Publications: Previously from Roger Neill
The books and articles are a motley bunch, produced over three decades on a wide variety of subjects, nearly all concerning the arts and creativity. A major strand is the exploration of artistic Australians and New Zealanders, especially those who travelled to the northern hemisphere to try their luck.
BOOKS
DIVAS: Mathilde Marchesi and her Pupils, NewSouth (University of New South Wales Press), Sydney, 2016
Legends: The Art of Walter Barnett, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2000
Robert Louis Stevenson and Count Nerli in Samoa: The Story of a Portrait, Red Lion Press, Banbury, 1997
Imagine (with Andrew Bailey), Synectics, London/Cambridge MA, 1993
CD/RECORD BOOKLETS
‘From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record’ (with Tony Locantro), Decca Eloquence (4CDs), Sydney, 2016
‘Dame Nellie Melba: Her First Recordings’, ABC Classics (CD), Sydney, 2009
‘Lindsay String Quartet: Beethoven Complete String Quartets’, Decca Eloquence (10CDs), Sydney, 2021
‘Lindsay String Quartet: Bartok String Quartets Nos 1-6’, Decca Eloquence (3CDs), Sydney, 2021
‘Yvonne Minton Sings Mahler’, Decca Eloquence (2CDs), Sydney, October 2018
‘Melba’s Farewell: Dame Nellie Melba’s Famous Farewell from Covent Garden and Other Recordings’, Decca Eloquence (CD), Sydney, 2017
‘Melba: Melba’s first recordings’, Historic Masters (78s issue), London, 2008
‘Margherita Grandi: The Greatest Voice I Ever Heard’, Testament (CD), London, 2006
SELECTED ARTICLES/ESSAYS
‘Richard Verdi Obituary‘, The Guardian, Arts, February 2023
‘Sylvia Fisher: Greatest Australian Singer Since Melba’, Theatre Heritage Australia, March 2022 Theatre Heritage Australia – Sylvia Fisher: Greatest Australian singer since Melba
‘Empress Elisabeth of Austria goes hunting at Astrop’, Cake and Cockhouse, Banbury Historical Society, Annual Edition, March 2022
‘Frances Alda: “La Nouvelle Melba”’, The Record Collector, March 2022
‘Opera in Naples: The Capital of the World’s Music’ in REAL TEATRO DI SAN CARLO: The San Carlo Opera House, Naples by Michael Letchford, ARS Recorded Editions, 2021
‘The Canzonettas’ (Haydn), OCTOBERFEST, Newbottle, 14 October 2021
‘Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect (Revisited)’, Part 1, Theatre Heritage Australia, March 2021 Theatre Heritage Australia – Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect (Revisited) (Part 1)
‘Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect (Revisited)’, Part 2, Theatre Heritage Australia, May 2021 Theatre Heritage Australia – Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect (Revisited) (Part 2)
‘H Walter Barnett and Falk Studios’ in The Falk Studios: The Theatrical Portrait Photography of H Walter Barnett, Theatre Heritage Australia, 2021
‘Miriam Licette’ and ‘Florence Austral’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2019
‘Yvonne Minton at 80’, Limelight, Sydney, December 2018
‘Marvellous Minton: Roger Neill salutes a great Australian mezzo on her 80th birthday’, OPERA, London, December 2018
‘That brick red frock with flowers everywhere: Painting Katherine Mansfield’, TheArtsDesk.com, London, June 2018 ‘That brick red frock with flowers everywhere’: painting Katherine Mansfield (theartsdesk.com)
‘Melba’s Recordings at Great Cumberland Place’, The Record Collector, London, December 2017
‘The Marchesi Effect’, Limelight, Sydney, April 2017
‘DIVAS: Mathilde Marchesi and her Pupils’, The Record Collector, London, December 2016
‘Aussies Ascendant: Roger Neill looks at Australia’s long line of operatic talent’, OPERA, London, October 2016
‘Outward Bound: In Melba’s Footsteps’, Limelight, Sydney, September 2016
‘Elsie Morison’ (obituary), OPERA, London, July 2016
‘Mathilde Marchesi and her Wagnerian Pupils’, Wagner Society Quarterly, Sydney, March and June 2016
‘John Selby-Bigge: An Oxfordshire artist and two world wars’, Oxford Times, Oxford, May 2014
‘Re-discovering Syria Lamonte: Pioneering Recording Artist’, The Record Collector, London, March 2014
‘The Year in Music’, Glorious Days: Australia 1913, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2013
‘The Rise and Rise of La bohème’, Glyndebourne Festival programme, 2012
‘Roger Beardsley’ (Obituary), OPERA, London, August 2011
‘New York, 26 December 1894’ (Wish I’d been there …), OPERA, London May 2011
‘Vienna, 19 May 1907’ (Wish I’d been there …), OPERA, London, December 2009
‘Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect’, Quadrant, Sydney, July-August 2008
‘Thomas Edison: Father of Project Management’, Per Diem Projects, online, June 2008
‘Barnett, Walter H (1862-1934): Australian Portrait Photographer’, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, London, 2008
‘The Richmond Browns at Astrop’, Four Shires magazine, Banbury, May 2007
‘Bertram Mackennal, patronage and the performing arts’ (with Meri Machin-Roberts), Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007
‘Bewitching: Frances Alda, the once forgotten rival of Nellie Melba’, Portrait magazine, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Winter 2006
‘William Lisle Bowles: Poet and Clergyman’, King’s Sutton Literary Festival, March 2005
‘Dame on Disc: 100 years since Nellie Melba first committed her angelic voice to record’, The Bulletin, Sydney, 27 January 2004
‘May Day: Phil May shaped the early years of The Bulletin’, The Bulletin, Sydney, 26 August 2003
‘Phoebus Apollo driving the Horses of the Sun: Bertram Mackennal’s audacious London masterpiece’, Art & Australia, Sydney, Winter 2003
‘Better Portraits than Any Painter: Walter Barnett and his Artistic Circle’, Antiques and Art in Australia, Sydney, December 2000
‘Mr Nerli, Cantie Kerlie’, Robert Louis Stevenson 150th Birthday Anniversary Book, Edinburgh, 2000
Foreword to A Double Life: My Exciting Years in Theatre and Advertising by Alyque Padamsee (with Arun Prabhu), Penguin India, New Delhi, 1999
‘Bohemians Introduced Dvorak to Blackheath’, Lindsays Czech Festival, Blackheath, September 1990
SELECTED REVIEWS
Nellie: The Life and Loves of a Diva by Robert Wainwright, OPERA, London, June 2022
Conversations with Ann Howard by Susan Higgins, OPERA, London, September 2014
Opera in the British Isles 1875-1918 by Paul Rodmell, The Record Collector, London, 2014
Walter Widdop: The Great Yorkshire Tenor by Michael Letchford, OPERA, London, March 2014
Wotan’s Daughter: The Life of Marjorie Lawrence by Richard Davis, OPERA, London, November 2013
Debussy’s Mélisande: The Lives of Georgette Leblanc, Mary Garden and Maggie Teyte, Opera Britannia (online), 2009
I am Melba: A Biography by Ann Blainey, OPERA, London, September 2008
Walter Sickert: A Life by Matthew Sturgis, Art Monthly, Canberra, Winter 2008
Nerli: An Italian Painter in the South Pacific by Michael Dunn, World of Antiques and Art, Sydney, 2006
Charles Conder: The Last Bohemian by Ann Galbally, Art and Australia, Sydney, Spring 2003