... ...Hamlet...‘From this moment, her success was assured. It continued through to the third act, during the beautiful trio with Hamlet and the Queen, where the replies were given with a rare assurance and in an accent touching and stamped with broken-hearted sadness. But it was in the fourth act, in the Mad Scene, that the ovation was its fullest and her triumph was dazzling…
Cited in Melba, the voice of Australia by Thérèse Radic. ...
“...the voice, pure and limpid, with an adorable timbre and perfect accuracy, emerges with the greatest ease.” Arthur Pougin, in Le Ménestral (Paris), May 12, 1889.
Dame Nellie Melba (1861 – 1931), was Australia’s opera superstar, performing in the great opera houses of the world - the Paris Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera House, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she became prima donna, returning season after season.
The extensive Melba Collection at the Victorian Arts Centre includes costumes, records, accessories, letters, programs, photographs, opera scores and other personal effects. Other holdings of interest include 78rpm disks at the State Library of Victoria.
