Use this page to stay current on news about Lotte Lehmann. I try to post the news as it arrives. As you scroll down the page you’ll find items that came in as far back as 2011.

1936 Ad with Reviews

Newly Discovered Photo

It is rare that a new photo from Lehmann’s prime appears, but here’s the proof. A very nice one probably from the 1930s has just been found!

Puccini’s Memorial Service

Lehmann didn’t sing the Mozart Requiem, but rather in Puccini’s opera Suor Angelica. Puccini had greatly appreciated Lehmann’s singing of this role when he visited Vienna.

AI and Lehmann

Artificial Intelligence has taken two Lehmann photos from her time in Salzburg in the 1930s and not only colorized them, but given them movement!  Walking  Looking around

Recent Recording Mentions Lehmann

From a November 2024 OperaWire review: Rachel Fenlon’s Winterreise is quite extraordinary for many reasons.

First, Schubert’s famously melancholy cycle was originally written for tenor, and though frequently transcribed for baritonal depths or even bass, its interpretation history remains confined largely to male voices.

Secondly, Fenlon achieves a high degree of German Innerlichkeit, that somewhat obscure, culturally rooted feeling of inward expressiveness which so pervaded the recordings of Lotte Lehmann (the first woman to perform all of Winterreise). [perform and record]

Lehmann Centennial Review

We have just received this Los Angeles Times review of the 1988 Lehmann Centennial held at UCSB.

Centennial Celebration for a Singing Actress

By MARTIN BERNHEIMER

June 5, 1988 12 AM PT

SANTA BARBARA —  Contrary to popular myth, she wasn’t the only great Germanic soprano of her time.

The stately Kirsten Flagstad had a much bigger voice and a better technique. Frida Leider commanded the heroic challenges–Isolde and Brunnhilde–that eluded her. Maria Jeritza was more glamorous, more temperamental. Elisabeth Rethberg mastered the lofty Verdi heroines that she avoided.

Still, Lotte Lehmann was unique.

Tenors loved her. “Che bella magnifica voce!” exclaimed Enrico Caruso, who wanted to sing Don Jose to her Micaela. Leo Slezak said “she possessed our secret weapon–the only one we have: heart.” Lauritz Melchior simply called her “ My Sieglinde.”

Conductors loved her. Otto Klemperer, Franz Schalk, Bruno Walter, Richard Strauss and Hans Knappertsbusch sang her praises lustily, and they represented just a small part of a large chorus. Arturo Toscanini found her so appealing, off stage as well as on, that he permitted her the indulgence of a downward transposition in Fidelio’s “Abscheulicher.”

Composers loved her. Citing her “rare fusion of a soulful voice with excellent articulation of the text with genial force of expression and a lovely stage appearance,” Richard Strauss insisted that she sing the premieres of his revised “Ariadne auf Naxos,” his “Frau ohne Schatten” and “Intermezzo.” He was willing, moreover, to temporarily sanction any liberties she would take with the vocal line.

Puccini felt that she was the first soprano who really could validate his “Suor Angelica.” That she did so in the wrong language was irrelevant.

Audiences adored her, from her debut as a bit player in Hamburg in 1910 to her years as a reigning diva in Vienna to her career as a song specialist throughout America to her extended farewells in Southern California.

A final performance of her signature role, the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier,” took place with the San Francisco Opera in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 1946. (The Times review, dated Nov. 2, doesn’t even mention the milestone.) Her valedictory recital followed five years later in Pasadena. The masses continued to adore her in old age as she performed–the verb is emphatically accurate–in public master classes.

Even critics adored her, most of the time. A Beckmesser or two may have lamented her tendency to approximate pitches or distort rhythms as she sacrificed precision to passion. Others worried about her top tones in later years, or her eagerness to usurp lieder that tradition had assigned exclusively to male voices. A few iconoclasts groused that she conveyed housewifely decency even when she wanted to be very complex and very grand.

But no one doubted her profound poetic instincts or took her interpretive rapture for granted. No one questioned the radiance of her tone or the generosity of her spirit.

Lehmann was capable of disarmingly candid self-appraisal. Possibly protesting too much, she liked to admit that her technique was somewhat erratic, especially in matters of breath control. Although she enjoyed a splendid success at the Vienna premiere of Puccini’s “Turandot” in 1926, she said she took greater pleasure in the performance of Maria Nemeth, her alternate in the strenuous title role.

Still, she knew her strengths. “I am a person,” she declared, “who cannot do anything without being totally, compulsively devoted to the effort.”

The effort eventually embraced lecturing, writing, painting and stage directing as well as singing. After Lehmann died at her beloved home in Santa Barbara on Aug. 26, 1976, aficionados everywhere continued to worship her. Fanatics with long and/or rose-colored memories dismissed such soprano whippersnappers as Reining, Bampton, Varnay, Schwarzkopf, Della Casa, Grummer, Steber, Crespin, Soderstrom, Rysanek, Jurinac and Altmeyer. “Very nice,” they invariably clucked, “but you didn’t see Lehmann.”

The world at large, however, proved somewhat fickle. Much of the huge but in many ways frustrating Lehmann discography lapsed into library limbo. A new, more inhibited generation of performers and audiences tended to find her art oddly effusive and dangerously old-fashioned. The ranks of the devout began to thin.

Lehmann would have been 100 on Feb. 27, 1988. It was, clearly, time for revival and reappraisal. It was time for a centennial celebration. UC Santa Barbara, which houses the exhaustive Lehmann archives, provided just that last weekend.

For three busy, potentially hypnotic days, the cold little concert hall–it happens to be called Lotte Lehmann Hall–in this mirage of a campus by the sea was warmed with lectures, concerts, multimedia presentations, panel discussions, fanciful seances and fancy tributes. An “official” biography was introduced. Paintings were exhibited. Rare recordings were played. Hyperbole flowed in sincere abundance.

Lehmann’s erstwhile students came to the shrine. Her friends, colleagues and associates came. Her disciples came. Who says nostalgia isn’t what it used to be?

Ironically, the people who didn’t come turned out to be the ones who could have benefited most from the illustrious examples and poignant testimonials. The crowds, though vastly enthusiastic, were disappointingly small and distinctly mature. Despite the scholarly ambiance, one saw few young faces.

After the inaugural ceremonies on Friday, Maurice Abravanel took the podium. Now 85, he offered vivid recollections of his collaborations with Lehmann, as conductor and as administrator at the Music Academy of the West. He spoke with extraordinary warmth of her impetuosity and her flexibility. He invoked the poetic excitement of her creations and confirmed the prosaic insignificance of her miscalculations.

He was the first of many speakers to stress the singer’s concern for the word and its telling inflection. “With Lehmann,” he said, “expression was everything.”

Variations on this reverential theme were immediately provided, via videotape, by Dolores M. Hsu, UCSB music department chairman; Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Lehmann’s longtime accompanist, and Frances Holden, Lehmann’s muse, companion, rock of Gibraltar and personal Brangane.

Beaumont Glass, erstwhile assistant to Lehmann at the Academy and now head of the opera department at the University of Iowa, offered a thoughtful preview of his new biography of the soprano (Capra Press, Santa Barbara: $18.95).

