Nellie Melba

Melba was one of the most admired singers of her era, both for the beauty of her voice and for her phenomenal technique. While her recordings were both late in her career and misleading as to the size of her voice (ironically, the reason her voice sounds minuscule on many of her recordings is because it was in fact large enough that to avoid tonal distortions, the sound engineers had her stand far away from the recording equipment), they nonetheless do capture something of technique and voice. Her acting ranged from non-existent to wooden, and she frequently indulged in diva b...