Description
SECONDHAND BOOK
Melbourne is a city and Melba was a singer; it could be said that Dame Nellie was the Bradman of Australia’s music until that other dame, Joan Sutherland, came along. Melba will never be forgotten in the city of her origins, nor did she intend it to forget her. When it was made clear that she needed a stage name, she adapted the name of the place where her voice first broke into song. Australians, not noted for being a musical people, followed her fortunes from afar, feeling that she represented them, as she was often quite proud to do. It cannot be forgotten, however, that she could never have reached her heights in the mundane place whose name she borrowed. She had to leave, win her glory elsewhere, and bring a little of it home. The essays in this volume begin by considering the singer’s career, then assess her city in terms of the rejection that she had to make. How far has it come, how much has it changed, since she left and came back? Would a modern Melba have to leave? In the ebbs and flows of change and continuity, how much of the singer’s Melbourne has been swept away, and how much of it remains? How good is it, and how distinctive are its ways? Do the very qualities that distinguish it also hold it back? These essays, making no claim to be the last word on anything, are a contribution to a city’s life and thought – two things that cannot avoid going together.
Specifications:
Condition: Good – general wear, signed and inscribed by author.
Publisher: Trojan Press
Year: 2004
Format: Paperback
Pages: 150pp
ISBN: n/a
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