Endnotes

OBJECTS OF FAME: NELLIE MELBA AND PERCY GRAINGER

1 David Mitchell was a leading contractor, whose Melbourne buildings include The Scots’ Church, Collins Street and the Royal Exhibition Building; John Grainger was an architect and civil engineer who designed

Princes Bridge over the Yarra River. 2 Letter from Nellie Melba to Percy Grainger, from Hotel Majestic New York, n.d. Grainger

Museum. 3 Letter from Percy Grainger to Rose Grainger, 11 October 1902, Grainger Museum. 4 Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 20 May 1908, Grainger Museum. 5 Percy Grainger, ‘Aldridge-Grainger-Ström

Saga’, 1934, quoted in John Bird, Percy Grainger. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 80. 6 Nellie Melba, Melodies and Memories:

The Autobiography of Nellie Melba, 1925, rev. edn. Thomas Nelson Australia,

Melbourne, 1980, p. 15. 7 Ann Blainey, I am Melba. Black Inc.,

Melbourne, 2008, p. 35. 8 Melba first performed at the venue on 2 January 1907. In 1910 the Metropolitan Opera paid Hammerstein a sum of $1.2 million to stop producing grand opera in the United States for 10 years. Melba and other singers resumed performing at the

Metropolitan Opera House. 9 Melba learnt the title roles of Tosca and

Madama Butterfly with Puccini, but never performed either opera. 10 Letter from Nellie Melba to Mathilde

Marchesi, Vienna, January 1900, Australian

Performing Arts Collection. 11 Melba, p. 72. 12 Letter from Melba to Marchesi, Vienna,

January 1900, Australian Performing Arts

Collection. 13 Melba, pp. 75–6. 14 Letter from Nellie Melba to Tommy Cochran,

Hillsborough, Northern Ireland, 1926, Australian Performing Arts Collection. 15 Letter from Nellie Melba to Beryl Fanning,

Boston, December 1917, Australian Performing Arts Collection. 16 Letter from Nellie Melba to Beryl Fanning,

Grand Forks, USA, 18 October 1910,

Australian Performing Arts Collection. 17 Charles Armstrong divorced Melba on the grounds of desertion in 1900. 18 Percy Grainger, ‘Percy Grainger on Ideals’, c.1925, Grainger Museum. 19 Percy Grainger, Grainger Museum Display

Legend: From London Music Room, 23 March 1956, Grainger Museum. 20 Percy Grainger, ‘Call-to-Mindments about

Delius Piano Concerto’, 1941, Grainger

Museum. 21 Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 1 June 1912, Grainger Museum. 22 Letter from Percy Grainger to Evald Tang

Kristensen, 27 June 1915, Grainger Museum. 23 Letter from Percy Grainger to Rose Grainger, 14 February 1916, Grainger Museum. 24 Percy Grainger, ‘The things I dislike’, 1954,

Grainger Museum. 25 Melba, p. 1. 26 Ibid., p. 224. 27 Letter from Percy Grainger to H. Balfour

Gardiner, 3 May 1922, Grainger Museum. 28 Percy Grainger, ‘A few remarks about Ada

Crossley’, p. 1. 29 ‘Amusements. Percy Grainger’s visit.

Saturday night week’, Mercury, Hobart, 18 August 1926, p. 3. 30 ‘Percy Grainger third concert’, The West

Australian, Perth, 6 August 1926, p. 10. 31 Percy Grainger, ‘P.G.s powers during

Australian Tour of 1926’, 1926, Grainger

Museum. 32 Letter from Nellie Melba to Beryl Fanning,

Buffalo, October 1913, Australian Performing

Arts Collection. 33 Blainey, p. 228. 34 ‘Dame Nellie Melba’, The Voice, Volume XV,

No. 3, March 1931, p. 6. 35 Blainey, p. 303. 36 Ibid., p. 313. 37 Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 14 May 1908, Grainger Museum. 38 The Australian Broadcasting Commission was established on 1 July 1932 to run the

National Broadcasting Service. 39 ‘Topics. Percy Grainger’, Southern Cross,

Adelaide, 26 April 1935, p. 11.

