AVAILABILITY
www.symposiumrecords.co.uk
This is a release of
some considerable importance. Patti
was born in 1843. Madrid-born but raised
in America her career was international
in scope and she was singing at Covent
Garden by 1863. After a gruelling operatic
career she turned more and more to stage
work, though much of the repertoire
remained operatic. She lived in her
famous Welsh residence at Craig-y-nos
(where these discs were all made) until
her death in 1919.
There are of course
important considerations in discussing
these 1905-06 discs, and naturally pitching
is prominent amongst them. Decisions
here have been taken with care. Not
all of these discs were issued at the
time and Symposium’s running order cum
head note runs in matrix order – from
the earliest 537f to the last, 684½c;
not all the takes are here, some being
omitted for reasons of repetition.
They represent a remarkable
corpus of recordings, from the eccentricities
and period practises in Mozart singing
which include interpolations and all
manner of rhythmic elasticities and
we can also hear something of Patti’s
major drawback, her habit of chopping
up phrases to make the breaths (admittedly
Voi che sapete was a very tough
sing for her – but the interpolated
top G really is something else). In
her Don Giovanni aria we hear her trouble
with breathing and that famous, astonishing
speed up for the 6/8 section. But some
things about her still amaze a full
century on – the trills in the Lotti
are stunning even though some floated
tone doesn’t really convince and she
does come from under the note rather
too often. She can’t make all the notes
of the Gounod but this is still characterful
singing – Albert Spalding once told
a witty story of how Patti used her
fan so brazenly in her set piece aria
Il Bacio that the audience was
temporarily divested of its faculty
of criticism and failed to recognise
that she couldn’t make many, if any,
of the top notes. In that respect I
suggest you listen with a sympathetic
ear to the Gounod, where her lower notes
aren’t well supported and her erratic
rhythm is matched by a wailing cat fiddle
player (she was the leader of the local
orchestra, I believe).
But she could certainly
get those ballads across - try the two
versions of Kathleen Mavourneen (actually
try the later version which is less
lugubrious) or her portamento style
Bishop or the outstandingly beautiful
second verse of On the banks of Allan
Water. In the later session in 1906
we can sample the embellishments in
the second verse of Casta diva – believed
to be those of the original creator
of the role. And don’t overlook the
sheer colour – even at her age – and
phrasing in Mignon, nor the La Sonnambula
trill and verve. All this and a splendid
disc to end – Yradier’s La Calesera
where her sheer vivacity wins out
over all technical obstacles.
A number of these copies
have come from illustrious collectors’
shelves (including the late Sir Paul
Getty’s) Symposium hasn’t subjected
them to excessive filtering but has
used their now well-known house-style
of minimum intervention. Given the circumstances
sharp listening will be required but
otherwise apart from a rather rough
Ah! Je ris de me voir practised
ears will encounter no unpleasant moments.
And the pitching decisions seem to have
been judiciously made. An important
disc.
Jonathan Woolf
Adelina Patti (soprano) 