Paradox clouded the picture that night when Carol Neblett, who for a short time had coached repertory with Lehmann, offered a recital in her mentor’s honor. Contrary to the exalted Lehmann tradition, Neblett sang over-familiar music of Schubert, Brahms, Debussy and Strauss with much luminous tone and little interpretive insight. The words counted for little, and the subtleties behind the words counted for less.

Ironically, Neblett’s duochromatic delivery and chronically glamorous image suggested nothing so much as a latter-day incarnation of Lehmann’s arch-rival, Maria Jeritza.

The symposium reached its high point Sunday morning with a brilliant paper presented by Richard Exner of the Santa Barbara faculty. This imposing literary authority chose a subject–the strange but mutually enriching relationship between Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal–that bore only a tangential relationship to Lehmann. However, Exner explored that subject, and its capricious arguments regarding the relative impact of word and music, with probing wit and contextual wisdom.

Edward Downes completed this most stimulating session with personal recollections of the prima donna in Europe. He mentioned that Lehmann claimed to admire Flagstad’s singing but found her Scandinavian colleague cold. He also mentioned, conversely, that the essentially prim and placid Flagstad admired Lehmann’s singing but found that she enacted Sieglinde “as if doing a striptease.”

To belie the notion that Lehmann always had difficulties with her top voice, the visiting musicologist played an early recording of Butterfly’s entrance aria. Lehmann rode the crest of the climax to an effortless, gleaming high D-flat. It elicited a collective gasp.

Betraying his own special fondness for Lehmann, Downes admitted that the heart-bedecked tie around his neck had been an impulsive mid-interview gift from the prima donna some 50 years ago. It elicited wild applause.

The afternoon session found Beaumont Glass returning to recount Lehmann’s concert career. At the end, he played the famous recording of “An die Musik” as sung by the soprano at her final New York recital. Choked with emotion, she was unable to utter the last grateful apostrophe to her art: “Ich danke dir.” Even now, 37 years after the event, this remains a wrenching document of renunciation.

Redundancy began to set in as Alan Rich, music critic of the Herald Examiner, traced the evolution of Lehmann’s art through successive recordings of the same material. One had to admire his sentimental enthusiasm even if one could disagree with his premise–”She became a more conscious singer with age.”

The concert Sunday night, interesting if not entirely successful, was a ghostly experiment devoted to the monumental “Winterreise.” Some 400 slides allowed us to examine Lehmann’s pretty, naive illustrations–in toto and in nervously changing detail–on a big screen. Meanwhile, Lehmann’s isolated recordings of the songs that comprise Schubert’s tragic cycle were pieced together for a less than cumulative sound track. Under these contrived circumstances, the comic-bookish, essentially amateurish paintings somehow managed to overwhelm the pathos of the music and obscure the ardent professionalism of the singing.

On Monday, Gary Hickling, a bassist of the Honolulu Symphony, offered an illuminating, obsessive glimpse into the Lehmann discography. Then the houselights went down and a shadowy, elderly Lehmann appeared in film clips from her famous master classes. She impersonated a melodramatic Ortrud for an innocent student mezzo. With minimal prodding, she enacted the Marschallin’s entire monologue while croaking the vocal line an octave or two below the normal terrain.

She exuded eloquence and savoir-faire. Music and the theater obviously were in her blood. The sound of applause, she often admitted, was irresistible to her. The documents are important.

Still, one must question their educational value. Lehmann reportedly exhorted her students not to copy her. In her classes, however, she seemed to prefer demonstrating to teaching.

Here, she would say, you smile. Here, you take three steps, raise an arm and look upward. . . .

It looked terrific when she did it. It looked silly when those nice, ultra-American kids imitated her.

The symposium closed with seven of Lehmann’s erstwhile students joining in an awe-inspired if not awe-inspiring panel discussion. Significantly, only one of the participants, the soprano Kay Griffel, had gone on from the Lehmann classroom to a reasonably substantial career.

Actually, many singers attended Lehmann’s classes. But none emerged as an artist who could even approach Lehmann’s stature. If Lehmann knew her own secrets, she did not know how to pass them on. [Many successful singers who worked with Lehmann would disagree: Jeannine Altmeyer, Lucine Amara, Karan Armstrong, Judith Beckman(n), Grace Bumbry, William Cochran, Marilyn Horne, Lotfi Mansouri, Mildred Miller, Norman Mittelmann, Thomas Moser, Carol Neblett, Maralin Niska, Harve(y) Presnell, Marcella Reale, and Benita Valente]

The evidence suggests that she was not a great teacher. Nor, for that matter, does she seem to have been a great writer or a great painter. It doesn’t matter.

She was a great singing actress. That is enough.

We can see it clearly now.

Portrait Auction

We received the following message about the charcoal and pastel sketch for the 1952 oil portrait of Lehmann by Lithuanian portraitist, Niko Schattenstein.

The Lotte Lehmann portrait will go at auction at Weschler’s in Rockville Maryland on December 13th.  It is estimated to go for between $3-5,000. The contact person is Judy Acs and she is very nice and can help anyone who is interested in bidding.

The Byrne Gallery, 7 West Washington Street, P. O. 1478, Middleburg, Virginia 20118; (540) 687-6986

Famous Photographers

When I recently discovered that Lotte Lehmann’s 1947 photograph taken by George Platt Lynes is in the National Portrait Gallery, it reminded me that she had been photographed a lot throughout her life. Many of the photos were taken by Europe and America’s most important portrait photographers: F.F. Bauer (1903-1972), Bettmann (1903-1998), E. Bieber (1878-1962), Caputo, DeBellis, Dietrich, Dührkoop (1873-1929), Edwards, Ellinger (1860-1940), Fayer (1892-1950), Fleischhut (1881-1951), Fleischmann (1895-1990), Foka, Löwy (1883-1938), Maillard-Kesslere (1894-1979), McCombe, Meintner-Graf (1899-1973), Mélancon, Mocsigay, Orkin, Rothmaier, Setzer (aka Tschiedel-Setzer), Skall (1884-1942), and Willinger (1879-1943). But there were also several creative art photographers who took time to set up special elements for the shot. Besides George Platt Lynes (1907-1955), there were Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Horst P. Horst (Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann) (1906-1999), Stadler (for whom I found no information), and other creative photographers. If you know the identity of the un-attributed artists, please let me know. One of the Steichen photos of Lehmann as the Marschallin appeared in Vanity Fair first in 1935 and again in a 1992 Flashback with a text you may read here.

Farewell to the Old Met

We have discovered 13 photos of Mme Lehmann at the grand occasion. Here’s one to whet your appetite.

LL at the New Met

We have a short (interrupted) interview with Mme Lehmann (preceded by the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson).

Recital Photos

Recently we received many newly discovered photos of Lehmann in Salzburg recitals with Bruno Walter.

