29}} though his full name was Bernard Ulmann.{{Cite book |last=Ahlquist |first=Karen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9tQAwAAQBAJ&dq=bernard+ulmann&pg=PA34 |title=Music and Culture in America, 1861–1918 |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1998 |editor-last=Saffle |editor-first=Michael |pages=34 |chapter=Mrs. Potiphar at the Opera: Satire, Idealism, and Cultural Authority in Post-Civil War New York|isbn=978-1-135-59801-3 }}|group=n}} and Maurice Strakosch.{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZxeEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 |title=Musical History as Seen Through Contemporary Eyes: Essays in Honor of H. Robert Cohen |date=2022-02-04 |publisher=Hollitzer Wissenschaftsverlag |editor-last=Knysak |editor-first=Benjamin |pages=83 |chapter=Max Strakosch's Rediscovered Memoir |isbn=978-3-99012-974-6 |editor-last2=Blažeković |editor-first2=Zdravko |editor-last3=Henderson |editor-first3=Ruth}} In 1866, she toured, organized by Ulmann, with Jules Lefort, violinist Henri Vieuxtemps, cellist Alexandre Batta, and pianist Eugène Ketterer.{{Cite web |last=Gänzl |first=Kurt |author-link=Kurt Gänzl |date=2021-05-26 |title=Jules Lefort: 'Delight of the Parisian salons' |url=https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2021/05/jules-lefort-delight-of-parisian-salons.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241123223301/https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2021/05/jules-lefort-delight-of-parisian-salons.html |archive-date=2024-11-23 |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Kurt of Gerolstein}} She toured Europe in 1867.{{Cite journal |date=1867-09-21 |title=Music in Vienna: Mdlle. Carlotta Patti |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CosPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA653 |journal=The Musical World |publisher=Duncan Davison & Co. |volume=45 |pages=653}} In 1868, she again toured with Lefort, Vieuxtemps, Jean-François Berthelier, and Félix Godefroid.

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.{{Cite book |last=Jenks |first=F. H. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlAoAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA734 |title=A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1880) by Eminent Writers, English and Foreign |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |year=1883 |editor-last=Grove |editor-first=George |editor-link=George Grove |volume=3 |page=734 |chapter=Strakosch, Maurice and Max}} She performed in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale in Buenos Aires in 1870. 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.{{Cite journal |last=Stevenson |first=Robert |year=2004 |title=Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) Remembered on Her 150th Anniversary |journal=Revista de Música Latinoamericana |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=163–179 |id={{ProQuest|222849702}} |via=ProQuest}} In 1873, she performed in Paris with Lefort.

Patti performed at the 1879 dedication of Central Music Hall in Chicago.{{Cite book |last=Currey |first=Josiah Seymour |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omij2fukOjoC&dq=carlotta+patti+maurice+strakosch&pg=PA251 |title=Chicago: Its History and Its Builders |publisher=S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |year=1912 |volume=3 |page=251}} 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.{{Cite news |date=1879-12-06 |title=Mme. Patti's Wrongs: The Atrocious Story Published in Leavenworth–Cards from Mme. Patti and Her Manager |work=Courier Journal |pages=4 |id={{ProQuest|1118675974}}}} She sued the Post-Dispatch for publishing an allegedly libelous article from the Leavenworth Times, asking for {{Usd|25000|1879}} in damages,{{Cite news |date=1879-12-17 |title=St. Louis: Carlotta Patti's Libel Suit – Charges Against a Court Clerk – An Abortion Case |work=Nashville Daily American |pages=1 |id={{ProQuest|939826971}}}}{{Cite news |date=1879-12-05 |title=Carlotta Patti Seeking Damages |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1879/12/05/archives/carlotta-patti-seeking-damages.html |access-date=2024-10-10 |work=The New York Times |pages=1}} and later abandoned the suit.{{Cite news |date=1880-01-14 |title=The Warbler Weakens: Carlotta Patti Desires to Abandon Her Libel Suit |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |pages=1 |id={{ProQuest|576913275}}}}

In 1882, Patti studied voice with Hermine Küchenmeister-Rudersdorf.{{Cite journal |last=Page |first=Edson Ward |date=1946 |title=Semiramis in Boston |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25292724 |journal=Chicago Review |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=86–94 |doi=10.2307/25292724 |issn=0009-3696 |jstor=25292724}}

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.

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

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• {{cite book |last1=Klein |first1=Hermann |author-link=Herman Klein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EaINAAAAIAAJ |title=The Reign of Patti |publisher=The Century Company |year=1920}}

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Category:1835 births

Category:1889 deaths

Category:Musicians from Florence

Category:Burials at Montmartre Cemetery

Category:Italian operatic sopranos

Category:Deaths from stomach cancer in France

Category:Italian emigrants to the United States

Category:People from Wakefield, Bronx

Category:American opera singers