Description
With a foreword by Nicole Car and a discography of Nellie Melba’s recordings.
Dame Nellie Melba is, arguably, the most famous of all Australian women and her portrait graces Australia’s highest denomination bank note. Blessed with an exceptionally fine voice, Melba forged a spectacular career for herself in the rarified world of grand opera and was acknowledged as a ‘Queen of Song’. Triumph after triumph crowned her forty-four-year-long career and her admirers included numerous famous composers and the monarchs of many countries. Melba also provided a role model for other Australians who followed in her footsteps onto the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses.
Melba’s private live was almost as colourful as the plots of the operas in which she sang. A turbulent marriage that ended in acrimonious divorce, custody battles, a doomed love affair with a member of the French royal family, health problems and a press campaign of criticism about her character taxed Melba’s stamina and her courage.
Richard Davis, a renowned biographer of famous Australian musical identities, has written a definitive account of Dame Nellie Melba’s life, art and career.
Specifications:
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Year: 2025
Format: Paperback
Pages: 452pp
ISBN: 9781923042131
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