Ernesto Nicolini

Born Ernest Nicolas in Saint Malo, France, he studied at the Paris Conservatory and made his debut in 1857, at the Opéra-Comique in Halevy's Les mousquetaires de la reine.

He made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London in 1866, as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, without great success due to the pronounced vibrato that marred his singing.

During the season 1874–75, he appeared in St Petersburg and Moscow, opposite the world-famous soprano Adelina Patti, whom he would partner in almost all her appearances thereafter, accompanying her on concert tours of the major western European capitals (Vienna, Milan, Venice, Brussels, Berlin and so on), as well on tours of the United States and South America.

While together in Paris in 1886, singing in Faust at the Grand Opéra, the two created something of a scandal by getting married; Patti had divorced her first husband, the Marquis de Caux, shortly before her wedding to Nicolini.

Nicolini appeared on stage for the last time at Drury Lane in 1897, as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia.