MELBA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 6 February 1909, Page 2

MELBA.

■ AND HER MEANING. "The word 'Melba' has come tomcat; more than an artist possessed of perhaps the most perfect vocal organ of her day," writes Mr Filson Young in the "Saturday Review." • "It has come to mean crowded houses, double prices, lon<s packed lines of motor-cars and carriages, rows upon rows of waiting footmen, flowers, emotions," a golden superfluity of money, and that touch of solemnity with which we crown our enthusiasms. In a word Melba has become a convention; and 111 raising her to that level the Anglo-Saxon world has conferred upon her the most cherished patent at its disposal. . "Everything that Melba means could be seen and studied in the Albert Hall on a recent Saturday afternoon, when many thousands of people spen". thousands of pounds and thousands of hours of life to hear her sing a few songs of farewell before her departure for sn absence of two years from our shores. "The ugliest and most expensive building in London, the loveliest and most expensive voice in the world ; thousands of pounds, ihoi;an.ls cE .people, with the busy unemployed shivering in a gliding circle round the Albert Hall and having no doubt their own thoughts on the matter — these make the available material for the consideration of what Melba means in. her relation of life and music at this time. "I have described Melba as an artist, which she undoubtedly is; "but I _ very much doubt whether she can be justly described as a musician in the highest (sense of the word. To the investors of nine hundred out of every thousand pounds th-it. were spent in hearing her ! last Saturday this statement will appear i untrue ; some will feel it to_ be impertinent, more will consider it amazingly ignorant, and not a few will s regard it as a kind of faint blas--1 phomy and iii rather bsd taste. Yet it is not impertinent to examine critically the title to so gigantic a reputation as Madame Melba has achieved I am not ignorant on the subject of music; I have too much veverenc.B {or elements of truth ai d beauty in musinai art to be capable of blasphemy; ana with all earnestness and sobriety I affirm that though Melba's voice is the most beautiful that I in my day and generation have heard, her influence upon misica 1 art and ta"ste in this i-ountry has been on the who.le an undesirable and mischievous influence. "It seems a horribly ungrateFn! thing to write while I am still stirred with the memory of those most beautiful tones, fo deliriously human, ard yet so unearthly in their sweefcaess, aad it seems a dangerously narrow and pedantic -view to tske of the artistii gift that has the maßninecnt power of evoking such huge human enthusiasms and nffortions. J?ut it is necessity in the ease of a singer who, sucoessfnily or otherwise, offers her voice for pold to distinguish r.etwren the singer and thn Kn.qring.' the singing and the wng. "In describing Mime of" the thigns for which the word 'Melba' stands I emitted one, ard perhaps the most ur.liprtant of till the, things with which her name is associated in my mmd — tha qraTopVoni 1 . It is trua that ther-3 are few singers or performers o.f any great crryi.enco' who have not played or sung into the gramophone, and J n lining r.o, have not (in my opinvon} commitVd the sin of blasphemy ; but I think -none hns done so much to make that deadly iuftmiuent p -.polar as Melba has -Sone, and Ihflt tlierefcrc sh^ is the greatest sinner."