Melodies and Memories

Abstract

Tulips in the Park — tulips golden and crimson and yellow — that is my first memory of London as I saw it on the 1st of May, 1886. We had come through Tilbury, and the sight of the grey skies, the dirty wharves, the millions of grimy chimney-pots, had struck a chill to my heart.

Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931) in these two selections recalls her chagrin at her failure to impress Sullivan during her audition for him and her barely concealed satisfaction at the rough justice implicit in Sullivan’s increasing ill health during his final years. In fairness to her hard work as a student of the splendid teachers Madame Christian and Signor Cecchi in Australia and her reasonable expectations that her magnificent voice — so highly praised in her native land — would open doors for her, Sullivan’s casual dismissal of her talent hit her very hard. The Pierpont Library, New York, owns a letter from her that congratulates Sullivan on his first performance of Ivanhoe (1 February 1891), and does so in highly enthusiastic language. But she never forgot that first interview.