Marconi radio broadcast that 'changed the world' to be recreated

An opera singer is to recreate the first-ever live worldwide radio broadcast by a professional performer, exactly 100 years on.

World-famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba made her historic broadcast from a disused packing shed on Marconi's site in Chelmsford, Essex, on 15 June 1920.

Acclaimed singer Anna Steiger is to recreate Dame Nellie's performance in the city.

"It's hard to imagine. It must have been incredible," she said.

Historian Tim Wander said Dame Nellie's broadcast was "the moment the world changed".

Key figures involved helped set up the BBC two years later.

Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi came to Chelmsford in 1898, at first developing machines to send messages via Morse code for ship and transatlantic communication.

After World War One, Marconi's engineers started looking at broadcasting voices and entertainment.

Mr Wander, author of From Marconi to Melba, external, said Daily Mail newspaper baron Viscount Northcliffe decided to sponsor the first-ever live professional performance.

"When Dame Nellie was first asked, she did not want to do it. She said 'My voice is not a subject for experimentation'," he said.

"But then Northcliffe offered her £1,000 [about £45,000 today] - not bad for 20 minutes of singing - then she agreed."

When Arthur Burrows, Marconi's head of publicity, showed Dame Nellie, then 59, the 450ft (137m) radio masts, she is reputed to have said: "Young man, if you think I am going to climb up there, you are greatly mistaken."

Mr Wander said: "She was heard all over the world, in Sweden and France and Germany. and even the Royal Flying Corps in Iran heard her clearly.

"You can't imagine the impact it had. In Paris the signal was so good that in the Champs-Elysses they broadcast it and people were dancing in the streets.

"When Dame Nellie realised her voice had been heard by thousands and thousands of people, she said: 'But they haven't bought a ticket or bought a record.' All the people were listening for free."

Alan Pamphilon, who has led history walks, external around Chelmsford, said young people using mobile phones today did not realise they stemmed from Marconi's work in Chelmsford.

"The city is where the electronic age started," he said.

Mr Wander and Felicity Fair Thompson have co-written a play about the broadcast, originally intended to be staged at Chelmsford Civic Theatre as part of the Essex 2020, external festival.

But due to the Covid-19 lockdown, it has been turned into a radio play, to be live-streamed with a performance by Steiger.

She said: "At that time opera singers were like rock stars are now. Dame Nellie could not be more famous, with foods such as Peach Melba named after her.

"She comes across as a little divaesque but I was thinking of playing her a little bit more charming."

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