Browse Items (337 total)

This promotional photograph shows Grainger holding his ‘English Dance’, which had been composed and scored between 1899 and 1909, and finally published in March 1929. The photograph, taken by family friend Frederick Morse, includes in the background…

Melba and Czech violinist, Jan Kubelik, undertook a joint concert tour of the United Kingdom in 1912–13, followed by this tour in the United States and Canada in 1913–14. The UK tour ran from October 1912 to August 1913 with Melba performing in two…

Henry Walter Barnett created this elegant, full-length portrait of Melba at the height of her fame. Among her many achievements in this period, Melba established a significant professional partnership with leading tenor, Enrico Caruso. They first…

Grainger’s charisma, captured in many photographic studio portraits, helped to launch and sustain his performance career. This photograph was taken by Hana Studios, London, which specialised in theatrical photography.

Melba’s earliest performance as Violetta in La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi was during her first season in Brussels in 1887. At the time, her inexperience in acting was noted but the role later became a staple in her repertoire.

It was as Violetta…

New Zealand-born sisters May and Mina Moore worked in Wellington before becoming successful photographers in Australia during the 1910s and 1920s. May established a studio in Sydney and Mina worked in Melbourne. The sisters were particularly…

Melba dated her success at Covent Garden from her 1889 performance in Roméo et Juliette opposite Jean de Reszke. It was the first time that English audiences had heard the opera sung in French. Juliette became one of the most frequently performed…