A LONG FAREWELL

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12395, 15 March 1926, Page 11

A LONG FAREWELL

In the opinion of Dame Nellie Melba, the most abused word in the English, language. is the word '‘farewell,” writes m English correspondent. She says that when she arrived in London last week, acquaintances on all sides greeted her with the remark : '"Of course, you aren’t really saying farewell in your tour which begins on Monday. Of course you will sing again?” The diva writes:— “I informed them, I fear a little curtly, that it was my habit when I said a thing to mean it, and that if they desired to know tho meaning of foe word 'farewell,' they would find it in any English dictionary. For mo, nt least, It dons not mean ‘tin revoir/ And that is why I find it so terribly difficult to say. Only the desire to rest and to explore so many aspects of life which havo hitherto boon denied me is prompting me to say it now. After my tour I shall never sing in publio in tho United Kingdom agpin. To mo thcro is nothing moro pathetic or more ridiculous than tho prospect, which we have so often lately, of artists who bade, a final farewell to their public so long as 15 years ago still appearing and reappearing in a prolonged series of farewell performances. It cheapens art. It. makes the word of an artist; of no value. Thnt is n tragedy which should never be. I have never said farewell before. I shall never say it again. Need I say more?’'