Is there still cache in selling a home where Dame Nellie Melba once sang? He Said/She Said

HE SAID: SADLY, NO

Although I am a devotee of the famous opera diva, I don’t think her name carries much weight anymore.

Indeed, I notice the current listing of a Warrawee residence, Kirkoswald, makes no mention of her name in its marketing campaign. Unlike previous advertising campaigns when her name was considered noteworthy. It last sold for $4.9 million in 2005.

During the height of her fame early last century, Dame Nellie Melba performed in a reception room at Kirkoswald, at 22 Warrawee Avenue (pictured below), the 1906 Victorian Free Classical style mansion designed by architect J. Burcham Clamp for Irish-born John Meloy, a master carrier from Glebe.

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'Kirkoswald' 22 Warrawee Avenue, Warrawee

These days, property listings are more likely to mention Lady Gaga’s attendance at a property - to wit, Moebius House, the Dover Heights residence as yet unsold.

Of course, Dame Nellie’s enduring association is the famous Peach Melba dessert. I recall seeing the dessert featured on an original 1890s menu displayed in a museum at Villeneuve-Loubet, a village in the South of France. This museum celebrates Auguste Escoffier, the king of celebrity chefs who created many famous dishes.

In 1893, while working as a chef at the Savoy in London, Escoffier invented Pêche Melba in honour of the Australian opera singer, and four years later he devised Melba toast. Nellie often ate at Escoffier’s restaurants while performing in Covent Garden during the late 1890s and early 1900s.

SHE SAID: YES, OF COURSE

Dame Nellie Melba is more current than ever. Only this week her name was splashed across London following her appearance (played by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa) in the latest episode of Downton Abbey’s season four. Last month about 10.5 million people tuned in to watch the season four launch of the popular television series.

Rupert Christiansen, the opera critic of The Telegraph in Britain, noted Melba’s enduring notoriety this week. But his column gave the writers of the television series a serve by noting: “Downton Abbey got Nellie Melba all wrong. Confined to her room with a cup of tea and treated by Carson as though she was a visiting tradesperson during her visit to Downton Abbey? The real Dame Nellie Melba wouldn’t have tolerated such treatment for a nanosecond. In 1922, she had enjoyed 30 years of being received as a social equal by crowned heads and aristocrats throughout Europe, and she would only have sung at a private party as a personal favour to her host. Melba was nobody’s hireling: she called all the shots, and the Granthams and their staff would have quaked at her approach.”

With the number of expats living in London, who could be watching Downton Abbey while searching on the internet for a mansion back home in Australia, it may be a good idea for McConnell Bourn agent Carole MacRae to amend her advertisements for Kiroswold at Warrawee. Certainly worth adding Dame Nellie Melba’s association to the marketing of the mansion which sits on 2,640 square metres with verdant gardens, a tennis court and swimming pool.

Of course, Kirkoswald is not the only mansion connected with Melba. The immensely wealthy operatic superstar’s longest association with a Sydney property is Rose Bay’s Fernleigh Castle.

Melba rented Fernleigh Castle initially at 30 guineas a week in 1911, and seemingly stayed for two years. But the prima donna’s tenancy, like her life, was not without incident. An uproar ensued after Melba had trees chopped down to improve her harbour view from the circa 1892 sandstone mansion.

During the First World War, Melba worked tirelessly on singing tours of Australia to raise money for war charities - about £100,000, a vast sum at the time. In recognition she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in March 1918 “for services in organising patriotic work”.

Other homes Melba is known to have sung at include:

·     Katoota in Avenue Road, Hunters Hill, Sydney

·     Moombara, a former vice-regal residence at Port Hacking, Sydney

·     Amanbah House at Maitland (Hunter Valley NSW)

·     Coorah at Wentworth Falls (Blue Mountains NSW)

·     Como in South Yarra, Melbourne

In her twilight years, Dame Nellie had a Sydney bolthole at Manar, a gracious apartment building at 42 Macleay Street, Potts Point.

Coombe Cottage at Coldstream, a small town situated at the gateway to the beautiful Yarra Valley and about 50 kilometres east of Melbourne, was her home. The property is now owned by her great-grandsons, Lord Samuel Vestey and the Hon. Mark Vestey.

Born Helen 'Nellie' Porter Mitchell on 19th May 1861, Melba was the first Australian to achieve international recognition as a classical musician. In later life she set up a music school at Richmond which she merged into the Melbourne Conservatorium.