Marvelous Melba

""Nobody sings like Melba, and nobody ever will," proclaimed the impresario Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. Like many others at the time, he considered her to be the world's greatest singer. The wild acclaim showered on her by American fans led to the coining of the word "Melbamania." Year after year she toured America in a private railroad car, bringing operas and concerts to out-of-the-way cities and towns; and thanks to the new gramophone, she could also be heard in the remotest locales." "Ann Blainey's beguiling life of Nellie Melba tells the story of a woman who - in an era when no woman was…