Madame (Lilian) Stiles-Allen

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This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

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I was born just by uh in Devonshire Street in Hike Street, Maryland. Yes.

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Do you come from a musical family? No, not particularly.

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Ordinary people, you know? Chase people.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)0:17

As a schoolgirl, what did you want to be?

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I wanted to be a ballerina.

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Petty keen on dancing, he loved it. Choreography.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)0:25

Mm-hmm.

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In those days I was just sleep enough to be able to do that.

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And it was not to be, I suppose, that I had to turn to music.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)0:33

Yeah.

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Why did you turn to music?

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I think it was just a natural love. I rarely went to a school like in Orchard Street, where there was a German headmaster.

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And he used to call me Brunhilde at the age of nine, and I thought what a peculiar name for a child. Why did he call you Brunhilde? Because I had a particularly deep speaking voice, for one so frail and so really so young.

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And I suppose he could behold me.

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Having a voice later on to s suit this

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So much so that he I used to go to the gymnasium to develop my figure.

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to get my chest broadened'cause I was very narrow chested.

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that I feel in a way I owe a great deal to him through that.

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Because I became almost an a athlete.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)1:14

Yeah.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)1:16

And you went to study at the Guildhall School of Music? Yes. Where you did rather well. You got a gold medal. Oh yes, I think the first one ever given.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)1:24

When you left the Guild Hall, did you find work care?

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And fairly easily. Oh, not by any means.

Presenter1:30

Not by any means, because just before the First World War when things were difficult, I did usual rounds, you know, singing at Masonics and that kind of

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)1:36

Yeah.

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But I could not get into the better music and the

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So I had to resort to all kinds of

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Such as? Such as singing on music halls? Did you? Yes, I did, and one which is rather laughable. I appeared at the little theatre in Chester, where Lockhart's performing elephants were on top of the bill, and I was the one that was at the bottom.

Presenter2:00

Uh

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:00

What was your first break?

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:02

as a as a serious singer.

Presenter2:03

Oh, when I went to Leeds I was taken up there by Daniel Meyer, who was the great empresario of those days, and with Madame Clarabatt, she was the great star.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:12

Uh-huh.

Presenter2:13

And uh I was terrified, needless to say, but I sang and I never looked back on

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:19

After that.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:20

You became best known in oratorio. You didn't do very much opera.

Presenter2:24

No, I did or mostly oratorio and uh opera in Wisconsin.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:28

Let's concert v

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Yes, quite a number.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:31

Now for many years you had an annual engagement in T. C. Fairbairn's production of Hiawatha. Oh yes, between

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Twelve years consecutive years. Very happy memories. I love the part of Nicomas.

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Cast of thousands. Yes.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:45

The Albert Hawk

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Yes, and I've had it mentioned in Canada and America, people that had heard me in that. I was very flattered.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)2:53

And so many proms, so many concerts all over Britain. When did you first broadcast? I think it was nineteen twenty

Presenter3:00

D3.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:01

Uh

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Creation, Haydn's creation is.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:03

The first of many.

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Many. The very first of many.

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And there again it was the greatest success I had because I had so much fan mail and I got so much work.

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So that's I have a lot to thank the BBC for.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:16

You didn't make many records in the early part of your career.

Presenter3:19

Yeah.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:19

No.

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Because my voice was not suitable, it was too big.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:23

Before electrical recordings came out.

Presenter3:25

Yeah exactly, you see. Had that been in Vogue I should have been quite at home with it.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:30

In those uh acoustic days a voice was either a recording voice or it wasn't, there was nothing you would do about it.

Presenter3:35

Yeah. Yeah.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:36

Exactly.

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What happened?

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)3:38

Now, Madame Stiles-Allen, in an interview once you said that you often felt in your career that you were spiritually guided.

Presenter3:46

Yes, I do, because I frequently have these feelings and uh

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It has been narrated before, this been written up in a book, while I was singing for the BBC, singing Vaughan Williams's Silent Noon.

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and I suddenly had this feeling of levitation.

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So much so I took my shoes and off and I had to hang on with my toes.

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And I went cold, and I turned round to Barclay Mason, who was the accompanist, and said, Shally Apine has passed on.

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And he said, How do you know? I said, I'm sure I'm sure I felt his pulsing.

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and on the way home was on all the placards that Chaliopin had passed.

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And I got in touch with Hannan Swoffer and asked could this be possible? And he said, Did you know him? I said, No, did I met him? I said, No, I admired him very much. He said, Well, probably in one of your lives you might have sung with him, or might have he knew you, and in passing he heard your voice and was attracted to you, and either he was wanting to take you with him, or to take your place and sing or sing with you.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)4:42

When did you decide to concentrate on teaching?

Presenter4:46

When the war broke out and everything went, you see all contracts were ceased and there was no concerts.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)4:51

Right.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)4:52

And what are your views on the younger generation?

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)4:56

Are they better musicians?

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Well, I should say yes, better musicians. But the voices is But the voices no, I don't there's something missing. And I'm not being old fashioned in saying things aren't what they were.

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But I'm listening for something that's going to really thrill me and I never get it.

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Why do you think that is? Don't they work as hard? No, I don't think they work as hard, and I don't think they appreciate words.

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It's all my voice, my voice, my voice.

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And I believe it was Wagner who said, You can all sing my beautiful music, but who will sing my beautiful words?

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Yeah.

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What are your hobbies?

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Knitting straights to relate. Yes. Though we're going to mention her now as her hobbies too, flag starts.

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And may I just quote little thing to you?

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Dear Kathleen Ferrier said to me, I was singing its recital, and she was put in to play the piano, Kathleen, and I was knitting between my items, between the first and second half, and she came to me and said, Oh, fancy you knitting Why do you do that, madam?

Presenter5:56

I said but while I'm writing I'm not thinking, and it's giving my brain a rest, so when this when I go on the second half I start afresh.

Presenter6:02

And when I met Kathleen again some years after, she said, You know, I took your tip and I did the same.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)6:06

Yeah.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)6:08

You like gardening, too?

Presenter6:09

Oh yes. I love I can't do very much now, of course, but I love gardens.

Madame Stiles-Allen (Lilian)6:13

You have green fingers.

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Yes.

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Yes, I talk to the flowers.