Customer Reviews

Nellie Melba: The Complete Victor Recordings 1907-16

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That was certainly Dame Nellie's assessment of herself, and she must have been something. Yes, both Peach Melba and Melba toast are named after her, and yes, she was worshipped. Even such a curmudgeon as Bernard Shaw could appreciate her greatness. Puccini praised the fact that she sang HIS music, not "Melba-Puccini." So why, then, do her recordings not reveal to us the scope of her artistry? Granted, we can marvel at the technical accomplishments (listen, for example, to the "Hamlet" mad scene, or "Sweet Bird") and occasionally catch a phrase that makes us understand what she was about, but she lacks the grandeur and opulence of Ponselle, or the tender vulnerability of Galli-Curci. It may be that Melba was, after all, an artist of the theatre, and that the cramped, primitive conditions of early recording studios simply did not inspire her to her greatest work. However, for devotees of Golden Age voices, this Romophone set is indispensible. The transfers are masterfully done, so that even those allergic to the acoustic sound of early recordings will not be bothered.

Melba achieves perfection more often than any other singer (with the exception of Pol Plancon). Her phrases, her high notes, her ritardandi are beyond conventional emotion and beauty. There is something almost otherworldly in her best moments. In the grand Puccini arias, she seems at first too cool, too controlled. But you soon notice her supreme artistry as well as the fire, the sheer physical force just beneath the utterly smooth surface. In fact, she is sometimes more explosive, more dramatic, than the great Callas herself. And she gives so much of herself! In the Boheme arias, her generosity is perhaps most apparent. In marveling at one perfect top note after another, one almost does not realize how cohesive she can make the pieces seem, how architectural and intelligent her approach is.

Just how much Nellie Melba can one take at one sitting? Judging by this set an awful lot and that is no mean achievement given the unflattering recording, and Melba's maddening habit of recording an aria again and again. Melba's singing lacks charm - judging from contemporary reports the lady could boast little of this anyway. But it has an astonishing technique, a limpid and glorious tone, and at times some indefinable but terribly moving quality. A great, great singer - in fact for my money marginally the best on record.

There is another recording of "Goodbye" by N.Melba on Victor 95012,released in the US in 1905.I wonder why it is not included in this "complete" Romophone release?