have entered heartily into the pleasures of the luxurious life of
Craig-y-Nos. He died in January, 1898.

After some years of retirement from the operatic stage, during which she
sang only in concerts, Patti made a reappearance at Covent Garden in
1895, and showed that her voice, notwithstanding nearly forty years of
use, was wonderfully well preserved. Nevertheless it was a
disappointment to those who had heard her in her prime. As a reason for
its preservation she says that she never sings when she is tired, and
never strains for high notes. Sir Morell Mackenzie, the great throat
specialist, said that she had the most wonderful throat he ever saw. It
was the only one in which the vocal cords were in absolutely perfect
condition after many years of use. They were not strained, warped, or
roughened in the slightest degree, but absolutely perfect, and there was
no reason why they should not remain so for ten or even twenty years
longer. It was by her voice alone that she charmed and delighted her
audiences, and she will doubtless be recorded as the possessor of the
most perfect voice of the nineteenth century. She witnessed the rise of
many rivals, but none ever equalled her in popularity, though many
excelled her in dramatic powers. Lucca, Sembrich, Nilsson, were all
greater as actresses, but of all the rivals of her prime only Sembrich
and Albani remain, and several years must elapse before their careers
will equal the length of Patti's.

Probably no other singer has succeeded in amassing so great a fortune as
Madame Patti. Her earnings enabled her to purchase, in 1878, the
beautiful estate in Wales, which she remodelled to suit her own ideas.
Here she has lived in regal style and entertained lavishly many of the
most noted people of the civilized world.

Her wealth is by no means confined to real estate, for she has a rare
collection of jewels, said to be the largest and most brilliant owned by
any of the modern actresses and opera singers. One of her gowns, worn in
the third act of "La Traviata," was covered with precious stones to the
value of $500,000.

Madame Patti's most popular roles were Juliet and Aida, and though she
created no new parts of importance, she has amply fulfilled the
traditional role of prima donna in matters of caprice and exaction, and
has even created some new precedents. In 1898 she was still before the
public, singing in concerts in London and elsewhere.

CHAPTER V.

PRIMA DONN