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Melba's Paris Debut: Another White Voice?

Melba's debut at the Paris Palais Garnier was in May 1889 in Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet. Later that year she also performed Lucie in the French translation and adaptation of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Melba had some keen supporters in the Parisian press, notably Pierre Veron writing for Le Charivari, whose comment “A star of the first order is rising on our horizon” has been much quoted. However close analysis of her reception shows that despite a uniform respect for the purity and clarity of her voice, in particular its famous “crystalline upper register”, critics also had severe misgivings about her performance, which related to her bad French pronunciation and enunciation. Although Melba is called Australian in most reviews, there is a general confusion about what an Australian actually was and it is not uncommon for critics, for instance, to call her an American from Melbourne. This paper discusses how Melba's reception was entwined with general negative polemics about anglo-Saxon voices current at the time, and a general antagonism towards the direction of the Opéra for its choice of repertoire and lack of support for French artists. Contrary to what is stated in the current Melba literature, her Paris debut was not a complete success but some of her problems related to polemics outside her control.