Dame Nellie Melba’s secret life as a serial prankster

From joy rides to elaborate bathtub stunts, Melbourne-born opera superstar Nellie Melba was the master of the art of the larrikin prank

Autographed portrait of opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. Picture: Supplied

While she’s known as an opera legend and global superstar, less well-known is Dame Nellie Melba’s status as a classic Aussie larrikin.

Melba, whose ghost some believe haunts Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel, is the subject of the final episode in the Haunted Melbourne series of the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, out today.

Born Helen Porter Mitchell in Richmond in 1861, Melba took her pseudonym from her hometown of Melbourne while on her way to becoming the world’s highest paid singer.

Ben Oliver, founder of Drinking History Tours, says Melba’s rebellious streak emerged early when she made it clear she intended to turn her passion for music into a career.

“Her father did encourage her in her musical studies, but he really saw it as more of a hobby,” Oliver says.

“He considered a profession in the arts to be quite unladylike, which is fairly typical of thinking at the time.

“Most people thought of actors and performers not as the A-class celebrities we think of them today but … almost like a second-class kind of job.”

Nellie Melba sings with Browning Mummery (left) and John Brownlee at Covent Garden, London, in 1926.

Dame Nellie Melba with her father, David Mitchell, and Nellie Paterson, her niece.

Oliver says Melba’s larrikin streak emerged when her father sent her to boarding school, which she didn’t enjoy.

“There’s a story I found of her once deciding to take an umbrella into the shower with her, and of course the water coming out of the shower nearly flooded the entire bathroom, which got her in a bit of trouble,” he says.

“On another occasion, she was out with some friends and walked past an unmanned horse and carriage, so of course she decided to jump on, take the reins, and head off for a bit of a joy ride.”

Dame Nellie Melba as Ophelia in opera 'Hamlet' in the early 1900s.

Dame Nellie Melba. Picture: Supplied.

Years later, on one April Fool’s Day, the great diva pulled a prank on famed composer Herman Bemberg.

“She ordered one bathtub to be delivered to Bemberg every half-hour, so every half-hour another bathtub arrived at his house,” Oliver says.

“By midday he begged her to stop … she did stop the baths being delivered, but she actually then forced him to pay for the baths – and their removal. Just a brilliant prank.

“It’s that cheeky element of Nellie’s character that I think really endears her to people, the pranks that she pulled, and also the way she was able to take a joke as well.”

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH BEN OLIVER IN THE IN BLACK AND WHITE PODCAST ON ITUNES, SPOTIFY OR WEB.

Don’t miss the earlier stories and podcasts in our Haunted Melbourne series: The haunting last words of the last woman hanged in Victoria; John Batman’s ghost at the Queen Vic Market, the twisted tale of romance and tragedy behind Melbourne’s Mitre Tavern ghost; Federici, the Princess Theatre ghost, and does the ghost of Jack the Ripper haunt Hosier Lane?

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.