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Frances Alda (31 May 1879 – 18 September 1952), born Fanny Jane Davis, was a New Zealand-born,...

Frances Alda (31 May 1879 – 18 September 1952), born Fanny Jane Davis, was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised lyric soprano. She achieved fame as an operatic diva during the first three decades of the 20th Century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique and colourful personality. Alda was born in Christchurch, New Zealand into a musical family and brought up in Melbourne, Australia. She sang in productions of Gilbert and Sullivan in Melbourne before leaving Australia for Europe at the age of 22 in order to undertake additional study and pursue an international singing career like her future soprano rival Nellie Melba. 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. According to American Art News (New York, March 19, 1910), the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury was painting her just before she married Giulio Gatti-Casazza on 4 April 1910. Alda's husband had become director