Biography in Music: Lehmann

Francis Robinson, with many connections to the Metropolitan Opera recorded a Biography in Music to celebrate Lehmann’s 80th birthday and broadcast it on 2/24/1968. Here’s background information on Mr. Robinson:

Francis Robinson began his career in the theater as an usher at the Ryman Auditorium while he was studying at Vanderbilt. He received his B.A. from Vanderbilt in 1932 and his M.A. in 1933. He went on to spend more than thirty years at the Metropolitan Opera where he served variously as tour director, assistant manager, press representative, and host of Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Met.

Robinson began appearing on the popular “Texaco Opera Quiz” in the 1950s, which aired during radio broadcasts of Met performances, but on February 27, 1960, he came into his own on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast with a musical biography of Enrico Caruso. Using his own extensive collection of Caruso recordings and materials, Robinson put together a twenty-minute program honoring the great tenor. It was a huge success, and that broadcast was the impetus for a series by Robinson called “Biographies in Music” that took place during the third intermission of the Met’s Saturday broadcasts. In introducing Robinson and the series, Milton Cross, host of the Metropolitan Opera broadcast, said that the musical biography of Enrico Caruso was “so moving and brought so many requests for more musical biographies that we have persuaded Mr. Robinson to do a series of such broadcasts for us.” In 1978, Robinson became host for the Live from the Met telecast series, continuing to reach out to opera audiences around the country.  He wrote program notes for more than 100 RCA Red Seal albums. The Francis Robinson Collection of Theatre, Music and Dance was given to the Vanderbilt Libraries in 1980. 

Studio Portrait

Just when I begin to think that I’ve see. all of Lehmann’s studio portraits, a new one arrives. This early one has a contemplative feeling about it.

New Duo Recital

It’s sometimes amazing to read how often Lehmann sang at the Vienna Opera. A new recital with Piccaver has been discovered and it will be added to the Chronology found below.

26 Mar 1927: Concert: LL: Beethoven: Egmont: Die Trommel gerühret; Freudvoll und leidvoll; (Paul Hartmann, Speaker); Heger, cond., Wiener Sinfonie-Orchester

26 (sic) Mar 1927: Beethoven: Fidelio: LL, Leonore/Fidelio (LL’s first); Piccaver, Florestan, Jerger, Pizarro; Mayr, Rocco, Schumann, Marzelline; Schalk, cond., Vienna Opera

31 Mar; 2 Apr 1927: Fidelio; LL, Leonore/Fidelio; Piccaver, Florestan, Jerger, Pizarro; Mayr, Rocco, Schumann, Marzelline; Gallos, Jaquino; Schalk, cond., Vienna Opera

5 Apr 1927: Manon; LL, Manon; Piccaver, Des Grieux; Mayr, Count Des Grieux; Wiedemann, Lescaut; Reichenberger, cond., Vienna Opera

10, 13, Apr 1927: Fidelio; LL, Leonore/Fidelio; Piccaver, Florestan, Jerger, Pizarro; Mayr, Rocco, Schumann, Marzelline; Gallos, Jaquino; Schalk, cond., Vienna Opera; except on 13: Maikl, Jaquino

17 Apr 1927: Die Meistersinger; LL, Eva; Manowarda, Sachs, Mayr, Pogner; Wernik, Vogelsang; Ettl, Nachtigall; Wiedemann, Beckmesser; Madin, Kothner; Arnold, Zorn; Tomek, Moser; Muzzarelli, Ortel; Reich, Schwarz; Abel, Flotz; Kalenberg (guest), Walther; Gallos, David; Kittel, Magdalena; Felix Weingartner (guest), cond., Vienna Oper

LL’s Tiles

Lehmann was fascinated with painting on tiles. She painted opera scenes, abstracts, and portraits. Two of her abstract tiles were recently offered on eBay.

TIME Magazine 1934

Music: I Am Success

In the little German town of Perleberg some 30 years ago a lusty argument went on between a round-faced, pig-tailed girl and her practical, hard-working father. The child was determined to be a singer. The father wanted her to teach school to be sure of getting a pension in her old age. When Lotte Lehmann’s singing days are done she will get a pension from the proud Vienna Opera where she is a Member of Honor. By the time she sailed for Europe this week many a hard-to-please New Yorker was convinced that hers is the most beautiful soprano voice of the day. 

In the U. S. this winter Lotte Lehmann has given 22 concerts, made her radio debut as Toscanini’s chosen soloist and sung three times at the Metropolitan Opera House. Her last Metropolitan performance coincided last week with the conclusion of the Wagner Cycle (TIME, Feb. 12). The opera was Die Meistersinger and Eva who has always seemed a dull heroine suddenly bloomed forth as a charming young person, very much in love. Critics who marvel at the warm eloquence of Lotte Lehmann’s singing, the contralto richness that holds to the highest notes, again complained because they had to wait so long to hear her at the Metropolitan. Chicago had her for a few performances in 1931 and 1932. From Vienna, Salzburg, Paris and London have come ecstatic reports of her Leonore in Fidelio, her Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. New Yorkers who had heard her only in Lieder suddenly wanted to know more about this stately youthful person who could act as well as sing. During her first years in opera her father never let Lotte Lehmann forget that school-teaching would have been easier and safer. She studied in Berlin, got a contract with the Hamburg Opera where for many months she did bit parts, studying the big roles by herself. One day the prima donna who was to sing in Lohengrin suddenly fell ill and Lotte Lehmann took her place. In her fright she forgot all the hidebound traditions, the routine gestures. But she was so young and unaffected, her voice so richly expressive, that the Hamburgers wanted to hear her in other big parts. She was singing Micaela in Carmen one night while the Vienna Opera director sat in the audience. He had come to find a new tenor but next day the tenor was forgotten and Lehmann was shakily signing a contract which she never stopped to read. 

In Vienna, her headquarters for 18 years, Lotte Lehmann has sung some 50 roles in German, French, Italian. In Vienna also she became Frau Otto Krause. Her husband, a tall important-looking insurance director, travels with her to the U. S., complains only of her tremendous energy. She will get up at 7 o’clock in the morning no matter how late she goes to bed. Herr Krause speaks little English but when he hears his wife’s praises he taps his big chest and says impressively: “Yes. with her it is all from the heart.” 

In New York Lotte Lehmann lives simply at the Essex House facing Central Park. She keeps no maid, shops at Macy’s. There last week she bought coffee and stockings to take home to her friends. Two New York friendships of which she is particularly proud are with Arturo Toscanini and Geraldine Farrar. Toscanini, who has small patience with most singers, goes to all her performances. She did not recognize Farrar when first she saw her in the front row at her last year’s concert. The oldtime singer was listening so intently, so sympathetically that Lehmann found herself addressing every song to her. 

Because she does not go in for backstage tantrums or lug around pet jaguars (see p. 32) Lotte Lehmann rarely makes the news columns. She does not advertise her diet which consists mostly of fruit and vegetables, a glass of sherry before she goes on stage. She keeps dogs and cats in her Vienna home but not in her dressing-room. To every performance she takes photographs of her father, mother, grandmother, brother, husband, kisses them all for luck. 

