Anna Case

Anna Case (October 29, 1887 - January 7, 1984) was an American operatic lyric soprano. She recorded with Thomas Alva Edison, who used her voice extensively in "tone tests" of whether a live audience could tell the difference between the actual singer and a recording. In addition to recordings for Edison Records on both phonograph cylinder and Diamond Disc, Case recorded for Victor and Columbia Records, and made sound film for Vitaphone.

Biography Case was born in Clinton, New Jersey, on October 29, 1887, and educated by vocal trainer Augusta Öhrström-Renard in New York. Case made her debut in 1909 at the New Theatre in New York as the Dutch Boy in Werther, and from 1909 to 1916 was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company. In her first American performances, she created the roles of Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (1913) and Feodor in Boris Godunov (1913). She sang Olympia in Tales of Hoffmann, Mimi in La Boheme, and Micaela in Carmen.

Case wrote the music and lyrics to several songs during the 1910s and 20s. She made her film debut in the 1919 silent drama film The Hidden Truth, and sang one of her original songs in the 1926 Vitaphone short La Fiesta.

On July 18, 1931, Case married ITT Corporation executive Clarence H. Mackay at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Roslyn, New York, and retired from the stage shortly afterwards. She began to write songs more prolifically in 1936, penning over 50 in two years,