A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nicolini, Ernest

NICOLINI, originally Ernest Nicolas, son of an hotel-keeper of Dinard, Brittany, was born at Tours, Feb. 23, 1834. He was for a short time a pupil at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1855 gained a second accessit in Comic Opera. Shortly after he was engaged at the Opéra Comique, where he remained until 1859, without any marked success. In that year he went to Italy, and under the name of Nicolini sang at Milan, Florence, Turin, and elsewhere, with fair success. He returned to Paris in 1862, to the Salle Ventadour, with better results than before, and sang there for several seasons till 1870.

His first appearances in England were May 26, 1866, at a concert given by Madame Lucca, at St. James's Hall, and on the 29th of the same month at Covent Garden, as Edgardo, but with such moderate success that he did not return to London until April 25, 1871, when he reappeared at Drury Lane under Mapleson, as Faust, with very fair results, and remained for the season, distinguishing himself especially as Raoul. In 1872 he was engaged at Covent Garden, where he has sung each successive year, as the interpreter of Lohengrin and Radames. He has a voice of moderate power, a good stage presence, and is a fair actor, but he has adopted the prevailing tremolo to such a degree as seriously to prejudice the method of singing which he acquired at the Conservatoire. During the winter and spring seasons he has sung in Russia, Vienna, and other places, and latterly has taken starring engagements with Mme. Adelina Patti, both in concert and opera in Germany and Italy, and in short concert tours in the English provinces. [App. p.731 "he married Mme. Adelina Patti on Aug. 10, 1886."]

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