Melba Recordings

The name Melba will live again in opera circles with a glittering launch party at Jeanne Pratt’s New York apartment tomorrow.

Rupert Murdoch and Alexander Downer will be among guests at the American launch of the Melba Foundation’s recordings of the State Opera of South Australia’s 2004 Wagner opera production.

Foundation chief executive Maria Vandamme says the recordings of Wagner’s Ring had already been well received by opera fans overseas.

And with the aid of a $5 million Federal Government grant, the foundation has started a five-year program of producing and marketing other established and emerging Australian artists, she says.

“The Melba Adelaide Ring recording has catapulted Australian classical music on to the international stage,” Vandamme says. “It’s impossible to oversell the scale and significance of the international acclaim for Melba’s Ring recording.”

The foundation was established in 2003 by benefactor Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and patrons Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge to raise the profile of the next generation of Nellie Melbas.

“There is an urgent need for a body of recordings from Australia that preserves and celebrates the achievement of our finest musicians,” Dame Joan says.

Siobhan Duck
Herald Sun