Evelyn Herbert

This article is about the American actress and soprano. For the English socialite born with this name, see Lady Evelyn Beauchamp.

Evelyn Herbert, born Evelyn Hostetter, (March 18, 1898 – 22 February 1975) was an American opera singer and musical theatre actress. She began her career as a principal soprano with the Chicago Opera Association in 1919–1920, notably creating the role of Peterkee in the world premiere of Reginald De Koven's folk opera Rip Van Winkle (1920). She worked as a performer on Broadway in operettas and musicals in the 1920s and 1930s; making her musical theatre debut in Efrem Zimbalist's Honeydew in 1920 where she was billed as Evelyn Earle in the role of Daisy.

In New York Herbert starred in several original operettas by Sigmund Romberg, including Princess Flavia (1925), My Maryland (1927), The New Moon (1928), and Melody (1933). She recorded several works by Romberg for HMV, including the popular standard "Lover, Come Back to Me" which she introduced in The New Moon. Her final Broadway appearance was in Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet in 1934.

In London's West End Herbert starred in Johann Strauss I's Waltzes in Vienna in 1931. In 1935 she was the prima donna in the United States premiere of Oscar Straus's operetta Die Teresina at the St. Louis Municipal Opera. She was married to baritone Robert Halliday with whom she performed in concerts, on stage, and in film. She retired in the mid 1930s as a result of both the decline in popularity of operetta and the financial pressures of the Great Depression. She died in California in 1975.

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