Without a doubt, the most high-profile experiment in the early public broadcasting of music in Britain was a short vocal recital organised by the Marconi Company on 15 June 1920. Sponsored by the Daily Mail, it featured the internationally famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba, who had recently turned sixty-five. Her celebrity, combined with the inevitable media hype, inspired claims that this was a defining moment not just for radio, but also for culture more broadly: in the words of an early chronicler, it was the ‘great initiation ceremony’ that launched ‘the era of broadcasting for the public amusement’ on ‘its meteoric career’. The general public appeared to buy into this narrative. One listener, for example, described experiencing ‘the sense of importance which comes to those who think they are in at the making of history’. Such reports seem to signal a decisive cultural transformation: they present radio as a catalyst for change, a means of democratising musical culture. But while this celebration of progress – now a commonplace in histories of technological development – is perhaps unsurprising, it obscures the interplay of tradition and innovation that shaped emerging broadcasting practices. Indeed, attending to the role of opera in this early radio recital reveals another side to the story: of a rather inglorious moment in the artform’s history, and one that was as redolent of the past as it was of the future. On the appointed evening, musicians, technicians and a select audience gathered at the Marconi Company’s station in the Essex town of Chelmsford. Since public broadcasting was a new phenomenon, the transmission progressed in a rather haphazard fashion, combining long-standing concert conventions with nascent ideas about radio presentation. After ‘a succession of “Hello’s”’ and some technical adjustments, Melba announced her presence with a trill – a musical ‘“hallo” to all who [were] listening-in’ – before embarking upon a short, eclectic programme. The popular ‘Home, Sweet Home’ was followed by Maurice Bemberg’s ‘Nymphes et Sylvains’ sung in French; finally, an operatic aria, the item of particular interest

中文翻译：

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马可尼的《未来的未来普契尼》，《波希米亚人法案》第三幕“ Addio”（米米）

毫无疑问，在英国音乐的早期公共广播中，最引人注目的实验是马可尼公司（Marconi Company）在1920年6月15日组织的简短声乐演奏会。由每日邮报（Daily Mail）赞助，它以国际著名的澳大利亚女高音贵妇妮莉·梅尔巴（Dame Nellie Melba）为特色，最近才65岁。她的名人与不可避免的媒体炒作相结合，激发了人们的断言，这不仅是广播的决定性时刻，更是文化的决定性时刻：用早期编年史家的话来说，正是“伟大的启动仪式”启动了“ “娱乐事业的广播时代”。公众似乎同意这种说法。例如，一位听众描述了正在经历的“对于那些认为自己正在创造历史的人们的重要性感”。这样的报道似乎预示着文化的决定性转变：它们将广播作为变革的催化剂，是使音乐文化民主化的一种手段。但是，尽管这种对进步的庆祝（如今已成为技术发展史上的司空见惯）也许不足为奇，但它却掩盖了塑造新兴广播实践的传统与创新之间的相互作用。确实，在早期的广播演奏会中扮演歌剧的角色揭示了故事的另一面：艺术形式历史上一个相当不光彩的时刻，以及过去和未来一样的光辉。在指定的晚上，音乐家，技术人员和精选的听众聚集在埃塞克斯郡切姆斯福德镇的马可尼公司车站。由于公共广播是一种新现象，因此传输以一种相当随意的方式进行，将长期以来的音乐会惯例与有关广播节目的新兴思想相结合。在“接二连三地打个招呼”并进行了一些技术调整之后，梅尔巴宣布参加了短暂的折衷方案，并宣布了她的存在，这是一种颤音–对所有[聆听者]的音乐“打招呼”。紧随其后的是法国著名歌手莫里斯·本贝格（Maurice Bemberg）演唱的《妮菲斯与西尔万斯》（Nymphes et Sylvains）。最后是歌剧咏叹调，特别令人感兴趣的项目 《甜蜜的家》之后是莫里斯·本贝格（Maurice Bemberg）的法文《小夜曲》。最后是歌剧咏叹调，特别令人感兴趣的项目 《甜蜜的家》之后是莫里斯·本贝格（Maurice Bemberg）的法文《小夜曲》。最后是歌剧咏叹调，特别令人感兴趣的项目