Because her singing has such abundant feeling New Yorkers have wondered if she would not make an ideal Isolde, but Lotte Lehmann knows her limitations, says she would be exhausted before the first act was over. She is more conceited about her horseback riding and her writing than about her singing. Traveling from Buffalo to Havana lately she wrote 3,000 words describing her reaction to the country, the Cuban excitement over new President Carlos Mendieta. Her piece was published in the New York Staats-Zeitung. 

One of her books. Verse und Prose, has been published in Vienna. Berlin publishers have the first installments of her autobiography but she doubts if it will ever be released. They want her to add chapters on her U. S. triumphs. Says Mme Lehmann: “I would not feel very intelligent to sit down and write over and over again I am success, I am success. I am success.’ ‘

L.A. Times

Arabella Photos

Since Lehmann only performed the role of Arabella five times (all for the Vienna Opera), we have few photos. Here’s what I’ve been able to accumulate, including a few from live performances.

New Photo

Joan Winden Passes

Joan Stensen Winden (1931-2024) was born in Washington and grew up in her grandmother’s home in Old Town and spent summers at the Hallstrom homestead at Point Richmond. She met her future husband in the first grade at Lowell Elementary School, and they started dating around the time they graduated from Stadium High School in 1949, brought together by their mutual love of music. She attended the College of Puget Sound before graduating from Stanford University in 1953, where she and Bill were soloists in the Stanford Symphony Chorus.

Following their marriage in 1957, Joan and Bill studied with Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West and she won San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Audition in 1959. They subsequently made their way to Germany and Switzerland, where she was lauded as “a vivacious actress with an extraordinarily free, rich, and full mezzo soprano voice,” while singing her favorite role Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. 

Upon returning to the United States, Joan sang for a few years with the National Opera and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., where she was hailed as “one of those ‘once in a blue moon’ kind of voices which enthralls with its richness, smoothness and control.” She had the opportunity to audition for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but chose instead to return to the Pacific Northwest so her son, Andy, could grow up near family in the natural beauty that has nurtured multiple generations of Hallstroms and Windens. She and Bill settled in Olympia, where he taught at the Evergreen State College, and she joined the Seattle Opera. Northwest opera audiences in the 1970s and 1980s encountered her as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, Maddalena in Rigoletto, and Gutrune in Götterdämmerung, among other roles.

She taught voice to generations of young singers, some of whom have pursued careers as professional musicians themselves, in her Olympia home and at the University of Puget Sound. She was an active member of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and the local chapters of P.E.O. International and the SAI International Music Fraternity. 

Joan’s husband, Bill, died in 2009. Besides singing, he was an active painter.

Drawings and…

 A European collector is offering the following: a lovely book done by hand. It takes excerpts from Lehmann’s My Many Lives in German translation. It is typed. But what is most lovely about it are the original paintings/drawings which the author of this has done of Lehmann in her different roles. The book also contains original photographs with Bruno Walter and Dusolina Giannini, as well as newspaper and magazine clippings. Take a look- https://photos.app.goo.gl/xhcyynG4UX7Um3ni9

Below are examples of some of the drawings. If you wish to purchase these things Contact Me and I’ll supply you with the information needed.

Radio Personality

Lehmann as Angelica

In an extensive July 2024 article for the Australian Book Review on Puccini’s Il Trittico, Michael Halliwell, baritone and scholar, wrote the following: “It was in Vienna, largely due to Lotte Lehmann’s performance in the title role, that Suor Angelica began to attract more success; this was Puccini’s favorite of the three works…”

Review before the Recital

This article gives you an ideal of the esteem in which Lehmann was held.

Celebrating two 1888 birthdays

Lotte Lehmann and Elisabeth Schumann were both born in 1888. Here’s a tribute by the famous music critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor.

Unknown Photos

Historic Recital Programs

Austrian Ebay offers three Lehmann/Bruno Walter recital programs from the Salzburg festivals.

Artist’s Charcoal & Pastel

Susan Byrne of The Byrne Gallery in Middleburg, Virginia wrote that she has a client who has a charcoal and pastel sketch for the 1952 oil portrait of Lehmann by Lithuanian portraitist, Niko Schattenstein. The final oil portrait hangs in the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has kindly permitted us to see this excellent portrait.

Here’s the final oil version as used by Dr. Glass for the cover of his Lehmann biography.

Lehmann views the Schattenstein painting.

Saba-Gold Cards

With a fad similar to collecting stamps, in the early 20th century a cigarette company offered “tobacco cards” of various subjects, whether planes, famous people, or stage stars. They included opera stars such as Lotte Lehmann, with their autographs. Actually they offered two cards of Lehmann, the first one as Eva (from Die Meistersinger) and the second one as Sieglinde (from Die Walküre). The photos were colorized and the original photographer was credited.

Black and white was the most common form of photos, but it added allure to any photo, whether a collector cigarette card or not, to be colorized. Here are some of the other Lehmann photos in their colorized versions.

Jake Heggie on LL

Contemporary opera and art song composer Jake Heggie wrote an extensive review on many recordings for Stereophile magazine….This excerpt refers to Lehmann.

• Brahms: “Die Mainacht” (May Night)—Lotte Lehmann w. orchestra and two with Paul Ulanowsky, piano. Three versions of a great song by one of the most heartfelt German singers of the 20th century. Lehmann, who was Elisabeth Schumann’s contemporary, friend, and once rival, had a one-of-a-kind voice that, despite its flaws—Schumann’s had plenty as well—inspired the likes of Toscanini, Walter, Eric Korngold, and Richard Strauss. “Die Mainacht” finds her at her expressive best, first close to her peak and then as her voice began to age. Lehmann holds nothing back as she expresses the joy, pain, and longing in Brahms’s heart. Once you hear her sing and explore the full range of her artistry, you’ll either dismiss her as “old fashioned” or acknowledge that few singers were/are as naked in their expression, believing in their repertoire, and honest about who they are. Her Brahms, Strauss, Wagner, Korngold, Weber, and more are definitive….

• For “Der Doppelgänger,” Lehmann’s 1941 recording with Ulanowsky, either the live version or even better, the contemporaneous studio recording with Ulanowsky….[are his choice recordings of the Schubert Lied.] [We dedicate a whole page to Lehmann’s Doppelgänger recordings.]

• Robert Schumann: Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love)—Lehmann and Walter. This beautiful and moving 16-song cycle is such a popular vocal test that in one season, the Bay Area saw performances by four different major baritones. But I learned every note from Lehmann’s famed 1941 recording with Walter at the piano. The pianism is sketchy, but the age and sadness in the voice of a woman—Lehmann—who was forced to leave the Old World only to watch her new house in the hills of Santa Barbara burn to the ground is palpable. As with so much of Lehmann, the performance evokes the words of Richard Strauss: “Her singing moved the stars.”…

Errors Abound!

Though we have tried to make corrections in the media, most recently up-dating Wikipedia pages in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, there continue to be mistakes of dates and even the city of Lehmann’s birth! You’ll see the following article has brackets to correct errors.

