HERSTORY: Adelina Patti: Showbiz's First Diva!

Adelina Patti in her prime! (Wikipedia, likely 1860's)

Born this way...

I was introduced to the delightful Adelina Patti on a tour of the Royal Opera House recently, and her wonderful, larger than life story is certainly worth a Herstory blog. So here she is! The original ‘diva’.

Adelina was born to two Sicilian opera singers so she was blessed with the genes and a background to stand her in good stead to become a singer. She was actually born in Spain, in 1843 and her two sisters were also singers and her brother was a violinist. Adelina’s family moved New York when she was young and sang professionally from childhood. Her voice was characterised as ‘coloratura soprano’; she had a very wide vocal range and all agreed hers was the purest and most agile lyrical voices ever heard at the time. 

The ‘Queen of Song’

Adelina made her operatic debut at just 16 in New York. She was then invited to Montreal to sing for the Prince of Wales, and a year later to Covent Garden, London. She made a huge impact on London, and decided to buy a house in Clapham and establish it as a London base from which to conquer Europe. Which she did! touring Paris and Vienna and establishing herself as the ‘Queen of Song' over the next few years. In 1862 she sang at The White House for President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, and managed to move them to tears with her beautiful voice. They even requested an encore! 

Adelina’s fame exploded after that, as you might imagine. She was sought after everywhere. She toured Europe and Russia from 1869 and made close friendships with the British, American and Russian aristocracy. She dazzled Emperors and was immortalised by leading court painters. 

During this period she was married to her first husband Henri De Cahusac, Marquess of Caux. They wed in 1868 and divorced in 1885. It was not a happy union, both had affairs and the divorce cost Adelina half of her fortune. Since 1877, however, she’d been living with her co-star the French tenor Ernesto Niccolini, whom she’d met in the elite European circles whilst touring. She married him in 1886 until his death in 1898. 

From BBC archives - A programme from an 1899 concert. property of Robert Pool

Showbiz’s First Diva

Part of the reason for Adelina’s extraordinary success was her astute observation of what roles and music suited her voice best. As she grew older and her voice and body changed, she took on weightier and more dramatic roles as well as crowd pleasing popular tunes that she often ended her recitals with to delight her fans. 

But another reason was surely her full on ‘diva’ attitude from the beginning. Adelina took to fame and fortune like a duck to water. In her prime, from the 1860’s to '80's, she commanded $5000 -  in gold (!) -  a night to perform. And it had to be paid before curtain time. 

This was more than the President of the USA made in a year (!) And it certainly made her the highest earning performer of all time, and indeed for more than half a century. She also insisted that her name always be top-billed and in larger print than any other name in the cast.

There are many anecdotes about Adelina’s diva moments. One of my favourites is that she kept a parrot that she trained to shriek ‘CASH! CASH!’ Whenever her promoter walked into the room, you know, just to remind him to cough up….(!)  She was also said to have refused to rehearse, but often critiqued other members of the cast when they were rehearsing. That must’ve made her popular! 

(Left) As Lady Harriet in 'Martha', 1861 (Silvy)

(Right) Painted by James Sant, 1886

The Queen of her Castle 

But interestingly, she wasn’t the extravagant and obscene spender you might expect, given her extreme wealth. She had good financial sense and invested wisely, not ending up in debt and poverty like many of her contemporaries. In 1878 she bought a Welsh Castle, Craig-y-Nos, in Powys. She developed the estate over the years and it became her permanent home. Her most famous added feature was an opulent personal ‘theatre’ that she had built to resemble La Scala in Milan. It seated 150 people and contained an organ. The theatre’s grand opening night in 1891 was hosted by William Terris, famed West End thespian actor, and attended by the Who’s Who of the elite at the time. 450 bottles of champagne were emptied. Quite a party! 

But it wasn't all hedonistic parties. She also gave back to her local community. She was said to give money and food parcels to the poor in her local town and she funded the building of the railway station at Craig-Y-Nos.

At 56 Adelina married her last husband, a Swedish aristocrat called Baron Ron Cederstrom who was 27 years younger than her. It seems the Baron was not impressed (jealous?) of Patti’s diva lifestyle and cut her domestic staff down from 40 to 18. But he was devoted to her, and seemed to remain in her good books long enough to become her sole legatee (he wasn’t stupid...!) 

In 1903 Patti embarked on her final tour in the US - her final because it failed due to her deteriorated voice. After that she would only sing at private concerts in her own personal theatre at her home in Wales. Her last ever public concert was at a Royal Albert Hall charity function to aid WW1 victims. She died in 1919, a Baroness, and was buried at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris in accordance with her wishes.

When Patti died, her widower married again and fathered a daughter, Yvonne Cederstrom (d. 2020) who went on to inherit Patti’s fortune, despite being no blood relation. 

(L-R) Baron Cederstrom, Adelina's private theatre, and Castle Craig-Y- Nos today. (Craigynoscastle.com and Wikipedia)

Patti’s legacy: Female empowerment?

Although she had no children, Patti’s legacy lives on in her surviving recordings and her huge influence not only on opera but on numerous groundbreaking works of literature and music. She is referenced in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray among others. 

But perhaps her most enduring legacy is in her great grandniece and namesake Patti LuPone, the award winning Broadway actress and singer.   

Lupone has apparently inherited her ancestor’s diva reputation as well as her name and talent. She is well known in the industry for her straight-talking, no nonsense style. In recent years she has snatched phones out of audience members hands and stopped her shows to yell at photographers or patrons. She’s also been VERY vocal about politics. She remains a divisive figure in theatre but I somehow think her great grand-aunt is looking down rather proudly. 

And what of Adelina’s assets? Her beloved Welsh castle is a Grade II listed building and was first converted into a hospital, but is now a hotel. It’s been used on film sets too (Doctor Who in 2005).

Adelina was no doubt a difficult character to some and would have come across as arrogant or conceited to many. I am reminded of an anecdote from her pianist, recalling his first recording session with her where she apparently exclaimed "Oh yes! What a voice! What an artiste! Now I understand  why I am Patti!” 

But we must remember she lived over a hundred years ago, in a time where women did not have the freedoms they do today. She radically OWNED her talent and status, and took full advantage of it. She was assertive and demanding, she knew what she wanted and she got it. I think she would feel quite at home with today’s women's empowerment movements. She was a feminist before her time, really. And that’s something to admire. 

Meet more herstorical divas of yore on a Herstorical tour! Booking now until the end of the year.

Patti Lupone, Wikipedia