Portrait of Adelina Patti (1843-1919)

Adelina Patti (1843-1919), the coloratura soprano with a prodigious musical memory, was born in Spain to an artistic Italian family and grew up in the United States. An improviser of embellishments, having finished singing an aria one day by Rossini accompanied on the piano by the composer, he asked her who had written it... Other than Bellini and Donizetti, she was a competent performer of Verdi, who wrote of her: “When I heard her sing for the first time in London (she was then 18), I was astonished not only by her marvellous execution, but by some of the scenes in which she revealed herself to be a great actress”.