Dame Nellie Melba: His Master’s Voice advertisement

This poster from c. 1910 is an advertisement for His Master’s Voice Records featuring operatic soprano Dame Nellie Melba. It's notable for dating from the early years of commercial sound recordings and for featuring Dame Nellie Melba, Australia’s first international diva. It shows how posters were an important form of advertising for music artists in the early 20th century, as they continue to be today. 

Born Helen ‘Nellie’ Porter Mitchell in Melbourne, Victoria in 1861, she made her debut in Brussels in 1886 and went on to rule all major opera houses in Europe and the USA for an extraordinary 40 years. Despite her international renown, the 'Queen of Song' still periodically called Australia home. 

In 1922, aware that the high price of opera tickets was a barrier for many, she performed to 70,000 people at an extraordinary run of ‘Concerts for the People’ in Melbourne and Sydney. At the end of the final show in Sydney on 28 April, she told the audience, ‘I have never enjoyed singing as much in my whole career as I have at these Concerts for the People’.