New Elsa

Ladies who sing Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin are heavy, Teutonic, have small flare for acting. That a knight should trouble to rescue them is often unbelievable. But at the new Chicago Civic Opera House last week an audience was pleasurably surprised. The Elsa .who came pathetically before the king was slender, lovely, of exceeding grace. That her voice was commensurately light mattered little to those who watched her. She used it as skillfully as she did her hands.

Those who knew anything of the career of Soprano Hallie Stiles were astonished when it was announced that her first formal U. S. appearance would be in the Germanic Lohengrin. Artistically she is a Paris product. Born in Stockton, Calif., she went, aged ten, to Syracuse, N. Y., where her father became Professor of Anatomy in Syracuse University. Vassar was chosen by Professor Stiles as the college for his daughter but she chose to study singing, went to Manhattan, thence to Europe. At a party in Paris Hallie Stiles had what she calls her "great luck." The director of the Opera Comique was present and she was asked to sing for him. So impressed was he that he engaged her for the following season to sing Mimi in La Boheme. When that time came she had used all her money; her cook had been buying the food out of her own savings. Even the day after her great success, Singer Stiles had to ask the cook for an additional two francs to buy her morning coffee.

Nearly four years have passed since then. Hallie Stiles' performances of Manon, Marguerite, Melisande, Butterfly, Louise, have been fads at the Opera Comique. The French like her because she has made their graces her own. Many a U. S. visitor has proudly claimed her to be the most satisfying artist on the French opera stage. Proudest of all, according to friends, has been her husband, Dickson Greene, son of Grant Dickson Greene, Syracuse foundryman. While she sang in Paris, he worked there as representative of Harper's Bazaar. With Dr. and Mrs. Stiles he was present in Chicago last week to applaud.

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