Melba (1987)

Starring: Linda Cropper, Hugo Weaving, Tom Burlinson, Noel Ferrier, Nell Schofield Genres: Television Origin: Australia Certificate: PG Languages: English Running Time: 330 min

synopsis

The Public Phenomenon... Melba was the first international "superstar". lovers of singing everywhere idolised her. The great chefs named dishes after her. She achieved fame through a tenacity which took her from an obscure life to the leading stages of Europe and America. In an era which revered motherhood and suppressed female independence, she abandoned her marriage to pursue her singing career. As her ambition and talent grew, her homeland could not contain her. Her full artistic expression had to be found internationally. The Private Pain... Behind her extraordinary public success, Melba was a mixture of strong qualities, which wreaked havoc with her tumultuous private life - powerful, brilliant, ruthless, sexual and in later years eccentric. Singing was her consumimg and enduring passion. It brought her the triumphs of her public life. It became the altar upon which she sacrificed her private life. Her search for other kinds of love, as a wife, mistress and mother failed. Her only child was taken from her. She survived the scandal of a long and intense love affair with one of the great princes of Europe. Melba's complexity matched her fame, as season after season, she outshone her competitors to rule the world of singing for forty years.