Opera school breathes new life into castle haunted by Italian soprano
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Your support makes all the difference.A romantic Welsh castle where the celebrated 19th-century Italian soprano Adelina Patti ended her days will echo to the sound of arias once more with the launch today of an opera school.
The highest paid diva of her time, Patti's reputation was incomparable worldwide. Women in Mexico were said to have pawned their jewels just to see her sing.
When Verdi was asked to name his three greatest sopranos, he replied: "Patti, Patti, Patti" and Oscar Wilde even praised her reputation in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
At Craig-y-nos, or Rock ofthe Night, a gothic baronial pile overlooking the river Tawe, she entertained the great and good of her day, including Edward, Prince of Wales, until her death in 1919.
Brendan Wheatley, director of Opera School Wales said: "I think she would be very pleased about the opera school."
Students from as far afieldas Japan will be able to congregate at the venue in the Upper Swansea valley for residential courses.
"This historic castle is ideal for bringing talent to fruition," added Mr Wheatley who has been nurturing operatic talent for years with Bridgett Gill.
"To be made artistic directors of the Adelina Patti Theatre is a great opportunity for us and for Opera School Wales. The future is very exciting."
After buying Craig-y-nos in 1878 for £100,000, Patti and her second husband, the tenor Ernesto Nicolini, made extensive alterations including a 150-seat theatre which was said to be a miniature of the Bayreuth opera house. The curtain drop depicts Madame Patti as Semiramide from Rossini's opera.
In the years since her death, the castle has changed hands frequently, operating as a tuberculosis sanatorium and geriatric home before being sold into private ownership in the 1980s.
Having fluctuated between states of disrepair and renovation, Craig-y-nos, in Powys, was put up for sale at £700,000 last year and was bought by the millionaire philanthropist Martin Gover, He is renovating it and plans to use it as a hotel for visitors to the Brecon Beacons.
But after an approach by Opera School Wales, he agreed to allow some rooms to be used to host residential courses for aspiring singers and permit stage performances in the Grade I listed theatre.
The school also plans to use the theatre to hold master classes for eminent singers and a full diary of events, musical evenings and operas is planned.
After her death, Patti's embalmed body lay in the castle's chapel for months before a Paris burial was eventually decided upon. Her ghost is still said to haunt one of the unused bedrooms of the castle, moving a Bible around the room.
For opera aficionados and students, however, just the spirit of one of the greatest sopranos of all time is enough to put Craig-y-nos in a class of its own.
Mr Wheatley said: "It is a great honour to be able to use such a venue. It is a diamond of theatres."
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