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I know Anna Case mostly from Edison records and stories of the Tone Tests. But, this rather unusual record from 1929 contains a very good recording and her voice is clean and clear. It is not an aria normally sung by a high lyric soprano, but she makes it her own. A very nice copy of the record I just had to share. Even the folks that don't care much for opera or sopranos will appreciate how clean and quiet this record is.

Edited for cleaner sound Nov 8, 2017
[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QGKeAPioQk[/youtubehd]

It is indeed a lovely and very crisp recording. Her voice has a wonderful presence to it. Thank you for sharing.

I think that recording for Edison wasn't good for her legacy. Same with Marie Rappold

That's pretty good ! Her voice was captured with a lot of presence. I wonder what kind of microphone was used. Kind of a blah workman reading of that piece on Anna Case's part.

If the thread starter wants more clean, sink 35 dollars or so in this software and watch all those little clicks n' ticks magically disappear : http://www.clickrepair.net/software_inf ... epair.html

Wolfe wrote: If the thread starter wants more clean, sink 35 dollars or so in this software and watch all those little clicks n' ticks magically disappear : http://www.clickrepair.net/software_inf ... epair.html

I've tried to use it but it doesn't really work on a Mac Book Pro. It uses an ancient version of Java which is no longer secure and not really supported on Apple systems.

Yes, I think the developer said he wasn't making more developments to the software, but I have the latest version of Java and the program runs fine on my machine.

This is a clean recording from about 1929. Not Washington Phillips, but it's Blind Mamie & A.C. Forehand, on Victor. Washington Phillips recorded for Columbia. I wonder what the recording locale for this record was.

https://youtu.be/OmoloUmBU4E

Thanks for posting this rare Anna Case record of an aria from my favorite comic opera!

This is fascinating and thanks for posting it. But Wolfe is right:it's a workmanlike reading, but not her finest hour on an interpretative level . But I admit I'm kind of a fan of Anna Case. I think that Vitaphone short La Fiesta really gives one of the best impressions of the warmth and size of her voice.I always think of her as Edison's answer to Geraldine Farrar.
One of the more interesting things about her life is that when she became Clarence MacKay's second wife, she ended up being Irving Berlin's mother-in-law by marriage. Mary Ellen Berlin wrote a memoir of her parents and family life in which she writes s quite fondly of Anna Case who was her " granny by marriage."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrPoWZpD8s

Jim

Very good record and transcription, including the nice photos of the artist. Thanks for posting it!