Lotte Lehmann: A Transatlantic Voice, Captured in an Elegant Postcard Image

This postcard image showcases the renowned German-American soprano, Lotte Lehmann, in the prime of her career. Born in Dessau, [Perleberg] Germany, in 1888, Lehmann began her musical training at an early age [1904, aged 16 entered Berlin’s Musikhochschule, which didn’t provide her with what she needed; 1909, aged 21 studied successfully with Mathilde Mallinger] and made her professional debut in 1911 [1910]. Her rich, expressive voice and innovative interpretations quickly gained her international recognition. Lehmann’s versatility as a performer extended beyond the opera stage. She was also a celebrated concert singer and a pioneer in the field of recorded music, making numerous recordings and radio broadcasts. Her artistry transcended linguistic and cultural boundaries, earning her a devoted following in Europe and the United States. In this photograph, Lehmann exudes an air of sophistication and confidence, her expressive face framed by an elegant headpiece. The black-and-white image, with its soft focus and delicate shading, captures the timeless beauty of her features. The simple yet elegant design of the postcard, with its minimalist border and clean typography, serves to highlight the subject’s captivating presence. Lehmann’s career spanned five decades, during which she graced the stages of the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert venues. Her legacy as a trailblazing artist continues to inspire singers and music lovers around the world. This postcard image, with its evocative portrait of a legendary performer, offers a glimpse into the rich history of classical music and the enduring power of the human voice.

Enthusiastic Review

Lehmann’s agents and promoters could hardly have written a more positive review than this one from Sydney, Australia’s Wireless Weekly where Curt Prerauer wrote the following for the section called “The Music Critic”.

SYDNEY: Friday, May 7, 1937.   THE MUSIC CRITIC 

LOTTE LEHMANN gave her first recital in the Town Hall, Thursday, April 22. Any expectations, however high they may have been, were surpassed by the singer’s art. We have been hearing many artists, some of them of the “world-famous” kind, in recent years, but, with the exception of a conductor, nobody came near the impression Mme. Lehmann made upon me. I knew her from Berlin, but the new impression (which I knew only from hearsay) was that Mme. Lehmann is as perfect as a singer of lieder as she is on the operatic stage. Again it struck me how much feeling pulses in every word she pronounces. It is not an expression she has “learnt,” but an expression that she must give, and were it even in spite of herself. But this is not the case either, because Mme. Lehmann emanates such a wonderful personality that nobody can help being impressed by it. Every word emerge in its most secret meaning, she has thought about every tiniest shade of color a vowel, a consonant must get in order to convey the spirit of the music and the words, and it is the highest fulfilment of art I have ever heard. I should not hesitate to make a most daring comparison: Lotte Lehmann is the Toscanini among singers. Her expression, with which I have dealt first, because expression is the main thing in music, while being as perfect as it can be, makes never the impression of coming from the brain. The whole, wonderful, sweet person Lotte Lehmann seems to consist of nothing but expression, whether she sings or talks, or whether you are simply contented with looking at her. Her technique (but this should go without saying) is as perfect as her expression. It shows complete mastership of top, lower, and middle register, as a matter of fact, there are no differences noticeable at all. Her manners with the audience, though she has sung a lot in America, are as natural as possible, and perhaps this forms a part of the terrific impression she makes upon us all: One feels always personally addressed by her, and not from the platform to the audience, but as from one human being to the other. Lotte Lehmann’s art of building a programme is wonderful and corresponds to the highest standards everywhere. That she had to put in two operatic items was not her fault, but that of the A.B.C. [Australian Broadcasting Corporation], which asked her to do so. Lotte Lehmann agreed, of course. Among her items were some of the “old war-horses.” She is right in including them. She leads them back to the time when they were still fresh and young war-horses. Should one sing them? Of course, one should, if one is able to sing them, to interpret them as Lotte Lehmann does. Only in the mouth of the average artist they are unbearable and hackneyed. Let me make it a strong point: Unless you are able to sing them as Lehmann does, keep away. (And you are not able to do it in the same way, you know?) Among her songs, however, were also some which were produced for the first time in Australia; an extra (“Heimkehr vom Feste.” by Leo Blech) proved to be a most charming children’s song (I have wished to hear it again, oh, how long), one item by Emoe Balogh, and one by Emmy Worth, the latter an extra. I should like to write still many things about this greatest singer the world seems to have at present, and yet I do not know where to start. No word of highest praise is adequate to depict the deep, deep emotion which is transferred upon the listener by Lotte Lehmann’s wonderful art. Perhaps we come nearest by saying that she is the impersonation of art itself. Lotte Lehmann’s accompanist is Mr. Ulanowsky. He played Schumann and Brahms. I have often talked, in these columns, about how to play composers of the romanticist period, with a certain amount of freedom (but not licence), and yet so that the original rhythm is not marred. You will know what I mean when listening to Mr. Ulanowsky. Also when listening to him I had the feeling to lean back in my chair (which is too uncomfortable, however) and simply to enjoy myself. As an extra we heard part of a Viennese waltz by Johann Strauss, which was played as only Viennese people can play it, the slight sentimentality, smiling at itself, unpretentious, charming, and incomparably beautiful. As an accompanist, Mr. Ulanowsky is equally perfect, the balance between him and Mme. Lehmann being ideal throughout the night.

Fritzi Massary

Fritzi Massary (1882–1969) was a Viennese operetta singer at the same time that Lehmann sang opera and gave recitals in Vienna. They never sang on the same stage together, but from the recently discovered photo, they seem to be great friends.

Letter to Alma

Here we have the transcription of a letter that Lehmann wrote to Alma Mahler-Werfel. In 1902 Alma married Mahler who died in 1911; in 1915 she married architecht Walter Gropius from whom she divorced in 1920; in 1929 she married author/novelist Franz Werfel, who died in 1945. Lehmann sang at the funeral of Franz Werfel at Pierce Brothers Mortuary, Hollywood, with Bruno Walter, piano; they performed Schubert Lieder. (Werfel died on 26 August 1945; we don’t know if the funeral was held in August or September. The letter below doesn’t seem to be dated.)

Dear Ms. Alma –

blessed with beauty and spirit, they made these gifts the servants of a selfless ambition: to give inspiration to the two great men, who linked their lives to yours and to whom you were a beloved companion until the end. May the memory of this close yesterday ring back to you as a warm melody for many years to come – and may it transfigure and make today and tomorrow happy for you.

Lotte Lehmann

Santa Barbara

The Music Academy of the West

National Portrait Gallery

Lotte Lehmann has a photo of her, taken in 1947 by George Platt Lynes (15 April 1907–6 December 1955). The technical information: Medium: Gelatin silver print; Dimensions: Image/Sheet: 23.4cm x 18.8cm (9 3/16 x 7 3/8); Place: Santa Barbara; Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Donald Windham; Object number: S/NPG.94.267.

Artificial Intelligence & LL

After hearing a lot about AI, it seemed time to test the function of ChatGPT 3.5 on some Lotte Lehmann questions. First, I asked about Lehmann’s students. Here’s the response.

