Background
Alda was born Fanny Jane Davis in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1879. Her father David, wanted her mother, Leonore (née Simonsen), to settle down. Fanny spent her early years traveling with her mother on her operatic tours.
Alda was born Fanny Jane Davis in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1879. Her father David, wanted her mother, Leonore (née Simonsen), to settle down. Fanny spent her early years traveling with her mother on her operatic tours.
Leonore Davis remarried but died of peritonitis in San Francisco on 29 December 1884, shortly after remarrying, to Herman Adler. She appeared at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1906, and at Louisiana Scala, Milan, during the 1906-1908 seasons. In 1908, the former Louisiana Scala impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza became director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York ("Met").
On 7 December 1908 Alda made her debut at the Metropolitan
On 4 April 1910, Alda and Gatti-Casazza married. lieutenant was in New York that Alda furthered her career, appearing to acclaim in such famous operas as Martha, Manon Lescaut, Otello, Faust, Mefistofele and Louisiana bohèmedical
She began recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1908 and several of her records became best-sellers. She created the title roles in Victor Herbert"s Madeleine and Henry Hadley"s Cleopatra"s Night as well as Roxane in Walter Damrosch"s Cyrano.
She also sang regularly with Enrico Caruso.
Alda toured Australia and New Zealand in 1927. In 1929, she left the Met but continued to give concerts, make radio broadcasts and appear in vaudeville. Alda"s 1937 autobiography was titled Men, Women, & Tenors.
On 14 April 1941, at Charleston, South Carolina, she remarried, to New York advertising executive Ray Vir Den, a decade her junior.
She would have an affluent retirement in Long Island, and traveling. She died of a stroke (some sources cite cerebral hemorrhage) on 18 September 1952 in Venice, Italy, aged 73.