While not able to achieve her younger sister Adelina Patti's level of acclaim, Carlotta nonetheless received top billing in concerts in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia.

[5][a] After learning the basics of music from her mother, she studied the piano with Henri Herz before concentrating on a vocal career.

[1][2][8] Family friend and conductor Luigi Arditi lamented that, without that "fatal limitation [...] she would have been equally renowned with her sister.

[12] Through her mother's first marriage to Francesco Barili, a Roman musician,[3] Carlotta also had four half-siblings: Ettore, Antonio, Nicolo, and Clotilda.

[22] In 1866, she toured, organized by Ulmann, with Jules Lefort, violinist Henri Vieuxtemps, cellist Alexandre Batta, and pianist Eugène Ketterer.

[1] Patti went to America in the fall of 1872 as part of a six-member-troup, including Teresa Carreño and Émile Sauret, formed by Maurice Strakosch.

[28] She sued the Post-Dispatch for publishing an allegedly libelous article from the Leavenworth Times, asking for US$25,000 (equivalent to $817,500 in 2023) in damages,[29][30] and later abandoned the suit.