He accompanied them admirably for he played the piano to perfection.
[Illustration: Mme.

Patti] Unfortunately I was not there the evening that Patti sang for Rossini the first time.

We know that after she had sung the aria from _Le Barbier_, he said to her, after the usual compliments, "Who wrote that aria you just sang ?" I saw him three days afterwards and he hadn't cooled off even then.
"I am fully aware," he said, "that arias should be embellished.

That's what they are for.

But not to leave a note of them even in the recitatives! That is too much!" In his irritation he complained that the sopranos persisted in singing this aria which was written for a contralto and did not sing what had been written for the sopranos at all.
On the other hand the diva was irritated as well.