A 1976 LP release of Melba recordings (EMI COLH 125) contained a critical sketch by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, who quoted a description of Melba’s singing by the great New York critic W.J. Henderson: “The quality of musical tone cannot be adequately... 

An appreciation by Alan Bilgora That Melba was Marchesi’s favourite pupil is not in doubt. Blanche Marchesi, herself a distinguished singer, and later also a noted teacher, is reported to have said:- “although I disliked Melba as a person... 

The concept of Historic Masters was devised by the late Richard Bebb: for so many years Britain’s most senior collector of vocal recordings. It was Richard who defined the mission to ‘save’ and make widely available ‘78rpm’ vocal discs either...