Marvelous Melba: The Extraordinary Life of a Great Diva

“‘Nobody sings like Melba, and nobody ever will,’ proclaimed the impresario Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. Like many others of his time, he considered her the world’s greatest singer. The wild acclaim showered on her by American fans led to the coining of the word ‘Melbamania.’ Year after year she toured America on the ‘Melba’ train, bringing opera and concerts to out-of-the-way cities and towns; thanks to the new gramophone, she could also be heard in the remotest locales. Ann Blainey’s beguiling life of Nellie Melba tells the story of a woman who-in an era when no woman was prime minister, chief justice, head of a church or financial firm, or a universal film star-became perhaps the most famous woman in the world.

“Ms. Blainey’s Marvelous Melba punctures many of the myths surrounding Melba’s life and career, and offers a new portrait of the great diva. In her mid-twenties, as a married woman, she enrolled herself in one of the most famous singing schools in Europe. Within three years she was a prima donna in Paris, Belgium, and London, and a valued friend of the heir to the English throne. Her personal life was clouded by a bitter divorce and the loss of custody of her only child. But she reigned over the operatic world in England, the United States, and Australia for well over a quarter-century, her diamonds and dresses fabulous, her lovers numerous. With eight pages of black-and-white photographs.”

-from the publisher’s site