MELBA’S ADVICE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1927, Page 3

MELBA’S ADVICE

WHAT TO EAT AND AVOID. SYNDEY, Sept. 26. Every time Dame Nellie Melba, Australia’s most famous singer, returns from her frequent tours abroad, she spends much of her time in giving advice to singing students, especially those studying at the Albert street Conservatorium, Melbourne, which is one of her particular whims. Recently she gave one of these lessons there, and it was brightly described by a writer in the Melbourne “ Argus.” It was one of the most interesting lessons Melba had given, and it was Melba at her best —Melba as a friend, as well as a critic and teacher. The lesson proceeded along the usual lines for about an hour and a-half, with the great soprano giving advice about breathing, production, enunciation, and interpretation. Then Melba invited the students to ask her questions.

There was a nervous silence. Then one girl sot the hall rolling with a significant question, “ Madame,” she asked, “ will you tell us what not to eat ? ” A LIGHT DIET. “ All,” said Dame Nellie, and then came the most interesting period of the lesson. “Shall I tell you what I eat? I begin my day with a dessertspoonful of lemon juice (orange juice is just as good, if you like sweet things; l don’t) in boiling water. Half ail hour later I have a raw tomato, or a bit of celery, or some watercress, with one tiny little hit of bread and butter, and two cups of weak tea. That is all the tea I drink in the day. I have done that every morning of my life, and it has done me an enormous amount ol good. Perhaps for lunch I may have some fish or chicken with plenty of vegetables, and perhaps some stewed fruit. Do not mix your foods. If you have hot fish, have hot vegetables, j and if you have salad, do not have vegetables, and so on. You will get your blood stream running so beautifully clear you will never get a cold.

T never eat meat. Three times a week I have no dinner at all, and ' three times I have a wonderful vegetable soup which has been simmering for three hours. Relieve me, tho less you eat the better you are, and if you take my advice you will eat less and less meat and more and more vegetables

and more fruit.” ONIONS AND CARROTS. Then Dame Nellie went on to recommend certain things, boiled r onions, which she said she loved, raw carrots grated and made into a sandwich, anything that had grown in the earth. Then she asked: “ Would you like to know what I eat wlien I am singing? The day I sing T have my raw tomato and my tea in the morning. At one o’clock I have a chicken in a casserole, with vegetables and perhaps a baked apple; and at 5 o’clock I have scrambled • eggs without any salt, liecause you must never run the risk of getting thirsty when you are singing. That reminds me of a funny story. I was staying at a country hotel, and asked for scrambled eggs without salt, when the cook remarked: ‘ I know now why I can’t sing. I love salt!’” Another invaluable hint which Dame Nellie said was given to her by an eminent New York throat' specialist was: “ If you get that horrible, nervous, dry feeling, when your tongue seems to cleave to the roof of your mouth, press your tongue between your teeth. This helps tho saliva to come, and it means such a lot.”