Countries | France
Melba preferred living in France rather than England and purchased and decorated several homes throughout her long career.
I suppose that most girls who arrived in Paris for the first time, especially if their vision had been practically bounded by the Australian Bush, would have been de¬lighted by the magic of the city in which they found themselves. But when I arrived in Paris, I saw nothing of the boulevards, the gay laughing crowds, the glittering shops—my mind was bent on one thing and one thing only—singing to Madame Marchesi; and early on the morning after I had arrived I went round to Madame’s house in the Rue Jouffroy, bearing my letter in my hand. I rang the bell, and the door was opened by a resplendent footman, who on learning my name and mission, after many gestures and explanations, disappeared for ten minutes, to return telling me that Madame Marchesi would receive me the next day at ten o’clock. I bit my lip, feeling very much inclined to cry. Here was another day lost. How I grudged it.
Meeting Marchesi
The next morning twenty minutes before the time of my appointment (so like me) I was sitting in a heavily gilt room with my hands in my lap, waiting to be shown into the Presence. At last the door opened and Madame Marchesi entered.
Terror struck me to the heart as soon as I saw her. She seemed to me a mixture of alarm and attraction, standing very upright in the middle of the room, dressed all in black, a small grey-haired figure, but one which it was impossible to overlook. And then she smiled, and her whole face, with its long upper lip and its intelligent eyes, seemed to be transformed. I felt at last that I had found a friend.
She began to question me, speaking sternly and directly, more in the manner of a businessman than in the manner of a musician, as I conceived one. There were other pupils sitting in the room to be heard, and after my cross-examination I was told to sit down too, and to wait. I sat down, trembling with excitement, and I waited and I listened, and as soon as I had heard one or two of the other pupils my heart began to beat with excitement, for I felt that I had nothing to be afraid of.
Melba’s first audition
My turn came. I was told to stand on a tiny platform and was asked what I wished to sing. Madame seemed tired and a little bored, as though anxious to get the whole business over. I said:
“I shall sing the Aria from Traviata.”
“Eh bien” said Madame, and began to play my accompaniment.
I sang, glancing nervously from time to time at Madame’s profile to see how she was liking me. She listened very attentively, and before I had finished she suddenly stopped, turned swiftly on the piano stool and said:
“Why do you screech your top notes? Can’t you sing them piano?”
I was more terrified than ever. She struck a note, and for a moment I was tongue-tied. Then I thought to myself:
“This is your last chance.”
So I sang as softly as I could the top B.
“Higher,” said Madame Marchesi, striking the C, and I sang the C as softly as possible. And when I glanced at her I saw that a little sparkle had come into her eyes. I sang another note—I think it was the top E, still pianissimo—and suddenly without a word, Madame darted up from her piano and rushed from the room. I was left standing, trembling, on the platform. I won¬dered if all was over. I looked at the other girls, who had begun to chatter among themselves as if they were contemptuous of my efforts. Then the door opened and Madame Marchesi came back. Once more she made me sing, and then she took me by the arm and led me out of the room. And it was then that there came the turning point in my life.
I can see her now, sitting on the sofa by my side, looking me straight in the face, and I can hear her as she said:
“Mrs. Armstrong, are you serious?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Alors” she continued, “if you are serious, and if you can study with me for one year, I will make something extraordinary of you.”
The old lady pronounced the words “extra ordinary with so much emphasis that I realized that she meant what she said, and I felt that at last I had begun.
Months afterwards Madame Marchesi told me what had happened when she darted from the piano stool. She had run upstairs to find her husband, and she had bustled into his room, snatched from his hand the news¬paper he was reading, and had cried in his ear:
“Salvatore, j’ ai enfin une etoile!”
But she showed me nothing of her exuberance at the time, and I thought that I was merely an ordinary pupil, though even that was more than I had dared to hope a few days before.
