MELBA’S FAREWELL
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 8 June 1926
GIUSEPPE VERDI: Otello (excerpts)
GIACOMO PUCCINI: La bohème (excerpts)
Address by Lord Stanley of Alderley
Dame Nellie Melba’s Farewell Speech
EARLIER STUDIO RECORDINGS – OPERA
CHARLES GOUNOD: Faust (excerpts)
BEMBERG: Elaine: L’amour est pur comme la flamme
JULES MASSENET: Don Cézar de Bazan: À Séville belles Señoras
GIACOMO PUCCINI: Tosca: Vissi d’arte (Act II)
ANTONIO LOTTI: L’infedeltà punita: Pur dicesti, o bocca, bocca bella
Distance tests Vocalises on phrases from Thomas’ Hamlet Mad Scene
EARLIER STUDIO RECORDINGS – SONG
PAOLO TOSTI:
La serenata
Goodbye
RONALD: The Sounds of Earth Grow Faint (No. 4 from ‘Four Impressions’)
BURLEIGH: Jean
MELBA’s LAST RECORDING
TRADITIONAL (arr. Burleigh): Swing low, sweet chariot
Dame Nellie Melba, soprano
with associate artists
Transfers, Audio Restoration and Digital Remastering: Roger Beardsley for Historic Masters and Brian Slade for Historic Singers Charitable Trust
‘The youthful purity and freshness of tone revealed in these records is astonishing,’ Opera magazine, February 1955
‘The amazing thing is that she could still sing with power authority and almost the quality of her best years, at the age of 65…’ Gramophone, September 1961