Divas Mathilde Marchesi and Her Pupils

The incredible story of singing teacher extraordinaire Mathilde Marchesi who trained more international opera stars than anyone before or since. Who was Mathilde Marchesi? How did she become a byword internationally for vocal excellence and operatic success? What was her formula? And how did she produce prima donnas on such a consistent basis? From nineteenth-century Vienna to Paris high society, Roger Neill traces Marchesi’s extraordinary five-decade career and introduces a remarkable cast of characters – Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt and the pupils who crossed the globe to study with her, including Dame Nellie Melba. He reveals the phenomenally successful singing method that is her legacy, with Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa and Meryl Streep all taught by pupils of Marchesi.

Roger Neill was chairman of Endymion Ensemble for a decade and is secretary of the Historic Singers Trust. Neill began his working life as a professional rock musician, then worked for ten years with advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. He lived and worked in Sydney in the 1980s, where he was chairman of the Lintas advertising agency. He is currently based in London and is the managing partner of the innovation consultancy, Per Diem.