Description

LILIAN STILES-ALLEN (DEVONSHIRE STREET, MARYLEBONE, 28 JULY, 1890 – TUNBRIDGE, WELLS, 15 JULY, 1982)

She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen in Devonshire Street, Marylebone in 1890, and later added her mother’s maiden name. Her musical education was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she won the Sheriff’s Prize for contraltos in 1909, and in Vienna undertaking an extensive study of Lieder. Her career was primarily on the concert stage, her physique being unsuited to operatic performance, but an early theatrical appearance was in the comedy Eastward Ho! in 1919. By the 1920s she was established as a leading concert soprano. Her appearances included the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace; a revival of Sullivan’s The Golden Legend; Messiah with Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent; Verdi’s Requiem (Sargent); Beethoven’s Choral Symphony (Sir Henry J. Wood) Handel’s Solomon (Beecham); Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s The Song of Hiawatha (Sargent); and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Sir Adrian Boult). In addition to the standard repertoire, Stiles-Allen sang in Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder under the composer; Delius’s A Mass of Life (Beecham); and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Wood). On 5 October 1938 she was one of the original 16 singers in Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music. (Her solo lines were ‘Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn! With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear, And draw her home with music.’) The Serenade to Music has been reissued on CD by Dutton. Though not physically suited to the operatic stage, Stiles-Allen took leading operatic roles in studio broadcasts for the BBC, including Handel’s Rodelinda and Gluck’s Armide. She recorded for the Edison Bell Company a number of operatic arias (a few in Italian), oratorio arias and songs. As a teacher, she included among her pupils the young Julie Andrews. Stiles-Allen died in Tunbridge Wells.

TRACKLIST

1. Aida (Verdi) Neath The Chances Of Battle with Edith Furmedge X 546 X 1840D Edison Bell
2. Aida (Verdi) Tremble, Thou Art Discovered with Edith Furmedge X 546 X 1841J Edison Bell
3. Arise, O sun (Ballad) (Maud Craske Day) 5199 12846A-1 Edison Bell
4. Boheme (Puccini) Valzer di Musetta M 1544 Edison Bell
5. Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) O rejoice that the Lord has arisen L5397 13746E-2 Edison Bell
6. Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) Santuzza’s Song X523 X1763D Edison Bell
7. Faust (Gounod) Finale Trio with Edward Leer and Edward Halland 0178 11143F-2 Edison Bell
8. Madam Butterfly (Puccini) One Fine Day 0178 11142A-1 Edison Bell
9. Madame Butterfly (Puccini) Love Duet with Dan Jones X 523 X 1762F Edison Bell
10. Madame Butterfly Flower Duet Shake The Cherry Tree Part 1 with Edith Furmedge A 5682 EB 1202 Edison Bell
11. Madame Butterfly Flower Duet Shake The Cherry Tree Part 2 with Edith Furmedge B 5682 EB 1203 Edison Bell
12. Trovatore (Verdi) Miserere with Hardy Williamson L5397 Edison Bell Winner