Adelina Patti - 'Batti, O Bel Masetto' from 'Don Giovanni'

[vereno1986]

Maybe this is the closest we can get to the actual performance in Mozart's days. Patti learned this song from Maurice Strakosch, who had in turn also worked with her great predecessor, Giuditta Pasta. Pasta had supposedly learned it from a singer who had worked with Mozart, and she sang Zerlina in 1816, not even 30 years after Mozart had written Don Giovanni.

[luizpatti]

Very beautiful voice!

[saltburner2]

Patti's technique let her down a few times in these very first G&T recordings. But she worked hard over the next few months, and when the Gramophone engineers returned the following year for a further series, she was actually singing better.

[99Gambo]

I used to live ten miles away from Craig Y Nos - her castle in Breconshire, Wales. How interesting to connect the voice with the great soprano's history. She was the Madonna of her time - a superstar in an era without TV or wireless and in which her adoring public couldn't find out enough about her.

[LLehmannfan]

I'm always very pleased to hear the great Patti sing. It is nearly unbelievable, that she was 62 years old when she sung this.

What a gift must have been to hear her on stage during her prime.

[Lamfada]

Lovely recording!  Many thanks for posting it

[merrihew]

Important even if just for historical reasons. A bit of surface noise but a very even recording with no blasting.

[themfromspace]

Thousands of thanks for posting this recording!! I've wanted to hear it for a long time and it was everything I hoped for.

[tHEnOOSEsWING]

Beautifully sung aria from Giovanni. Thank you.