Anna Case

American soprano Anna Case was the first native-born Metropolitan Opera diva to have no formal training whatsoever. Born the daughter of a blacksmith in New Jersey, Case was leading the chorus and playing organ at the Dutch Reformed Church in her community by the age of 15, and she'd never had a music lesson in her life to that time. Case took some lessons from a local music teacher who gave up when Case's potential proved too great, she was sent off to another private teacher in New York. This was all the training she'd had when, at age 20, Case made her Metropolitan Opera debut; she moved up the ranks quickly, as she was taking starring roles within six months. Case also established herself as a concert singer, making many recordings for the Edison company during its "Diamond Disc" period. Case became Thomas Edison's favorite soprano, as she sang with practically none of the vibrato that disturbed his injured ears. A chance occurrence led to opportunity for Case in 1915; absentmindedly singing along with her Edison records in a music store in Des Moines, IA, the other customers commented on how they couldn't tell the difference between Case's live singing and her Edison Diamond Disc records. This inspired Edison to mount national tours for his artists and the Diamond Disc in a series of "tone tests," where audiences were blindfolded and asked to pick between the real thing and Edison's recording. Though Case later admitted she'd learned to imitate the sound of her recordings with her voice, it was a great publicity stunt that served her career well -- the most famous "tone test" of all featured Case and was held in Carnegie Hall on March 20, 1920. In 1916, Case sang in a private musicale given at the estate of ITT executive Clarence MacKay, and he was smitten with her. MacKay's first wife had abandoned him in 1911, but his sense of moral turpitude prevented him from marrying Case as long as his first wife lived. Nonetheless, a long romance between the two blossomed, and Case retired from the Met in 1920 at the age of only 31. She continued to appear in recital and in galas and special events for about another decade, and in 1926 she starred in La Fiesta, a Vitaphone short featured on the August 6, 1926, film program largely credited with breaking the talkies to the American public. In 1930, Clarence MacKay's first wife passed away, and the couple were married the following year, at which time Case quit singing for good. MacKay died in 1938, and Case found herself very well situated for the remainder of her long life. She established the "Anna Case MacKay Award" to provide support for the careers of aspiring singers through the Santa Fe Opera, and at her death bequeathed two sapphire necklaces to the Smithsonian Institution believed to contain the largest such stones ever mined. Case did not enjoy an international reputation, and her voice was not of a kind that would've traveled; hers was a uniquely American approach to opera singing. However, Case was one of the great characters among American opera divas, and her legacy continues to inspire; in 2004 Lincoln Center presented composer Nick Brooke's opera Tone Test, which was based on Case's exploits with Thomas Edison.