Commemorating Dame Nellie Melba

Portrait by Rupert Bunny (1902)

Soprano Dame Nellie Melba GBE died on February 23, 1931. As we look back at some of the highlights from her life and career, it's easy to see how this opera singer is still part of popular culture 80 years later. Just this week a porridge bowl given by the diva to her godson Simon Birch went on auction and was expected to receive bids of £300 - 500 and the Australian winery De Bortoli released a new wine called the Melba ‘Mimi' 2008 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Nebbiolo. Born in 1861 as Helen Porter Mitchell in Melbourne, Australia, her parents were of Scottish descent. She married Charles Armstrong in 1882, with whom she had a son named George. She has an affair with Philippe, Duke of Orleans, that eventually led to scandal and in 1900 her

"Depuis le jour" Louise by Charpentier (rec. 1913)

husband divorced her in Texas. She studied with Pietro Cecchi and Mathilde Marchesi. Soon she was introduced to and studied with several composers including Gounod, Massenet, Délibes, Debussy, Duparc, Chausson, Verdi, Saint-Saëns, Thomas and Puccini, as well as changing her name to a variation on her hometown. She debuted at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (October 13, 1887), Royal Opera House in London (May 24, 1888), Opéra de Paris (May 8, 1889), La Scala in Milan (1893), The Metropolitan Opera in New York (December 4, 1893) and Opéra de Monte-Carlo (1904). Throughout her career, her major roles in the opera house were Gilda, Marguerite, Juliette, Ophélie, Lucia and Gilda. She sang the world premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns's Hélène, the first to sing the role of Nedda in Pagliacci for London (1892) and New York (1893), as well as the first to sing Mimi in Puccini's La bohème in New York. In 1909, she bought property at Coldstream (East of Melbourne) and around