In the second half of the 19th century Adelina Patti was probably the best operatic soprano of the day. She was peerless. Audiences flocked to see and hear her from St. Petersburg to San Francisco. Internationally famous authors eulogized her; critics renowned for their severity were unstinting in her praises. Even other prima donnas, a breed unknown for their generosity to rivals, acknowledged her supremacy. She remains for many in the operatic world, the yardstick that all others are measured against.
A Golden Voice
Astrologically, Miss Patti is a rimless bucket with a Moon handle in the Eleventh House of Hopes and Dreams. It is right on the cusp of its own house, Cancer, giving her that extra boost.
That handle is also trine her Sun in Aquarius sextile its ruler in Ninth House, Uranus. This alone would give her a very unorthodox approach to self-expression, i.e. singing as opposed to speaking, but it is compounded by her Sun and Mercury are conjunct the Eighth House of psychology, making her a Diva of Coloratura, considered the highest of all sopranos as she is capable of seemingly superhuman feats with an agile voice range, firing out fast paced sections that ascend as high as the 3rd F above middle C (and in a few cases even higher). Think of Australian Dame Joan Sutherland’s piece from the Mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor. Click here to hear that.
Her chart abounds in Aquarius, (Jupiter, Sun, Neptune & Mercury) Pisces (Uranus) but not the third leg of Taurus (which we have noted shows up with Tenors) — a triptych we call the musical signs. Both her parents were professional singers, her father a tenor and her mother a mezzo-soprano (the opera Carmen is for mezzos) of Italian descent.
There two more planets in Capricorn in the Sixth, the House of Labor, suggesting she worked with lots of women and older men (conductors and composers and some tenors) opposite that Moon that here is probably depicting the fans around the globe who loved her fiercely.
Venus in the Sixth is opposite the cusp of the Twelfth with the Moon is impressive but the T-Square ending at Uranus in the Ninth tells us that travelling far and wide to appease her admirers was something she found enjoyable.
Her Second House at 00.29 Virgo is ruled by Venus a trine away from that opposition, suggesting that despite the wear and tear of performing and traveling, she would gain wealth. Another trine over takes us to her Moon, her worldwide fame that encompassed even the President and Mrs. Lincoln, but in the end, even Grand Diva’s give final performances. She died at home in Wales with her third husband by her side.
Thankfully, we can hear her still here and watch a BBC biograph there.
Marc Jones got the data for #752 from Alan Leo but it should be noted that the London Times has this data but I suspect it is incorrect as the BBC documentary gives Leo’s data.
ADELINA MARIA JOHANNA CLORINDA PATTI was born on the 19th February, 1843, and she has been engaged in operatic singing at Brussels, Ghent. Liege, Loraine, Amsterdam, the Hague, Utrecht, Paris, Vienna, London, and other towns in England, in the course of which she has earned very large sums of money.
Her singing engagements were entered into on her behalf by the defendants, who assumed to act as her guardians, directed and controlled all her movements, and received all the profits of her engagements, which amounted in one year to upward of £24,000, for which sum they have never accounted to Mme. PATTI.
Oh, I know who she was! How fascinating.
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I’m impressed. I didn’t.