Melba, Dame Nellie (actually, Helen Porter née Mitchell Armstrong)

Melba, Dame Nellie(actually, Helen Porter née Mitchell Armstrong), famous Australian soprano; b. Burnley, near Richmond, May 19, 1861; d. Sydney, Feb. 23, 1931. Her father, who had decided objections to anything connected with the stage, was nevertheless fond of music and proud of his daughter’s talent. When she was only 6 years old he allowed her to sing at a concert in the Melbourne Town Hall, but would not consent to her having singing lessons; instead, she was taught piano, violin, and harp, and even had instruction in harmony and composition. As she grew older she frequently played the organ in a local church, and was known among her friends as an excellent pianist, while all the time her chief desire was to study singing. Not until after her marriage in 1882 to Captain Charles Armstrong was she able to gratify her ambition, when she began to study with a local teacher, Cecchi; her first public appearance as a singer was on May 17, 1884, in a benefit concert in Melbourne. The next year her father received a government appointment in London, and she accompanied him, determined to begin an operatic career. She studied with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. Melba gave her first concert in London (June 1, 1886). Her debut as Gilda at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (Oct. 13, 1887) created a veritable sensation; the famous impresario Augustus Harris immediately engaged her for the spring season at London’s Covent Garden, where she appeared on May 24, 1888, as Lucia, to only a half-full house. However, she scored a major success at the Paris Opéra as Ophelia in Thomas’s Hamlet (May 8, 1889); then sang with great success in St. Petersburg (1891), Milan (La Scala, 1893; immense triumph over a carefully planned opposition), Stockholm and Copenhagen (Oct. 1893), N.Y. (Metropolitan Opera, as Lucia, Dec. 4, 1893), and Melbourne (Sept. 27, 1902). From her first appearance at Covent Garden she sang there off and on until 1914; besides being one of the most brilliant stars of several seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y., she also sang with Damrosch’s Opera Co. (1898) and at Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera (1906–07 and 1908–09), and made several transcontinental concert tours of the U.S. Bem-berg wrote for her Elaine (1892), and Saint-Saëns, Hélène (1904), in both of which she created the title roles. In 1915 she began teaching at the Albert Street Conserva-torium in Melbourne; returned to Covent Garden for appearances in 1919, 1923, and a farewell performance on June 8, 1926. Then she returned to Australia and retired from the stage. Melba was by nature gifted with a voice of extraordinary beauty and bell-like purity; through her art she made this fine instrument perfectly even throughout its entire extensive compass and wonderfully flexible, so that she executed the most difficult fioriture without the least effort. As an actress she did not rise above the conventional, and for this reason she was at her best in parts demanding brilliant coloratura (Gilda, Lucia, Violetta, Rosina, Lakmé et al.). On a single occasion she attempted the dramatic role of Brünnhilde in Siegfried (Metropolitan Opera, N.Y, Dec. 30, 1896), and met with disaster. In 1918 she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She was a typical representative of the golden era of opera; a prima donna assoluta, she exercised her powers over the public with perfect self-assurance and a fine command of her singing voice. Among her other distinguished roles were Mimi, Else, Nedda, Aida, Desde-mona, and Marguerita. As a measure of Melba’s universal popularity, it may be mentioned that her name was attached to a delicious dessert (Peach Melba) and also to Melba toast, patented in 1929 by Bert Weil. A film based on her life was produced in 1953 with Patrice Munsel as Melba. She wrote an autobiography, Melodies and Memories (London, 1925).

Bibliography

A. Murphy, M.:A Biography (London, 1909); P. Colson, M.: An Unconventional Biography (London, 1931); J. Wechsberg, Red Plush and Black Velvet: The Story of M. and Her Times (Boston, 1961); G. Hutton, M. (Melbourne, 1962); J. Hetherington, M. (London, 1967); W. Moran, N. M.: A Contemporary Review (Westport, Conn., 1985); T. Radie, M.:The Voice of Australia (Melbourne and London, 1986); P. Vestey, M.:A Family Memoir (Melbourne, 1996).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire