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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Adelina Patti: An Enchanting Echo of a Distant Past


Ancient recordings provide a kind of evidence of the past that is at once fascinating and problematical. When written words alone are evidence of the past, our minds are free to construct a reality that is almost always fanciful, and one which bears at best a tenuous relationship to the real events or persons involved. In opera, the same forces are at work. The golden age, the locus amoenus, always rears its head and asks us to daydream about the bygone glory days of singing. It sometimes happens, however, that old recordings come to the rescue of sober assessment. There are not a few 19th century singers whose tenuous grip on what would today be called solid technique belie such fanciful idealizations of the past. Particularly in the case of sopranos, there is a lot of evidence of insufficiently supported top notes, inadequate cover, and perhaps most annoying of all, what I "register scoops." Some singers of that era had a clearly defined notion of different registers, but paid inadequate attention to smoothly blending them together. It can happen, therefore, that a modern listener can be carried aloft by floating high soprano tones, only to be jolted by a sudden unmediated drop into a husky, alto-like chest register, usually initiated by a crack in the voice. It can shatter what had been a lovely vocal image. It is all the more noteworthy then, and excites genuine admiration, when one looks at the soprano who may be the oldest recorded opera singer of note in the 19th century, the divine Adelina Patti, praised effusively by the great composers of her day, and celebrated everywhere as the acme of the opera singer's art.

Born 166 years ago (!) in 1843, Adelina Patti was the daughter of tenor Salvatore Patti. She was born in Spain, while her family was on tour there, but moved to New York as a child. She began singing when she was little more than a girl, making her debut at New York's Academy of Music at 16, as Lucia. I am not one who as a rule yearns for things past, but I have to admit I would give a lot to be able to go back in time and hear that! She was beautiful as a young woman, with what all contemporaries claim was a pure, sweet, lyric voice. Imagine a beautiful Lucia so near the age of her heroine! We have by now become accustomed to seeing very mature (and often rather large) women sing that role, and much is lost, dramatically . [In the 18th century, it would have been possible for a boy soprano to take the part, but, verismo and romanticism having done their work, that would now be so unseemly as to be impossible.]

At 18 years of age, she made her Covent Garden debut in La Sonnambula, and in 1862 sang for President and Mrs. Lincoln, upon the death of their son Willi. From there on, there was no holding her back. She was already a star, and she promptly soared to super-stardom. There are good bios of her on the web, as her life has been much studied, so we can proceed to hearing a recording.

It has not been easy to choose a decent recording. Most are from 1905 and 1906, when she was either 62 or 63 years old. She did make an Edison cylinder recording in 1895, but it is, sadly, little more than a few inchoate shrieks. In my opinion her best recording, and one that with only a little imagination can show what the glory of that singing must have been 30 years earlier, is the 1906 rendition of "Ah, non credea mirarti," from Bellini's La Sonnambula:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozci5xK3BZc


That is just stunning! Remember that she was 63 years old when this was made. The clarity and purity of the voice are most noteworthy, as are the floating, haunting tones that are almost hypnotic. The breath control is exquisite, and she sings perfectly on the breath, which is how she is able to float those tones and portamento up and down so smoothly and seamlessly, and also trill so well and so easily. The fluidity of the presentation makes me almost weep with desire to have heard that 16 year old Lucia! This is an excellent recording, and there is only one instance, toward the end, where she breaks the legato and pops out of line with a quick high note and exclamation that probably on stage would have been heard simply as dramatic, but it's the kind of thing a horn tends to resonate and amplify, and is a bit jolting. But that is a matter of no consequence.

Another recording that is interesting is the 1906 "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto," from Mozart's Don Giovanni:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hRFF_lsP-E


She excels in the same areas indicated in the previous recording. The purity of tone, the (musically appropriate) simplicity of the phrasing, the easy fluidity of the voice, are all exceptional. The same small, distracting qualities are also there. Notice the "register scoop" into chest voice on the last note...also the turns on the top of phrases toward the end pop out of line. Not really a problem, because of the probably, again, of the recording horn being the villain. One other thing is worth mentioning—Patti was born a mere 57 years after Don Giovanni was premiered in 1787. That distance is small; it would be no more distant for Patti than would Rodgers and Hammerstein be for a girl born today. I rather suspect the singing and stylistic traditions would still be alive, easily transmittable, virtually unchanged, for any teacher in his or her 50's or 60's at the time of Patti's youth. I am ever on the lookout for hints about how the music of bygone eras was actually performed. This could be one of those hints, but I will make no more of it because it is largely speculative.

