Biographers of Adelina Patti (1843–1919) are nearly unanimous in their opinion of this soprano. From the moment she stepped onto the stage in 1851 as a child prodigy until her final public appearances in 1914, Patti was unequaled— a singer whose voice soared above all others, who could bring an audience to its feet with a simple folk tune, and whose acting was flawless. Both of the fulllength biographies dedicated to her life, as well as many shorter chronicles, are packed from beginning to end with accounts of her triumphs. John Frederick Cone, for example, declares that Patti was “perhaps the most gifted of all singers during [the nineteenth] and this [the twentieth century],” and at the conclusion of Herman Klein's biographical tome he writes, “her singing was an … unalloyed delight to all who heard her, not only in her prime, but long after her career had passed its meridian.” To be sure, these writers faced no shortage of material to illustrate their points.

According to firsthand testimonials, Patti's voice was a marvel. The American soprano Emma Eames, for example, described Patti's voice in her own autobiography: “Hers was the most perfect technique imaginable, with a scale, both chromatic and diatonic, of absolute accuracy and evenness, a tone of perfect purity and of the most melting quality, a trill impeccable in intonation, whether major or minor, and such as one hears really only in nightingales, liquid, round, and soft. Her crescendo was matchless, and her vocal charm was infinite.” Writing about her in 1879, Eduard Hanslick had this to say: “[I]n Adelina Patti I have learned to know a musical organization perfect beyond all others—I may, indeed, say: a musical genius.” Patti was most successful in such florid bel canto roles as Rosina, Lucia, and Gilda, but she was fluent also in more dramatic parts like Aïda and Valentine from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.