Frances Alda

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Frances Alda in the 1920s.

Frances Alda (born Fanny Jane Davis) (May 31, 1879 - September 18, 1952) was a New Zealand-born soprano. She achieved fame as an operatic diva during the first three decades of the 20th Century due to her outstanding singing voice and colourful personality.

Alda was born in Christchurch into a musical family and raised as a child in Melbourne, Australia. She sang in productions of Gilbert and Sullivan in Melbourne before leaving the Antipodes for Europe at the age of 22 in order to undertake additional study and pursue an international singing career. After receiving lessons from the renowned teacher Mathilde Marchesi in Paris, she made her debut at the Opera-Comique in 1904 in Massenet's Manon. She appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, in 1906 and at La Scala, Milan, during the 1906-1908 seasons. In 1910, she married the La Scala impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza.

Alda's husband had become director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1908. It was in New York that Alda furthered her career, appearing to acclaim in such famous operas as Martha, Manon Lescaut, Otello, Faust, Mefistofele and La Boheme. It was during this time that she recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Alda also created the title roles in Victor Herbert's Madeleine and Henry Hadley's Cleopatra's Night.

Alda toured New Zealand in 1927. She and Gatti-Casazza separated the following year and then divorced. In 1929, she left the Met but continued to give concerts, make radio broadcasts and appear in vaudeville. Alda's acerbic 1937 autobiography was titled Men, Women, & Tenors. The book reflects her fiery, forthright temperament. She remarried in America in 1941 and travelled extensively in later life. She died of a stroke in Venice, Italy, aged 83.

Alda was one of the finest lyric sopranos of her era, possessing a beautiful vocal timbre and a splendid technique. Her recordings, available on CD, repay frequent listening.