The tumultuous life of internationally renowned opera singer, and one of the first global celebrities, Dame Nellie Melba.

Nellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. But to succeed she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would have preferred she stay a housewife in outback Queensland rather than parade herself on stage. She endured the violence of a bad marriage, was denied by scandal a true love with the would-be King of France and suffered the loss for more than decade of her only son, stolen by his angry, vengeful father.

Despite these obstacles she built and maintained a career as an opera singer and businesswoman on three continents that made her one of the first international superstars. Award-winning biographer Robert Wainwright presents a very different portrait of this great diva, one which celebrates both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life.

“[A] rounded portrait...the Melba that emerges is not only a prodigious talent but a trailblazing, fiercely independent and determined woman.” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD