Queen Alexandra has often been quoted as the one lady who has found the real secret of perpetual youth, but people who do so seem to have forgotten that Madame Patti is near-ing her sixty-ninth birthday. "Pretty, popular Patti," as she was early nicknamed by a great personage, is still pretty, in spite of her age, and as popular to-day as in the height of her fame. It is on record that she was born in Madrid, that her father was Salvatore Patti, of Catania, Sicily; while her mother was Caterina Chiesa, a well-known opera singer. Madame Patti made her debut in public at the age of seven at the Academy of Music in New York, and for a time was very successful on the concert platform. Two years later, she came, quite unknown, to London, and when she appealed to the manager of Covent Garden for an engagement she was allowed to appear only on condition that she sang for nothing. Her success was instantaneous, and in after years she was able to command the huge sum of £1,000 a night from the management of the same theatre. Altogether it has been estimated that Madame Patti's voice has earned over £800,000. The great diva has been married three times. In 1868 she became the bride of Henry, Marquis de Caux, Equerry to Napoleon III. The marriage was dissolved some time later, and in 1886 the singer married Signor Nicolini, himself a well-known singer, who died in 1898. The following year Madame Patti married her present husband, Baron Rolf Ceder-strom, and still lives for the greater part of the year at her beautiful home, Craig-y-nos, in South Wales.

Madame Patti Dover Street Studios

Madame Patti Dover Street Studios