The next day I went round for my first lesson. I had never realized before the amazing art into which it was possible for a woman like Madame Marchesi to transform the profession of singing-mistress. She was one of the greatest artists I have ever known. She was not only a superb technician she had also a burning spirit of enthusiasm which made one feel even when one was singing a scale that one was singing something beautiful.(1)
Madame Marchesi’s attention and interest were lavishly given to her pupil, much affection and consideration as though she were her own daughter. During December 1886, the Australian Soprano was included in a matinee musicale, and for the first time sang under the name of Madame Melba—-an appellation happily derived from Melbourne,* her native city. The idea of the change of name originated with the teacher, but the name itself was the suggestion of the pupil—-both satisfied with a selection which had the merit of brevity and euphony, linked to that of ease of spelling and pronunciation for every nation in Europe. (2)
Madame Mathilde Marchesi, taught her ten roles in less than a year, and got Melba her first operatic engagement. (3)
During these student days in Paris, Melba was fortunate enough to meet both Gounod and Leo Delibes, as well as Ambroise Thomas, and their interest and friendship had an enormous influence in the quickening of her artistic instinct. (4)
She established her home in an apartment, near to Gounod, Sarah Bernhardt and Mathilde Marchesi, and Artot Padilla. Her young son would spend his holidays with his mother, from school in England. (5)
When the contract in Brussels was finished Melba made her French debut in Paris as Ophelie in Hamlet, on Wednesday, May 8, 1889. (6)
Melba’s two sisters, from Melbourne, were in the audience on the night of her Paris debut, they were deeply moved by the success she achieved.
Madame Melba had three curtain calls, in the Opera at Paris, equivalent to seventy- five in Italy at least. A Gentleman of the Orchestra, critiqued, the debut was a triumph. “No subscriber to the Opera since the days of Nilsson remembers the curtain raised three times after the Mad Scene; but in response to the demand of the entire audience. (7)
As a new-comer she valued the French public’s verdict, her inexperience made her anxious and nervous for it to be favourable. The production had been postponed due to a long illness of Madame Richard. The afternoon of her debut Monsieur Lassalle, who rehearsed with Melba, was stricken with hoarseness, she appeared with a Hamlet she had not seen, and an orchestra she had not rehearsed with.(8)
The review next day, by Monsieur August Vitu, eminent music critic, credited Melba with success, and
“a triumph after the Mad Scene, moved the audience to frenzy”.
He wrote about Melba’s soprano voice, her personal appearance, applauded in her first and second duet with Hamlet. (9)
Melba said:
“I am intensely happy. It was delightful. After the fourth act I was recalled three times, a compliment which they say has not been paid to any singer at the Grand Opera for over thirty years.” . (10)
This was the start of a life-long love of Paris, its people and its lifestyle.
* Melba was born on the Anniversary of the proclamation of Melbourne as a town by Governor Bourke, so that her own birthday and that of her native city occur on the same date.
References
(1) N. Melba, Melodies and Memories, Thornton, 1925 pgs29-31.
(2) A. Murphy, Melba A Biography, 1909, pg25.
(3) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg45.
(4) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg26.
(5) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg50.
(6) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg41.
(7) A. Murphy, op.cit. pgs43and 44.
(8) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg41.
(9) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg42.
(10) A. Murphy, op.cit. pg page 45.
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Email: [email protected]
Share your info with us:
[email protected]
Our home is the Old Lilydale Court House:
61 Castella Street, Lilydale 3140
Hours of opening:
By Appointment only:
Fridays 1 to 4pm and Saturdays to Mondays 11am to 4pm.
Sundays are preferred.
Closed Public Holidays
Nellie Melba Museum
Contact Details:
Sue Thompson: 0475 219 884
[email protected]
Nellie Melba Museum
Contact Details:
Sue Thompson: 0475 219 884
[email protected]
Our home is the Old Lilydale Court House:
61 Castella Street, Lilydale 3140
Hours of opening:
By appointment only:
Fridays 1 to 4pm and Saturdays to Mondays 11am to 4pm.
Sundays are preferred.
Closed Public Holidays
Share Your Information
with Nellie Melba Museum!
Sue Thompson: 0475 219 884
[email protected]