If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

Melba was not known as a Wagner singer although Nellie Melba occasionally sang Elsa in Lohengrin and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. Her headstone bears Mimì's farewell words: "Addio senza rancor" (Farewell without bitterness). She is one of only two singers with a marble bust on the grand staircase of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Dame Nellie Melba GBE (19 May 1861 – 23 February 1931) born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell was an Australian operatic soprano. Her repertoire was small; in her whole career Nellie Melba sang no more than 25 roles and was closely identified with only ten. During the First World War Melba raised large sums for war charities.