The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-09-28

Her marvellous voice thrilled the -rratest contemporaries of her days TIr elder Dumas the French dramat i>t, once said to her:
 Being man and d Chritistian, | love to listen to your singing, but if
 | were a bird 1 would die of envy" "$he had tones so beautiful" said one eminent musical critic. that
 'n"y seemed to gush spontaneously from the very fountanspIlng of vocal
 youth"
 Mme Patti inherited her talent
 II am d child of the stage" she Lad aid being born during an oper-
 atic season at Madrid, Spain in lS43 My father Salvatore Patti, Sicilian
 was good tenor singer My mother.
 a Roman. became d famous artist as ! Sl2nora Barili- the name of her first ! Husband"
 | DWindlng finances sent the Patti | family to New York when Adelina,
 whose birth name was Adela Juana 1 Maria Patti was d baby When she
 va~ seven years old, her parents be
 came suddenly destitute In the emergency" the singer said,
 my mother considered that l had
 extraordinary vocal talent, and hit
 upon the idea of bringing me out i'll 1 concert. And SO | sang and soon won
 b,~ad for the family"
 The child made her debut at Trip ] ler han, in New York, singing aras
 from the Barber" in 1850 She was | the juvenile prodigy of the day, and | nearly ruined her voice by OVerwork.
 She appeared again at the age of i l3 After d tour thru the West Indies, l she withdrew to prepare for a greater l career
 l At the age of l6 she appeared in 1 the Academy of Music, New York,
 in her first opera role, "Lucia di Lam ! melmool." Her wonderful soprano | reused the audience to the widest ! enthusiasm. and her fame swept the ! country. At this time she was earning 1 flOO week
 | She repeated her conquest as Amina ! in La Sonnambula" in Convent Gar
 den. London, in 1861 Her salary had l increased to $75O a month. It was beginning of d dazzling con quest of all Europe. Royalty enter 1 tanned her and cOurted her faVors. l IT., pOpuace beseiged her hotels and ! theatres. Men in all stations of life wooed her, but she brushed them | aside with a laugh and trill She fin l ally capitulated at the age of 25 to 1 Henri, Marouis de CauX, equerry to l Napoleon III. They separated after
 few years, Mme. Patti finally se- | curing a divorce in 1885 to marry Sig
 nor Ernesto Nicloini, an Italian | Her first American tour began in | lSS1-her last in 1903. She was greet | ed by a magnificent ovation when she
 made her first appearance in opera in l the New York Academy of Music, the scene of her girlish triumph of 20 1 years before. She was at the height
 of her career, and became the musical sensation of the winter. The following
 year she sang at the newly opened 1 IJ Tor ! guaranteed salary was $5,0O0 a night
 and it was paid, for Mme Patti invari-
 ably refused to appear until the money
 was in her possession.
 Nine Patti held the record as box
 office star in operatic circles. When 1 she appeared at a matinee concert 1 in Mechanics Hall in Boston 1888, she 1 faced an audience which had paid l >1S,9OO to hear her. During a single
 tOul thru South America she received
 in salary and bonuses more than | $2uO OOO It has been estimated that she earned more than $5,000,000 dur
 ing her singing career.
 She made her final professional
 appearance in London at the age of
 65 Her last days Were passed in
 Wales at her beautiful castle, Craig y-NOs," with her third husband, Baron of Cederstom. whom she mar
 ried in 1899 year after the death of Nicolni
 Mime. Patti is reputed to have left an estate valued at more than $3,OOO,
 OOO
 She was the first Operatic singer in
 the world to be made a Chevalier of
 the Legion of Honor. She was dec orated by the Czar of Russia with the Order of Merit, and was appointed
 by him as First Singer of the Court"
 European potentates vied with each other in showering her with jewels. decora tions and social distinctions.