40 Letter from Percy Grainger to Roger Quilter, 14 February 1924, Grainger Museum. 41 Melba, p. 142. 42 Letter from Percy Grainger to H. Balfour

Gardiner, 10 March 1912, Grainger

Museum. 43 Antonia Sawyer, ‘Press Articles Percy

Grainger’, ms, Grainger Museum. 44 Printed farewell message from Nellie Melba, 4 September 1924, Australian Performing

Arts Collection. 45 While Stella Power received Melba’s support, she was also subject to forthright instructions, including on where to buy a proper fitting corset and arrangements for her own wedding. Letters from Nellie Melba to Stella Power, Coombe Cottage, Coldstream, c.1918, Australian Performing

Arts Collection. 46 Percy Grainger, ‘Dr Russell’s statement:

‘It’s too early. You must wait till you’re dead’, 1941, Grainger Museum. 47 For example, Melba’s story has been depicted in the UK film Melba, 1953; plays, A Toast to Melba by Jack Hibberd, 1976 and Peach Melba by Thérèse Radic, 1990; television mini-series, Melba, 1988; and most recently the musical Melba by Nicholas Christo and Johannes Luebbers at the Hayes Theatre, Sydney, 2017. Percy Grainger has been represented in A Whip Round for Percy Grainger by Thérèse Radic, 1982, and the 1999 film, Passion: the story of Percy Grainger, starring Richard Roxburgh, which focused on Grainger’s early career and his sexual life.

MORE THAN 15 MINUTES OF FAME: CURATING LEGACIES OF LIMELIGHT

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2

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4

5 Paul John Eakin, Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative. Cornell University Press, London, 2008, p. 4. Letter from Percy Grainger to Ella Ström, 9 June 1927, Grainger Museum. Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 12 February 1908, Grainger Museum. Letter from Percy Grainger to H. Balfour Gardiner, 3 May 1922, Grainger Museum. Nellie Melba, Melodies and Memories: The Autobiograpy of Nellie Melba. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1925. 6 Ibid, p. 24. 7 Ibid. 8 Therese Radic, Melba: The Voice of

Australia. Macmillan, Crows Nest, 1986, p. 2. 9 Ibid. 10 Belinda Nemic, The Grainger Museum in Its

Museological and Historical Contexts. PhD thesis. University of Melbourne, 2006. 11 Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 12 February 1908, Grainger Museum. 12 David Pear, ‘The passions of Percy’. Meanjin, 2003, 62(2): pp. 59–66.

PERFORMATIVE TRAVEL: CELEBRITY BODIES AND THEIR BAGGAGE

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3 For more details on the contributions of Liszt and Paganini, see Hannu Salmi, ‘Viral virtuosity and the itineraries of celebrity culture’ in Travelling Notions of Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe. Hannu Salmi, Asko Nivala and Jukka Sarjala (eds), Routledge, New York, 2016, pp. 135–153; and Dana Gooley, ‘From the top: Liszt’s aristocratic airs’ in Constructing Charisma: Celebrity, Fame and Power in NineteenthCentury Europe. Edward Berenson and Eva Giloi (eds), Berghahn Books, New York, 2010, pp. 69–85. Kay Dreyfus (ed.), The Farthest North of Humanness: Letters of Percy Grainger 1901–14. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1985, pp. ix–x. Pamela Vestey, Melba: A Family Memoir. Phoebe Publishing, Melbourne, 1996, p. 243.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FAME

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4 Nellie Melba, ‘Where is happiness? Is it in fame?’, The Herald, Melbourne, 10 September 1927. Reproduced in William R. Moran. Nellie Melba: A Contemporary Review. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1985. Letter from Percy Grainger to Nina Grieg, 4 July 1912, Grainger Museum. Percy Grainger, ‘The things I dislike’, 1954, Grainger Museum. Nellie Melba, Melodies and Memories: The Autobiography of Nellie Melba, 1925, rev. edn. Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1980, p. 123.