New-York tribune., 1919-10-05
Adelina Patti

heard of such price since the days Of
Jenny Lind. 1t was hard to set down
the pegs after such beginning without
confession of failure; but advantage
was taken or the name Of charity, the
final concert was given at the original
tariff for the benefit Of the sufferers
from forest fires which had devastated
portions of the State Of Michigan, and
then the concerts were abandoned for
opera, given with an improvised COM
pany in the Germania Theatre, with a
charge of 81 for general admission and
50 for the best reserved seats.
At her concerts Nine. Patti sang
the same airs and songs that she
had sung as a child, and she
continued to do so down to the
last concert she gave, though at the
last she added a scene or an act Of opera
in costume. The show airs from LA
Sonnambula," "La Traviata.' "Semira-
mide," "Ernani" and her other operas,
Eckert's "Echo Song" the Norwegian
"Hcrdsman's Song" which Jenny Lind
had introduced here and which Nine
Sembrich revived here ten or twelve
years ago-thesc and others of their
kind were her battle horses from the
she had a large rcpertory Of operas and
dramatic stage than on the platform.
In her season at the Germania she sang
in "Travata." "Faust," al Trovatore"
and al Barbere di siviglia," and it
was while singing the "Shadow Song'
from "Dinorah" in the lesson scene that
I heard her perform what seemed to
me an almost incredible feat-beginning
the trill in the middle of the air with
out a hint of the pitch from the orches-
ira, after storm Of applause that
seemed to me to last for minutes.
never asked her to explain how she did
lt-whe ether she had that rare gift, a
sense of absolute pitch, or had a men,
ory which could go back to the tone
and been compelled to listen to the dis
cordant noise Of applause besides.
In the season 1SS3-'84, which saw the
beginning of the rivalry between the
Academy of Music and the Metropoli-
tan Opera House, just built, she was
with Colonel Mapleson at the former
theatre with Gerster as her associate
Cor off nights) and Nilsson and Sem
brich as her rivals at the uptown estab-
lishment Her operas were fairly well
attended; Gerster's poorly. Tickle
fashion was turning it's face away from
East Fourteenth Street, though Abbey
went down in the ruin through which
Mapleson passed with smile undis-
turbed.
Nine. Patti was again member of
Colonel Mapleson's company in the
next season, in which l had occasion to
learn something more than | had yet
learned about the woman Patti. I had
met her when she first came back to
New York and had talked with her
about operate affairs and persons in
Europe. chatted with her, heard her ex-
press admiration for Wagner's operas,
but also q determination never to sing
in them because they ruined ones
voice che keeps your vocal chords
stretched apart like that"-spreading
out her pretty, much-bej ejewelled fingers
-"and ruins your breathing. OH!
Mallinger is a great artist, but you
ought to hear her breathe!"), and
knew what she thought about the ele-
waited railways. which were something
to talk about then, and joined with her
in all kinds of chatter. But, quite to
my surprise, | now learned how indf-
ferent she was to Mistress Grundy.
The way it came about was this: In the
season fell the twenty-ffth anniversary
of her first performance in opera. A
quarter of a century before, on No
vember "a, 1859, the dark-eyed, sylph-
like child, who had all but made an
unexpected advent among the fateful
children in Norma" when her moth er
was singing the part, who had been
wont to creep out Of bed at night, deck