Of one thing there can be no doubt, however, and that is that Adelina Patti was indeed an astonishing vocal talent, and even the faulty recordings that survive are enough for an attentive listener to be able to see and appreciate the depth and breadth of that astonishing talent from so long ago.

7 comments:

corax said...

there is a certain symbolic rightness to this photo's showing patti with a crown upon her head. as you note, she reigned supreme in her day. and you yourself show your chops as an historian here -- you are so right to remind us of the pertinent dates, and the time-spans entailed. born only 57 years after the premiere of DON GIOVANNI! that puts everything into its proper perspective, doesn't it.

i share your fascination with the question of 'what would it all have sounded like, back in those days?' -- and i share your delight in this precious little time-capsule, which [as you so rightly suggest] not only takes us back to patti's own golden years, but also offers a glimpse of what things must have been like in the generation before her own.

bravo yet again, sir edmund!

Edmund St. Austell said...

Thank you very much indeed! Yes, Patti is revealing on so many fronts, but most particularly as a prime example of the best of the old traditions from the 19th century. I can really hear in those distant echoes the ghost of what it was all about back then. Perhaps Roberta Peters might be something of a modern comparison...she also started very young, and was very popular, although there is a certain edge to her voice tht I don't perceive in Patti's. The milky smoothness of Patti's voice (at least to the degree it is perceivable in these ancient recordings) was unusual for a coloratura.

Nate said...

Edmund, thanks for your concise and insightful commentary about perhaps the greatest soprano of the nineteenth century. As you point out, virtually every composer, critic, fellow singer (and not a few poets) of the period thought Patti the epitome of the vocal art. According to Herman Klein, the great biographer of the singer, only the critic Chorley disagreed about the supremacy of Patti's voice and technique, even writing that her voice sounded tired when she performed Amina at the age of 18! But Verdi adored her as did so many other eminent composers and opera critics. Singers such as Jenny Lind, Lilli Lehmann, Albert Niemann, Jean de Reszke, Nellie Melba, Marcella Sembrich, Luisa Tetrazzini, Emma Eames, Frances Alda, and Amelita Galli-Curci, among others, all sang her praises. In particular, Melba, Sembrich, Tetrazzini, and Eames were all-out Patti worshippers. And not without good reason! As you state, even at age 62 and 63, when her recordings were made--and about five years AFTER she had basically "lost" her voice, according to some critics, though not Klein--she still sounds splendid enough to arouse the type of longing to have heard her in her youth that you speak of. The golden tone, coloratura flourishes, and molding of the vocal line are some of Patti's virtues that may have diminished but not disappeared. Further, there is a captivating spirit to many of her recordings that belies the notion she may have been a musically superficial and pretty, merely perfect vocal technician.
Wouldn't it be fantastic to find out for sure? Where is that time machine everyone talks about?

Edmund St. Austell said...

You lay out the case brilliantly, Nate. I can only add "Amen, and again I say amen." Yes, the time machine:) I'd settle for being a little 19th century mouse in the wall. That 16-year-old Lucia, as I'm sure was apparent from the essay, has fatally captured my imagination. I usually cringe with horror at even the idea of children singing, but something tells me she was the great exception. Roberta Peters did an unscheduled Zerlina at the Met, with only a few hours notice, and no rehearsal, at the age of 20, and brought the house down. (With Fritz Reiner conducting, if you imagine that....a man so severe that he filled everyone's heart with terror), so I suppose that might come close, but there is a huge difference between 20 and 16. That truly fascinates me. If you ever find that time machine, be sure to let me know:) Superb comments, btw.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great article, Sir Edmund.

“… only the critic Chorley disagreed about the supremacy of Patti's voice and technique, even writing that her voice sounded tired when she performed Amina at the age of 18! But Verdi adored her as did so many other eminent composers and opera critics.”
Perhaps Chorley wrote she sounded tired, because her voice had a special melancholic intonation, and maybe he thought that a young pretty girl should sing like a canary bird.:) That only shows how wrong critics can be. She definitely was a great singer, with the charming voice. A timbre, that is charming and expressive itself is a rare quality, but she also was very skillful and could sound so well in her 60’s.
By the way, she started to sing in Russia in 1869 and performed in St. Petersburg for 9 years. Among her fans were such people as Tchaikovsky and Stanislavsky .

n.a.

Edmund St. Austell said...

Thank you so much for the view from Russia. Now that is really interesting! I knew that Tchaikovsky spoke warmly of her, but I had no idea that she sang for as long as 9 years in St. Petersburg. Nor did I realize that Stanislavsky had expressed his admiration. That explains a comment made by Verdi to the effect that her sense of dramatization was so well developed. So, my friend, Большое спасибо, как всегда:)

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