Film - Dame Nellie Melba Collection; A selection with curator Margaret Marshall, Sophie Boord, The Arts Centre Melbourne

NARRATOR: Dame Nellie Melba was Australia's first international opera star. The soprano was born here in Melbourne and made her first professional performance in 1887 in Brussels. She then went on to conquer the international opera scene, and particularly reigned supreme as prima donna at London's Covent Garden for many years.

In 1977, Melba's grandaughter Lady Vestey, donated what was to become the foundation of our Dame Nellie Melba collection. More than 15 costumes and 60 accessories form the basis of this generous donation. Over the years, through other donations and some purchases, the Melba collection here has been added to, to become one of the world's most significant collections documenting the achievements of this international opera star.

This costume's a dressing gown that Melba wore in the role of Desdomona in the opera "Otello." And it is a great example of the way Melba had specially designed costumes. This one has been designed for her by the Parisian Worth. It's quality fabrics, real fur and silk-lined. It's also a good example to show of how we store some of our costumes. Ideally, they would be stored flat in boxes, and many of the Melba costumes are. However, they obviously take up more space. So we do select to hang some of the costumes that are strong enough to do so.

The way this cloak is packaged is with the maximum support that's possible. It's in an archival box, and covered by archival fabric. The cloak was designed for Melba by Jean-Philippe Worth. And it's beautiful gold silk with hand painted silk angel faces, and it was known as the cloak of angels. There's velvet around the angels, and it's also encrusted with jewels and pearls and metallic decorative elements on the edges.

There's a great story connected with this cloak that Melba wrote about in her autobiography. It was 1891 when they took the trip to Russia, and they traveled by train. Apparently at the border of Russia, customs officials searched the train. And Melba, to her horror, looked out the window and saw this cloak lying in the snow. Apparently she rushed outside and tried to explain the importance of the cloak, and it was eventually saved.

This costume component is the bodice of a dress that was made for Dame Nellie Melba in Paris. It was worn by her in the role of Violetta in "La Traviatta." It's one of the oldest costumes that we have in the collection, and it dates from around 1900. Given the age of this costume and the fragile materials of silk and lace, this costume required some conservation work by professional conservator a few years ago. It was mainly involving stabilizing the fabrics. Some of the lace areas had developed holes over the years, and so netting was placed under those and hand stitched to support it.

The style of the bodice, with its metal ribbing, with its sharp, corseted bust line, had also meant that some of the fabric of worn in those areas. The conservator therefore added silk panels to help support the material.

The skirt that belongs with this bodice has a row of fabric camellias like this running down the front of it, from the waist to the hem. Abigail Hart, who was the conservator that worked on this costume, had to steam the petals on the flowers in order to reshape them. She told us later that while she was doing this work, she smelled an old world perfume coming from the flowers. She said that it was as though Melba herself had just walked into the room.

Lady Vestey's donation also included some of Melba's own opera scores. This is her copy of "Lohengrin." The inscription was done in April 1887, which is just a few months before she took on the famous stage name of Melba, created in honor of her hometown, Melbourne. Throughout the opera score, there are handwritten annotations, making it a significant and evocative item related to Melba. As this was the book that Melba would have learned her part for "Lohengrin" from, you can say that it's been well worn and well used, making it a very special item for our performing arts collection.

This is her score for "Madama Butterfly." It's an opera that she never performed publicly, but she probably learned the role. The score's been signed by Melba. And, making it even more significant, it contains a signed inscription to Melba from the opera's composer Puccini, and it's dated 1904.

This is a slightly quirky little piece. It's a place card from a dinner party at Coombe Cottage, which was Melba's home here in Melbourne. The date's from 1916. It's interesting because the names of the guests have been incorporated into the menu items. You can see here that there's Souffle Fritz, Spaghetti Rigo, Glaco Peggy, and Savory Murcheson. It's likely that this humorous menu item is a play on the famous peach Melba dessert that was created for her in the 1890s.

This card belonged to Fritz Hart, who was always present at the dinner party. And you can see that his name has been changed to Fritz Tart. It's a good example of the sense of humor that Melba had, that perhaps would surprise many people. On the reverse of the menu are the signatures of the guests that were at the dinner party, with Melba's at the top.

Melba often had items made using her initials. This is an example of a tie pin that was given to her personal maid, Miss Blow. Another example is a card case, which is much later from the art deco approach of styling. And this pearl broach, just using the N. She often had these sort of items given away as gifts to friends and colleagues.

Another very special aspect of the Melba collection is the correspondence that we have that was written by her. This includes letters to people like her teacher, Mathilde Marchesi. This one was written in Milan in 1893. There's also letters to friends, such as Beryl Fanning, who was a student of Melba's. And this collection covers many years, and shows changing places that Melba visited, and also the varying letterheads that she used.

She had her own personal stationery, but she also tended to use the stationery supplied at the places in which she stayed. The correspondence gives a really lovely personal insight into Melba. And it shows not only aspects of her career, but her personality, her sense of humor, her more fragile moments, and her comments on society.

[NELLIE MELBA SINGING "AVE MARIA"]