Nellie Melba

Dame Nellie Melba, GBE (19 May 1861 – 23 February 1931), born Helen Porter Mitchell, was an Australian opera soprano, the first Australian to achieve international recognition in the form.

She was born at "Doonside" in Richmond (now an inner suburb of Melbourne) into a musical family, attending Presbyterian Ladies' College (a prestigious private school) where her musical talent emerged. She moved with her father to Queensland in 1880.

She married Charles Nisbett Frederick Armstrong, the son of a baronet, and had one son. Although on paper the marriage lasted almost twenty years, in practice it was over within two. Melba was a free spirit; motherhood and social conventions did not suit her, although later in life she was close to her son and grandson. Her mother in law, keen not to lose a grandson, helped Melba with introductions during her early career.

In 1886, she travelled to Europe with her family in an attempt to begin a musical career. With no success in London, she continued to Paris where a prominent music teacher, Madame Mathilde Marchesi, agreed to tutor her. Thus began a professional career in Australia and England that saw her as the prima donna at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden through to the 1920s. It was also Marchesi who persuaded her to adopt a suitable stage name. 'Melba' was chosen as a contraction of the name of her native city.^[1]

In 1909, she bought a cottage at Coldstream, a small town 50 km east of Melbourne. The cottage is located at the current juncture of Maroondah Highway and Melba Highway (named in her honour). She also set up a music school in Richmond.

She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, and was elevated to Dame Grand Cross in 1927.

Despite the angelic voice for which she was admired, she was also known for her demanding, temperamental diva persona; often she would make last minute decisions before a performance, and often would deliberately upstage other sopranos during their performances, grabbing the attention for herself. She felt that the three words "I am Melba" were sufficient to explain her every wish or whim. She tolerated no rivals. The tenor John McCormack, on the night of his London debut, attempted to take a bow with her on stage, but she pushed him back forcefully. "In this house, no one takes a bow with Melba."

If a singer's greatness can be gauged by how detested she was by colleagues, then Melba would undoubtedly be the greatest singer of all time. In Emma Eames' memoirs, Melba is an unnamed wicked force who frustrated opportunity after opportunity for Eames. Titta Ruffo, Rosa Ponselle, John McCormack, Luisa Tetrazzini, Frances Alda, and others also spoke of their unpleasant experiences with Melba. Emma Eames later in life averred that Melba had a beautiful voice, but of her portrayal of Marguerite in Faust, Eames quipped that "She would have hung the jewels off her nose if she could!"

Some poetic justice occurred when Enrico Caruso, during a performance of La Boheme, as a joke, pressed a hot sausage into her hand that he'd hidden in his pocket as he sang "Che gelida manina, se la lasci riscaldar."("What a cold little hand, let me warm it")

Despite the hatred Melba inspired in her colleagues, Melba occasionally did help the careers of younger singers. The baritone John Brownlee was one, and it was Brownlee who accompanied Melba on her last commercial recordings in 1926, where her voice sounds as astonishingly preserved as ever. Melba also "discovered" a lyric soprano named Stella Power whom she thought sounded a lot like herself; Power was dubbed "the little Melba," but Power lacked Melba's ambition, soon married and had a child, and retired.

In 1920 she appeared on a pioneering radio broadcast from Guglielmo Marconi's factory in Chelmsford, England. However, she realized that people on the radio could hear her for free, so in typical Melba fashion, she never made another radio appearance.

Melba's official "farewell" to Covent Garden in 1926 was recorded. Her voice still sounds remarkably fresh, and at the end of the evening she makes a tearful speech to the audience. After many "retirements" she finally performed her last concerts in Australia in 1928; Sydney on 7 August, Melbourne on 27 September and Geelong in November.

She then left for Europe and later developed a fever in Egypt which she never quite shook off. She returned to Australia but died of septicaemia, in 1931 aged 69, and was given a state funeral from Scots' Church, Melbourne, which her father had built and where as a teenager she had sung in the choir. She was buried in Lilydale, near Coldstream.

The funeral motorcade was over a kilometre long, and her death made front-page headlines in the UK and Europe. The reason for her illness was long kept secret, but was in fact due to an infection acquired during plastic surgery, a "facelift" (see[1]).

Her name is associated with two foods, a dessert (the Pêche Melba), and Melba toast, both created by the French chef Auguste Escoffier. She is also remembered in the vernacular Australian expression "more comebacks than Nellie Melba", which satirised her seemingly endless series of "retirement" tours in the 1920s. The music hall at the University of Melbourne is known as Melba Hall. The Australian 100-dollar note features her image.

Some recordings of her voice were made in the early 20th century, and have been re-released on CD for contemporary audiences. The audio fidelity of the recordings reflects the limitations of the early days of commercial sound recording.

Notes

1. ^ As was the case with Florence Mary Wilson, named Florence Austral (after Australia), and June Mary Gough, named June Bronhill (after Broken Hill).

Reference

• Serle, Percival. (1949). "Armstrong, Helen Porter". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

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