Frances Alda
Frances Alda (actually: Fanny Jane Davis ; born May 31, 1879 in Christchurch , † September 18, 1952 in Venice ) was a New Zealand opera soprano . In the first three decades of the 20th century, she became known for her outstanding singing voice, good technique and colorful personality. She often performed with Enrico Caruso at the New York Metropolitan Opera .
Childhood and youth
Fanny was born in Christchurch in 1879 . Her father wished that his wife Leonore nee Simonsen should work as a housewife and mother. As a promising singing talent from a musical family, Leonore had other plans and divorced in 1880 in order to resume her singing career. Fanny spent the next few years on her mother's tours. After failures in Australasia, Leonore traveled to San Francisco with Fanny and her younger brother in 1883 , remarried there, but died of peritonitis in December 1884 . After her mother's death, Fanny lived with her maternal grandparents in Melbourne, Australia . She sang here in Gilbert and Sullivan . At the age of 22 she traveled to Europe to continue her vocal training and to pursue an international singing career like her future rival Nellie Melba . After lessons with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris, who gave her the stage name, Alda made her debut at the Opéra-Comique in Massenet's Manon in 1904 . She appeared in 1906 at London's Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and from 1906 to 1908 at La Scala in Milan .
On April 4, 1910, Alda married the former impresario at La Scala, Giulio Gatti-Casazza , who had come to New York in 1908 as director of the Metropolitan Opera . According to an article in American Art News, the artist Adolfo Müller-Ury painted them shortly before their wedding. She continued her career in New York and appeared in the operas Martha , Manon Lescaut , Otello , Faust , Mefistofele and La Bohème .
During this time she also sang for the Victor Talking Machine Company . She sang title roles in Victor Herbert 's Madeleine and Henry Hadley 's Cleopatra's Night and Walter Damrosch's Cyrano . She sang regularly with the tenor Enrico Caruso .
Alda tours to Australia and New Zealand in 1927. She and Gatti-Casazza separated in 1928 and eventually divorced. In 1929 she left the "Met", but continued to give concerts, made radio broadcasts and appeared in the variety theater. She named her 1937 autobiography Men, Women, & Tenors .
She remarried in 1941 and traveled extensively in the later years of her life. She died in Venice in 1952 at the age of 73. Frances Alda was proud of her New Zealand origins and also sang it in Māori .
literature
- Jean-Pierre Mouchon: "Un duo inédit de Frances Alda et Enrico Caruso: Parle-moi de ma mère (Georges Bizet, Carmen, acte I)", in: Étude n ° 26, avril-mai-juin 2004, Association internationale de chant lyrique Titta Ruffo. [1]
Web links
- Profile of Frances Alda, "New Zealand's most famous daughter", at nzedge.com
- Melba versus Alda
- Madame Frances Alda. Does Not Seem to Like Australia
- Discography of Frances Alda on Victor Records from the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR)
Individual evidence
- ↑ She herself wrongly gave her date of birth as 1883 in order to make herself more attractive to opera managers.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- ^ The book of New Zealand women = Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa , First. Edition, Williams, Wellington 1992, ISBN 0-908912-04-8 .
- ↑ American Art News , New York, March 19, 1910.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alda, Frances |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Davis, Fanny Jane (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand opera soprano |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Christchurch |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 18, 1952 |
| Place of death | Venice |