We featured Dame Nellie Melba as our June 2011 Exhibition of the Month marking the 150^th anniversary of her birth.  Since then a number of items have come to light relating to her farewell tour of 1926.

“The little peculiarities of great musicians and singers in the matter of farewells is so well known that there is still hope that Dame Nellie Melba, who begins her farewell tour on Monday will think better of it and decide later on to say farewell all over again.  It is so many years since Dame Nellie first came to England that she has become a kind of national institution, and everyone will regret her decision to cut herself adrift from the British Isles for good.  She begins her last concert tour through England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland on Monday.  Her farewell to London is fixed for May 13^th – at the Royal Albert Hall, of course – and the London admirers of the exquisite singer may be depended upon to give her a magnificent reception.”
Western Daily Press, 8 January 1926.

“Before a large and very enthusiastic audience Dame Nellie Melba said farewell to Kirkcaldy in the Adam Smith Hall last night.
Her programme was practically the same as given in Dundee last week ….
Dame Melba was given three cheers at the close of the concert on the call of Viscount Novar, who spoke of Dame Nellie’s generosity in giving this concert in aid of the County Nursing Association’s funds.
In reply, she said that this was the first time she had sung in Kirkcaldy, and she was afraid it was going to be the last, but she could not leave them without thanking everyone for making the concert so enormous a success.  She called for three cheers for Mr.Gray.”

“Dame Nellie Melba was accorded an enthusiastic welcome at the Winter Gardens Pavilion, Bournemouth, when she made her farewell appearance in that town.
The concert hall was filled to overflowing, and the great singer was welcomed by the Mayor (Councillor H. J. Thwaites), and also by Lord Forster (former Governor-General of Australia), Lady Forster presenting her with a wreath of laurels and lillies on behalf of Australians in Bournemouth.
At the conclusion of the concert the audience, led by the Municipal Orchestra, under Sir Dan Godfrey, sang “For Auld Lang Syne.””
Portsmouth Evening News, 2 March 1926.

After the last concert of the tour in Cardiff, Melba returned to Paris, coming back to London two months later for her final farewell performances at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Opera House.  Over three years later she came out of retirement to perform a last time in England for a concert at the Brighton Hippodrome on 5 October 1929 in aid of the Sussex Eye Hospital Rebuilding Fund.