The Honourable Richard Alston

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TONIGHT IS A VERY SPECIAL NIGHT in the relatively brief history of the Melba Foundation, whose core business is producing world class classical music recordings by Australian artists. I am delighted that some many of Melbourne’s leading lights and serious music lovers are here with us in these beautiful heritage chambers, for which we thank the ANZ Bank and its trustees most sincerely. 

Of course, we are particularly fortunate to have with us tonight one of Australia’s most loved sons, the internationally acclaimed conductor, Richard Bonynge, whose imminent 80th birthday and enormous contribution to the world of opera and ballet we honour this evening - and who, together with his wife, the legendary Dame Joan Sutherland, have been fantastic supporters of Melba from the beginning. Richard will say a few words later on, and  we will also be privileged to hear some wonderful music, about which Maria will tell you more a little later.  

I also need to say a quick word about Maria Vandamme, the creator of Melba, a peerless record producer and someone with a perfect pitch ear for fine music - and as those of who have had any dealings with Maria will know - an irresistible force of nature.  Woody Allen once said “90% of success in life is just turning up”, but Maria never just turns up – the secret of her, and Melba’s, success, and what inspired me to become involved, is her bulldog spirit and her absolute commitment to excellence. Her dream is to transport a small but beautifully formed Australian label on to the world stage, to compete proudly with the leviathans of the recording industry, and outshine them in terms of quality and the total musical experience. No one else in this country is committed to giving crucial international exposure to brilliant young Australian performers, just beginning their international careers.

What Maria, and Melba, have achieved, particularly in the last few years is simply extraordinary. As one of our board members, Terry Lane has written, Melba has brought together conductors of international renown and singers of outstanding talent - and the critics have responded rapturously. Only a few months ago, the prestigious Gramophone (publication?) said of Turbulent Heart: “On every count, this is a magnificent release, not least in highlighting the outstanding work being done by this distinguished Australian label”.

Barely six months ago, the US Classical CD Review said of The Gallant Bassoon: “warmly recorded with the sonic beauty we have come to expect from Melba” and, a little earlier, of Helene:”another class act from Melba”.

Web La Opera of Spain said of my favorite recording Cherry Ripe: “a beautiful disc – Melba clearly takes great care not only with the quality of its recordings, but with the presentation of its products”.

And it is not just the music - The US Absolute Sound magazine said of Sublime Mozart: “As is typical of this label, the packaging is lavish”, and the Historic Brass Society praised Back from Oblivion’s “gorgeous recording acoustics”.

It is very fitting that we should have taken the name of Dame Nellie Melba, one of the world’s most famous and best loved opera sopranos. Her heyday was in the decades leading up to WW1, before the era of film and television stars and mega sportsman and the fleeting cult of celebrity. In her time she was a superstar - one of the very brightest in the global firmament. She was one of the most celebrated coloraturas – her beautiful singing and her commanding stage presence both dominated and popularized opera, long before the Three Tenors were thought of.

Most of us are lucky if we get our 15 minutes of fame – Nellie had almost 50 years. Not even the immortal Don Bradman had two distinct foodstuffs named after him – Melba toast and Peach Melba. I often drive past Dame Nellie Melba Park, in the suburb of Richmond, where she was born.

More than eighty years after she finally retired in 1928, we still hear the expression “more comebacks than Nellie Melba”. But before she hung up her voice for the last time she sang at the opening of Parliament House in Canberra in 1927.

Though she spent many years overseas and made Covent Garden her own, she was enormously proud of being an Australian, adopting the name of her home town at the outset of her career.

Above all, Melba personified excellence.  Melba Recordings, and the human dynamo, Maria Vandamme, live by one of Dame Nellie’s most famous catchphrases: “It’s got to be perfection for me “.  At her peak she commanded higher fees than the great Caruso. She came from the backblocks of provincial Australia to conquer the operatic world, just as our own Dame Joan Sutherland was to do half a century later.

Melba was larger than life – her scandalous liaisons would have had today’s tabloids and the paparazzi in permanent apoplexy. She embodied many of those attributes we now recognize as essential for prolonged success – enormous dedication to, and unabated enthusiasm for, her chosen career; an unbounded faith in herself;  phenomenal powers of concentration, and an irresistible determination to succeed -  she put her whole life’s work into her music.

 She did not need a business manager – she managed herself. Her voice of gold may have put her on the throne at Covent Garden, where she reigned for almost forty years, but it was her relentless tenacity of purpose that kept her there. She reminds me of Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel, whose autobiography was entitled “Only the Paranoid Survive”.

She also had a healthy respect for money and her own worth. In fact it is said that, guided by Baron Alfred de Rothschild, she made more from her investments than her singing, despite the fact that for many years she waged a personal vendetta against the Tax Man – how very Australian!

So now you have heard the two Melba stories.

The Melba Foundation is committed to maintaining the highest levels of excellence – For young Australian artists to have successful national and international careers it is essential for them to make quality recordings. – To an artist a record is their calling card, their permanent legacy – a vital piece of infrastructure for a solo career. Their records are also the crucial means by which the wider community can access and enjoy forever the best Australia has to offer.

There is no good reason why artists should have to go off shore to get recorded, especially when world class production facilities are available here. But they will only be permanently available if community leaders like you are prepared to get behind us in this vital project and become patrons of the Melba Foundation. I’m sure you all appreciate that in order for a small recording company with a large ambition to succeed in the long term, early stage government funding is necessary but not sufficient – governments rightly expect recipients of taxpayer largesse to demonstrate community support.  It is therefore crucial that Melba is able to rely on the continued generosity of many of you here tonight. I hope you will feel proud of what the Melba Foundation, in Dame Nellie’s home town, has already achieved and how much more with can do with your generous assistance. In order for a civilised society to flourish we need to nurture our very own home grown talent, especially when it has already demonstrated excellence to the world and is passionately committed to continuing to do so.
 


Melba Recordings Pty Ltd & Melba Foundation Ltd
www.melbarecordings.com.au
PO Box 415, Elwood Victoria 3184 Australia
Phone: 613 9534 5004  Fax: 613 9593 8533  Email: info@melbarecordings.com.au

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