Melba researcher Sue Thompson has made Dame Nellie Melba accessible to the world.By Kath Gannaway
DAME Nellie Melba’s career was launched on to the world stage with her operatic debut in Brussels, Belgium in 1887.
More than 120 years on, historian and Melba researcher Sue Thompson has launched Australia’s most famous export on to a different world stage – the internet.
The site www.nelliemelbamuseum.com.au covers Melba’s family, friends, artists, musicians, operatic roles, and the tours she undertook during her 40 years in opera.
The website took Ms Thompson two years to prepare and is a work in progress.
It contains information and photographs from Melba’s only grandchild, Coldstream resident, Pamela, Lady Vestey.
“This website is very much a labour of love,” Ms Thompson said.
“ I have stuck to the facts and given the source of the information so researchers can delve deeper.
“Melba would have loved the internet,” she said.
“Melba was the first person to sing on radio; the first person to allow a live broadcast on one of her opera performances, and her demand for royalties, rather than the then practice of a flat fee for each recording, has benefited recording artists since 1904.”