There’s no way to know how AI called Schwarzkopf one of Lehmann’s students. Perhaps because she was the next renouned Marshallin, but nothing else. Grace Bumbry was the one correct listing. As for Risë Stevens, the mixup could have occurred because Stevens sang Octavian to Lehmann’s Marschallin. King’s years were 1925-2005, and though he sang a lot of Wagner and Strauss operas, it was decades after Lehmann’s career. One possible connection is that he studied to change from a baritone to a tenor with Martial Singher, who followed Lehmann teaching at the Music Academy of the West (where King did not study!) Another is that he made his debut as a tenor with Marilyn Horne (an unaknowledged by AI student of Lehmann).

The second question I asked ChatGPT was about Lehmann’s teachers. The first one, Mathilde Mallinger is correct and there were no other teachers of such importance in Lehmann’s life. Of the second listing, Etta Hagens, I can learn nothing. Lehmann never lived or studied in Prague. Marie Gutheil-Schoder (1874-1935) never taught Lehmann. She was already well-known at the Vienna Opera when Lehmann arrived, and Lehmann regarded the elder singer highly. There is no mention of Marie Gutheil-Schoder teaching in Berlin. There is no way I can account for the error of the last two.

The final question I addressed to AI was how to find “reliable” information on Lehmann. The only biography mentioned, Lotte Lehmann: A Life in Opera and Song was written by Beaumont Glass, not Elizabeth L. Norman! I can uncover no connection of Ms. Norman with either Glass or Lehmann. There are two other Lehmann biographies that are available, but not mentioned by ChatGPT.

LL as Ariadne

Lehmann sang in the World Premier of the revised version of Ariadne auf Naxos as the Composer. Later she became one of the most admired Ariadnes of her time, but we con’t have any photos of her in that role. All the more reason to appreciate John Bradford’s painting called, “Lotte Lehmann Triumphant in Ariadne auf Naxos“. I wrote to him to ask about the title, but have yet to get a response.

Winterreise in Michigan

Here’s a recently discovered photo of Lehmann after a Winterreise performance in 1948. Among the young ladies is Bethany Beardsley, who went on to a fine career in song.

Nelson Eddy

Lehmann was always a movie fan, but the following information can explain her connection to Nelson Eddy, a singing film star. “Eddy was ‘discovered’ by Hollywood when he substituted at the last minute for the noted diva Lotte Lehmann at a sold-out concert in Los Angeles on February 28, 1933. He scored a professional triumph with 18 curtain calls, and several film offers immediately followed. After much agonizing, he decided that being seen on screen might boost audiences for what he considered his ‘real work’, his concerts. (Also, like his machinist father, he was fascinated with gadgets and the mechanics of the new talking pictures.) Eddy’s concert fee rose from $500 to $10,000 per performance.” Later Lehmann coached Jeanette MacDonald who appeared in many of the movies with Eddy. MacDonald actually did sing a few opera performances. After their seventh teaming in Bittersweet did not fare as well in the box office the previous year, MGM decided to split Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald for their next films. Nelson was given his choice of leading lady and he picked Risë Stevens of the Metropolitan Opera. So, in the second photo which shows Lehmann in the same hat etc. as seen with Eddy, you’ll see her with her real opera co-star (she sang Octavian to Lehmann’s Marschallin) on the set for the MGM movie The Chocolate Soldier (1941).

LL’s Vocal Registers

Conrad Osborne has a blog called Osborne on Opera: A Critical Blog that in 2017 featured a six part series on “Lotte Lehmann and the Bonding of the Registers” that isn’t as technical as it sounds. It’s an interesting read. Another extensive article on Lehmann was inspired by the second set of her recordings by Marston Records.

Thomas Mann’s Favorites

You’ll notice that two of Lehmann’s recordings made his “favorites” list. He was also personal friends with both Lehmann and Bruno Walter. Below: a photo of them all together. You can read (and listen to) the list of favorite Lehmann recordings from a vast array of people.

On Tour

“Goethe poems in song were presented by Lotte Lehmann, soprano, Wednesday at the Pabst theater for the bicentenary celebration of the German poet’s birth. Mme. Lehmann is shown before the concert with her accompanist, Paul Ulanowsky, and Dr. William Dehorn (right), chairman of the event.” (The highly “improved” photo [the background and around the heads of the people was painted grey] dated 17 March 1948. This is yet another new recital date for our Lehmann Chronology.

1937 Head Shot

Here’s a (new to our eyes) photo of Lehmann used for the 24 October 1937 radio broadcast of the “Ford Sunday Evening Hour.” She sang: Marriage of Figaro: Porgi amor; Cimera: Canto di primavera; Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade; Brahms: O liebliche Wangen (Schubert and Brahms with her regular pianist Ernö Balogh at the piano); Bayly: Long, long ago (with chorus & orchestra); Müller: O Love of God Most Full (with chorus, audience, and orchestra) with José Iturbi, conducting the Ford Symphony Orchestra and chorus.

A More Interesting Singer

In the March/April 2024 edition of Fanfare magazine you’ll find a review by Henry Fogel in which he recalls the reason that Flagstad chose a tenor instead of Melchior: “The reason for this was that Flagstad, whose power at the Met was extraordinary, was upset with Melchior after he implied to an interviewer that Lotte Lehmann was a more interesting singer.”

Good and Mixed Reviews

The first recently discovered review of one of Lehmann’s recitals is glowing with positive thoughts on many aspects of her singing. The second review includes some serious complaints but ends upbeat. The first has no attribution, the second only the initials: HTP.

Review of Recital in St. Louis on 13 Jan 1933

“One of the greatest personalities in the field of music made her first appearance in St. Louis last night when Lotte Lehmann, dramatic soprano, gave a song recital in Howard Hall, the Principia. The size and scope of her artistic gifts become apparent as soon as she starts singing but the impression deepens as song succeeds song until finally it has become a transfiguring experience. The voice by itself, with its depth, resonance and power, is galvanic in its effect, but the voice as an agent of her intellect and temperament brings an exhilaration that immediately makes all of the life about one more intense and more significant.”

Review of Recital in Boston on 8 or 9 March 1934

“…Mme. Lehmann’s singing of Brahms’ ‘Meine Liebe ist grün’, and his ‘Der Schmied’ …were examples of overpossession and over-projection to the detriment of voice and song. So also with Schumann’s ‘Ich grolle nicht’ which is one of her battle horses, to be ridden a little harder each time she mounts it. In a song that moves quick-paced, full-toned and in high emotion, Mme. Lehmann may hardly resist the temptation to force the note. There were as many songs in which she sang with an equal fineness of perception and tone, of matter and manner – – – say her simplicity with Schubert’s ‘An eine Quelle’; her musing grace with Franz’s ‘Für Musik,’ her light and tender humor with Wolf’s ‘In dem Schatten meiner Locken,’ her nostalgic melancholy with Strauss’s autumnal ‘Aller Seelen.’ In other pieces there were phrases and periods that she turned with apt and instant felicity; in which she gained both depth and sweep of tone – – – as in Wolf’s ‘Gesang Weylas’; once more in which she evoked passing images graphically; wrought them as well into an ever-expanding whole. The excesses and the shortcomings may stand as written, but the concert, by and large, was restoration of the art of lieder singing to a public that here or elsewhere in America may now seldom enjoy it.” H.T. P.

