The name Melba comes up nowadays mainly in the context of two popular food items.  The first is a widely popular desert, Peach Melba, created in 1892 by the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier for a dinner party given by the Duke of Orleans at the Savoy Hotel to honor the success of the opera diva Dame Nellie Melba in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin at Covent Garden. The second is Melba Toast, also invented by Escoffier when the diva stayed at his hotel and expressed her preference for thin, dry toast.

The honoree herself, Nellie Melba, was one of the most famous sopranos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, almost on par with Enrico Caruso, with whom she appeared on several occasions in the great opera houses of the world. She was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1861 as Helen Porter Mitchel. At school she took music lessons, and in 1881, after her marriage failed, she went to London with her father. Unable to interview successfully in London, she went to try her luck in Paris and auditioned with the famous singing teacher Mathilde Marchesi. The story has it that when Marchesi heard her sing, she left the room and burst into tears, saying this was the voice she had always waited for. Then she asked the girl where she came from. “From Melbourne, ma’am,” she answered. “Melbourne…Melbourne…Melba,” said the teacher, Melba indeed it became, and the girl from Australia became her student. Helen was now Melba.

She made her debut in Brussels in 1887. At Covent Garden she brought down the house with Lucia di Lammermoor and Romeo and Juliet, and subsequently appeared in every Covent Garden season except when she was on tour. She sang in all the capitals of Europe, in America, and in the other great opera houses of the world. In 1902, she returned for a grand national tour of Australia, and then again in 1909, when she performed in many remote towns in Australia and New Zeeland.

In that year she bought a permanent residence in Melbourne, and devoted herself to educational and charitable projects. She focused on nurturing new musical talent, started scholarships in London and Melbourne, and taught many protegees who later became famous. Her teaching methods were exacting, and students recalled her insistence on perfect diction, breath control, and the precise interpretation of every musical phrase. In 1920 she began to take part in direct radio broadcasts, enabling thousands of listeners to have their first introduction to grand opera. Returning to Australia the next year, she performed in highly popular concerts in Melbourne and Sydney in low priced performances that further helped to popularize opera.

She appeared for the last time at Covent Garden in 1926 in Roméo et Juliette, Otello, and La Bohème. She was decorated as Dame of the British Empire in 1918 and again in 1927, and she continued to give concerts in Australia until 1930 in a series of “farewell” appearances. Her last performance was in London at a charity concert, but returning to Australia in 1931, she died in Sydney at the age of 69 of septicemia that had developed after facial surgery. The funeral motorcade was over a kilometer long, and her death made front-page headlines all over the world. Her image on the Australian $100 note serves as a reminder of her enduring significance and achievements.