By Mikayla van Loon
The culmination of two years worth of work to bring a contemporary view of famed opera singer Dame Nellie Melba to the Yarra Ranges finally launched with a Toast to Melba.
The exhibition at the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum in Lilydale brings together many firsts for both telling the true story of Melba as a woman before her time and in collaboration to make it possible.
Described as the Taylor Swift or Kylie Minogue of her era, Yarra Ranges Regional Museum director Megan Sheehy and curator Maddie Reece said this fresh perspective of the singer, mother and revered woman was designed to cater to an entirely new audience.
“What we are trying to do with the exhibition, is to find the elements of her story that are of interest and relevance today particularly for young women who might look to different pop stars and social media influencers, and to really position her as the first person to do that, not just in Australia, but in the world, and to help people understand that she really was the Taylor Swift of her era,” Ms Sheehy said.
“She was that first celebrity. Celebrity and the concept of fame is coined off of Melba, not just people like Melba, but Melba herself,” Ms Reece said.
Engaging young people on the Yarra Ranges Council youth advisory committee, Ms Sheehy said it was their input that helped guide and shape the exhibition.
In introducing the exhibition at the launch on Saturday 15 February, Ms Sheehy said by delving into the contemporary aspects of Melba, she was certainly ahead of her time.
“We spoke to everyone we could and dug into the new ways of seeing Melba. What we discovered, you’ll see in the gallery, we learned that the global superstar loved Lilydale and the Yarra Valley more than any other place in the world,” she said.
“We learned about her being a strong business woman. She basically invented branding, personal branding, before that existed. She was a modernist and a really forward thinking woman, which is exciting to us, and who was a supporter of women’s rights and also really helped support other creative women.”
Hardened by the experiences of life before becoming a superstar across the world, the singer, born in 1861, separated from her husband just a year after marriage and became a single mother, raising a child overseas.
But despite all of this, she never lost her spark and so a ‘Toast to Melba’ also delves into her personality, the one she kept hidden from stage for just her family and friends.
“She was a hilarious, wise, fun loving, practical joker who was acutely aware of the role of play in life,” Ms Sheehy said.
It was this element that inspired Melba’s Vintage Playroom, inviting people of all ages to live by the singer’s most known quote, “let’s have fun”.
“She encouraged her students and everyone to indulge in a bit of nonsense to offset the harsher realities of life,” Ms Reece said.
Replicating a 1920s photograph of Coombe’s nursery, the playroom has costumes, puzzles, drawing and a play mat to engage yet another age group in Melba.
Aside from telling parts of the Melba story perhaps not known, the exhibition also shows items never seen on display before, including Melba’s son George’s racing silks in the traditional British suffrage colours of green, mauve and white.
Other items come directly from Melba’s chosen home of Coombe in Coldstream, like the handpainted lanterns that were uncovered in a trunk.
That link to the Yarra Valley, one that the region has always claimed Melba as one of their own, quickly shifted, “discovering that it’s completely the opposite. Melba loved this place more than any other in the world”.
“The true love that she feels for the Yarra Valley just comes through in everything she’s written, in the letters to her father, to people back home, to the newspaper interviews she’s done on it,” Ms Reece said.
The collection was sourced from the Museum’s archives, Arts Centre Melbourne and Coombe Yarra Valley, a collaboration first to ensure Melba’s legacy and influence carries through to the next generation.
“When we were planning the exhibition and curating it, our target audiences weren’t the people who love Melba, they will come regardless. It’s the millennials, the Gen Z’s. If they can leave knowing a little more about who Dame Nellie Melba was, we’ve done our job,” Ms Reece said.
From the chic streets of Paris and London to the tranquil beauty of the Yarra Valley, A Toast to Melba reveals intimate glimpses of Melba’s life.
Marvel at the creativity in her painting, enjoy the humorous tale of her son’s racing silks in British suffrage colours and celebrate the innovator who made history as the first internationally renowned performer to broadcast live on radio in 1920.
There will also be talks, tours, special events and more for individuals and groups throughout the exhibition which runs until 29 June.
Full details can be found here as programs are announced: yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Experience/Events/A-Toast-to-Melba