Her Poems as Song

We have long known that many composers set Lehmann’s poems as Lieder, but the set written by conductor/composer Robert Heger for voice and orchestra was unknown to us. Here’s the first and last page of the score and you’ll notice the date: 1944. Here’s more information about this work:

“Fünf Gesänge nach Versen von Lotte Lehmann, für mittlere Stimme und Orchester op.24″. The work was first composed in a version for medium voice and piano in 1933. This version was immediately published by Universial Edition. The orchestral version was created in 1944 and according to the autograph, finished on 31 December 1944. The work consists of five poems by Lotte Lehmann: 1. Ihr meine lieben sonnenhellen Träume, 2. Du den ich wachend nie gesehen, 3. Ich gehe mit geschlossnen Augen, 4. Die wilden Vögel meiner Sehnsucht and 5. So wie ein Schwan. The orchestral version calls for a large orchestra with harp and the work last around 18 minutes.

The world premiere of the orchestral version took place on 9 December 1951 with the Studio-Orchester Beromünster under Robert Heger and the soloist Ria Ginster (soprano). Subsequent performances followed nearly each year with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Munich in the 1950s and 1960s. It is unknown when and by whom the world premiere of the original piano version was given.

A fan has recently written to ask about the other composers who were inspired by Lehmann’s poems. Here’s the list: Wilhelm Kienzl, Paul Redl, W.G. James, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Léo Sachs, Felix Weingartner (An den Schmerz) (a song cycle dedicated to Lehmann), and Otto Klemperer: “Gebet für eine Singstimme und Klavier” September 20, 1946. In celebration of the Lehmann Centennial, Thomas Pasatieri wrote a piece for voice and piano to eight of Lehmann’s poems. He later orchestrated the work.

New Handbills

Newsreel of Lehmann

Frank Manhold, radio announcer in Munich and source for many Lehmann-related items, recorded his own TV as it showed some films from the 1930s of Lehmann with Bruno Walter, Toscanini etc. Not great sound or visuals, but a rare chance to see Lehmann in a casual mood.

Photos

Our great contact in Vienna, Herr Clausen, has sent us the contact information for the Vienna Radio magazine of Lehmann’s era. Besides offering a lot of new information about her recitals, concerts, and opera performances, there are photos that are new to us.

In Comparison

Philip Tsaras reviewed the new CD of Harriet Burns, who along with her pianist, Ian Tindale, were recent winners of the Contemporary Song Prize in the International Vocal Competition at ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Tsaras offers praise for the “sheer beauty of Burn’s voice” and writes: “Comparisons are invidious, but perhaps inevitable, and it was the same story with most of the other songs I sampled in different performances. I would like more characterisation and personality in Die Männer sind méchant and that is what we get from, for instance, Lotte Lehmann…I sampled a few more versions of one of the most well-known songs here Der Jüngling and der Quelle and it was to find that Elisabeth Schumann, Lotte Lehmann,…are all more communicative with the text and much more specific in their response to it.”

As Desdemona in Vienna

The Vienna Opera lists the various sopranos who have sung Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. Can you guess how many times Lehmann sang the role there? Between 1922 and 1936 Lehmann sang that 16 times! She also sang Desdemona in London’s Covent Garden: 4 times.

Poetry in Translation

In the February 2024 edition of The Offing magazine you can read an English translation of Lehmann’s poems from her 1923 book called Verse in Prosa. The complete poems in that book (in the original German) can be found here.

Mention in Fanfare

In the January/February 2024 issue of Fanfare magazine, Raymond Beegle has problems with the baritone Florian Boesch and writes, “…still one is not so deeply convinced, or drawn into the atmosphere of the texts, as one is when hearing Stéphane Degout sing Stille Tränen in his recent Paris recital, or Lotte Lehmann when she sang Alte Laute in New York at her final concert.” Here’s Lehmann’s Alte Laute from her Farewell Recital in Town Hall in 1951.

1936 Recital Program

• Here’s a Lehmann recital program from March 3, 1936, one of the recitals missing from the Chronology. Note that instead of Ernö Balogh, her regular pianist during this time, Richard Tetley-Kardoz, a name unknown to me, is listed as the accompanist..

Review with a Cold

• Lehmann sang many recitals at Town Hall shortly before the “Farewell” one on February 16, 1951. Here’s a review of one of them that appeared on January 29, 1951.

New Photo of Lehmann with Walter

• A new photo of Lehmann with Bruno Walter at a Salzburg Festival. The first one is the usual one we see, but now we have a chance for a second that is more appealing. What do you think?

1936 Recital Program

• Here is the cover page of one of Lehmann’s 1936 recitals.

Luba Tcheresky Passes

• One of Lehmann’s favorite students, Luba Tcheresky, passed away on December 2023 at the age of 101. First, you can hear her speak about Lehmann and then you’ll see her in the photo below. After that is the obituary.

Luba Tcheresky

April 17, 1922 – December 16, 2023

Luba passed away peacefully and gently at 9:48 AM in Calvary Hospital in the Bronx.

Luba’s mother had a chance to emigrate to America when Luba was only 4 months old and considered Luba too young to take along on such a long and arduous voyage. She would be sent for at a later date. Luba had a happy childhood being raised by a much-loved grandmother and grandfather who was related to the Romanovs, and an Uncle Vanya, on their country estate in Byelo-Russia. She was schooled in a Warsaw convent and thought she would be returning “home” in time. However, when she was 8 ½ years old she was transported, weeping and screaming, to the port of Gdansk and shipped off with a nametag pinned to her coat-destination: Detroit, Michigan. The intrepid little girl suffered a bout of chicken pox onboard and was put ashore in London to be hospitalized for 10 days before journeying on to a family she didn’t know: her mother, step-father and two older sisters.

When she was 9 her mother enrolled Luba in English classes in an elementary school and once her English improved she was double-promoted from the 5th to the 6th grade and then to the 7th. Her mother also made sure Luba studied ballet, piano and Russian dance, privately…and all Russians learned to play the mandolin! At Cass Technical High School she majored in piano but was extremely rounded in her musical studies that included theory, orchestration, violin and trumpet. The faculty auditioned singing voices to form a girls’ trio and Luba was chosen for the lead voice- and so “The Novelettes” were formed! They made their own arrangements and added guitar, string bass and accordion (Luba learned the accordion) which afforded them more jobs and interesting venues for performance.

Voice then became the major interest in Luba’s life and she began serious voice study, winning numerous local and state competitions. She graduated from Cass Tech before the age of 16 and went on to attend the Detroit Conservatory of Music and Wayne University. She added studies in French, Italian and German to the Polish and Russian she had learned at home and found time to also conduct and arrange music for a 4-part choir! All along Luba’s mother was the force and inspiration behind Luba’s efforts. Katherine Lebedev, dubbed the “primadonna” of the Russian colony in Detroit, often took Luba to her own performances with the Detroit Balalaika Orchestra, the Russian Orthodox Church and to the Russian plays in which Luba also took part. At one point Luba coached her own mother on an aria from Mazeppa that she was to sing! She particularly enjoyed singing at the many Russian concerts and balls put on by the Russian community and acting in their classic puppet theater. This experience came to great use later in New York when she was asked to sing for the White Russian Ball along with Nicolai Gedda! During this period in Detroit, a visitor from New York heard Luba sing and advised her mother to send Luba to NYC to study the bel canto method with a teacher who had just arrived from Italy. This was arranged and after a few years Luba married and moved with her artist husband, Richard Sortomme Jr., to his home in California where their two children were born.

