MELBA'S LIFE STORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 382, 18 October 1946, Page 18

MELBA'S LIFE STORY

New Dramatic Serial from the ZB’s

F, in our programmes section, we announced that listeners were to hear the life story of Mrs. Helen Porter Armstrong in song and story, most people would be nonplussed. But that was the name in private life of the woman, born in Melbourne in 1851, who became Dame Nellie Melba. Her story has now been dramatised by an Australian company and is to be heard from all the ZB stations (it has already started at 1ZB). At a pre-audition the other day The Listener heard a few of the 52 episodes. Of course Melba’s voice is not used,

but playing her role and duplicating her , voice with a good measure of success is a young Melbourne soprano, Glenda Raymond. The story follows the highlights of Melba’s career, her deébuts and triumphs in various parts of the world. It opens with her singing of Gilda in Brussels in- 1887, her continuing and greater successes and her meetings with notable persons such as the then Prince of Wales and the Tsar of Russia. And in each case the dramatist has done his best to re-create the atmosphere of the period. In the main role, Glenda Raymond sings sincerely and impressively and, for a young girl, does a remarkable piece of work. She came to notice only a year or two ago when she was engaged to sing in the Music for

the People series in the Melbourne Gardens; for this she received her first broadcasting fee. She plays Melba in her ‘teens and ‘twenties and is heard in almost all the great operatic arias and other. excerpts. But actually Melba is played by three artists. Kareen Wilson, representing Melba when she was eight years old, is a winner of many singing contests. Patricia Kennedy is in the speaking role of Melba from her early years till her death. The story was written by John Ormiston Reid who has written a number of dramatic sketches for radio. He has had tenor roles in J. C. Williamson comedies, and was a free-lance journalist before taking to the stage and radio. His brother, David Reid, handles the opening and closing announcements and plays various characters through the series. His singing voice came in handy when, in the fourth episode, he was required to play the role of a baritone in a provincial concert party, singing "Queen of the Earth" in exaggerated, amateurish style. Symphony Orchestra Assists The narrator is Eric Pearce who became familiar to Australian listeners as the compere of Music for the People and Spotlight on Music. The cast also includes eight or 10 players of minor rolés, including William Tainish, who

takes the roles. of David Mitchell, Melba’s father (because of his Scottish accent). The New Symphony Orchestra, under Hector Crawford, plays the» accompaniments, and Crawford also conducts the Presbyterian Ladies’ Choir featured in an early episode. His idea for the story, we were told, came when he heard stories of Melba’s days as a teacher at the Conservatorium, and of her great interest in the staff and pupils. It is said that she used to make the daily trip from Lilydale to begin her lessons at 9.0 a.m. Never known to be late, she was often referred to as the "alarm clock." When he first suggested the serial difficulties were encountered, and

the, scheme was shelved till last year when the Armstrongs, Melba’s son and daughter-in-law, gave him their permission to go ahead. Months of research through newspaper files, personal interviews with contemporaries of Melba and the examination of two biographies and Melba’s autobiography were necessary for correctness of’ detail, and before each script was written, it was submitted to the Armstrongs for final checking. Melba, Queen of Song will be an interesting venture for the ZB stations. Each episode of the 52 takes half-an-hour to present. It ‘started at §ZB on Thursday, October 10, and will open at 2ZB on October 24, at 3ZB on November 7, and at 4ZB on November 21. Listening time will be every Renate at 7.15 p.m,