"Queen of Song"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 390, 13 December 1946, Page 10

"Queen of Song"

ISTENING to a preview of the ZB feature Melba, Queen of Song, I wasn’t at all sure that I was going to like it; it resembled one of those concert tours given by prima donnas in the films, when in five minutes of montage we are given brief visions of express trains de luxe, famous opera houses, applauding audiences, and embossed programmes, with a sound track containing as many brief excerpts as possible from all the famous operas (I remember one film singer who, apparently, managed soprano and contralto roles with equal ease--whether they were transposed for her or not, the film didn’t specify). However, I suppose in a preview of a radio serial some such superabundance of ‘incident is necessary, in order to give listeners a fair idea of what to expect. The actual serial is a more leisurely affair. After a couple of episodes we are still dealing with the ° girlhood of Nellie Mitchell, and this is being treated in a suitable and restrained style, without recourse to the histrionics which could easily have ruined it. Even the incident where the school singingmaster chooses another singer than Nellie for the church service is related without an attempt to make dramatic capital out of it (ome can imagine a Hollywood version of a similar incident!). Special credit must go to the actual performer who sings as the "voice of Melba"; her task is a thankless and well-nigh impossible one, but she manages, as the young Miss Mitchell at any rate, to infuse her singing with clarity and beauty of tone, making it possible for the listener to accept her as a sub‘stitute for a voice which, save on a few old recordings, we shall not hear again.