Ms. Tcheresky accepted a scholarship with Carl Ebert, director of the Opera Department at University of Southern California. She made her operatic debut there as First Lady in Mozart’s “Magic Flute” under the baton of Alfred Wallenstein. She also sang the lead in George Antheil’s “Volpone”. At the same time she was studying voice with Major Herbert Wall (one of the last students of Jean de Reszke) and added Madama Butterfly and Elizabeth in Tannhauser to her repertoire, and was asked to sing Elizabeth at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in L.A. She was the winner of a 13-week long television singing contest. She also won the Glendale Symphony auditions singing “L’altra notte” from Boito’s ”Mefistofele” and “Dich teure Halle” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. She was chosen by Lukas Foss to sing Allan Berg’s early songs with the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony.

A woman who heard Luba with the Glendale Symphony Orchestra suggested that she sing for Lotte Lehmann who was auditioning singers for her master classes at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Luba won a 3-year scholarship and became one of Lehmann’s favorite protégés, spending much time with her and her friend, Frances Holden, at their home “Orplid”, and even being invited to vacation with them. During this time Luba had great success as Cherubino (Marriage of Figaro) and Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus) with Maurice Abravanel conducting at the Lobero Theater and Redlands Bowl. She also sang numerous recitals and oratorios throughout the west coast and the roles of Butterfly, Elizabeth in Tannhäuser, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Lisa in Pique Dame and Natasha in Dargomyzshsky’s Russalka (The Mermaid). She may well be the only soprano to have sung BOTH Mermaids: the Dargomyzshsky and later in Germany, the Dvorak.

Ms. Tcheresky placed in the Metropolitan Opera Regional Competition and was then sent to NY by the Music Academy of the West with letters of introduction for auditions and enough money to last about 3 months. Luba did not want to go to Europe at this time because she refused to leave her children at their tender ages for such an extended trip so far away. An agent who heard Luba sing in Santa Barbara was extremely interested in her and told Lehmann that if Luba would come to NY he would help get her auditions. However, he turned out to be a great disappointment -he took all her letters but did not come forth with auditions.

Money running out, she started to “temp” and also took a job singing the Russian “songs her mother taught her” at a Russian supper club whose owner had heard her in the Catskills. She began to get her own auditions and sang Santuzza (Cavalleria) with the Bronx Opera Co. and Tosca for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. George Schick of the Metropolitan wanted to hear her and praised her for having sung a “great” audition but advised going to Europe first and gaining more experience. A patron financed her audition trip and Luba got a “star” contract on her very first audition, in Düsseldorf -without an agent! She sang only two arias on stage: “Sola, perdutta, abbandonato” and “Dich, teure Halle” and the directors of the opera house immediately took her to their office and offered her the lead role in Dvorak’s “Rusalka” which was to be the last premiere they would mount to end their 11-year rein managing Düsseldorf and Duisburg and then they would be taking over management of the Zürich State Opera. They asked her at the same time to open the season for them there in the fall. Luba asked if they didn’t want to see her resume and they answered, “no, we know what we heard -we haven’t heard a voice like yours in 50 years!”. And when she mentioned that the money they were offering her wasn’t very much in American money, they offered her more, plus fare both ways from NY! And so she closed Düsseldorf as Rusalka and began her stint at the Zürich Staatsoper. She sang Donna Anna, Maddalena, Micäela there and guest appearances elsewhere.

Returning to NY because of family and personal reasons, Miss Tcheresky was engaged by Gian-Carlo Menotti to appear as Mme. Euterpova in his opera “Help, Help, the Globolinks!” at the ANTA Theater on Broadway for a month run. She had already sung his “Maria Golovin” and “The Consul”. Thomas Martin engaged her for Fanciulla del West (Minnie) and Santuzza in Cavalleria. She appeared as guest artist in the NY Library Concert Series, the American Landmark Festival Series, toured as a soloist with the American Airlines sponsored Concert Series throughout the U.S. and guest artist with various symphony orchestras.

In addition to her opera and concert career in both Europe and the U.S., Miss Tcheresky appeared in a number of Broadway musicals including “Carousel” with John Raitt, and Bernstein’s “Candide” and Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado”.

Luba shared a close personal and professional rapport with the renowned composer Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky). They met when she was a guest at one of his musical soirees in Los Angeles and he became a “fan” of her singing and a great friend. While she was studying with Lotte Lehmann in Santa Barbara, Vernon wrote (he was a great letter-writer and Luba has a scrapbook full of his letters!) that he was would be coming to hear her Cherubino. He was bringing his lyricist along and would stay the weekend -would she make hotel arrangements and get another girl so that they would have a foursome for dinners? So at the cast party after “Marriage of Figaro” Luba introduced Vernon to her friend and fellow-student Kay McCracken and soon Luba was singing at the “Marriage of Vernon” -and Kay- and as maid-of-honor, pushed Vernon up the aisle!

Later in Vernon’s visits to NY he enjoyed hearing Luba sing his “April in Paris” and other Duke favorites at some of her performing venues. Her collaborations with Vernon Duke included singing Russian translations of Broadway musicals for Radio Liberty. Vernon translated them, played the piano, narrated and even SANG the ”Pineapple Duet” (Ananas) from Cabaret with Luba -in Russian, of course!

Vernon also liked following Luba’s son’s (Richard Sortomme III) progress as a young violinist and often accompanied him on the piano during visits to their home. Years later at a ceremony inducting Vernon Duke into the Library of Congress, Richard played Vernon’s Violin Sonata and String Quartet.

Maria Callas personally selected Luba as one of 20 singers (from 500 auditioned!) to participate in her Lincoln Center (Juilliard) Master Class Series. She was later chosen to be one of the first few singers from the class to be featured on the first issue (EMI) of the classes.

Miss Tcheresky has sung under the batons of Lukas Foss, Thomas Martin, Maurice Abravanel, Alfred Wallenstein, Christopher Keene, Laszlo Halasz, Erede, Leonard Bernstein, G. Pattane, Hans Swarofsky, Nello Santi and others.

Regarded as one of the best singing teachers in NYC, Miss Tcheresky has been highly successful in building and nurturing young voices as well as devising therapeutic techniques to rebuild and maintain more mature voices.

Miss Tcheresky has two children of whom she is very proud -her daughter Freya Pruitt, a minister in the Christian faith and writer and developer of rising personalities, and her son, Richard Sortomme III, violinist and composer. She is deeply thankful to them for their love, constant encouragement, support and participation in her life and career.

Live Action

• From the April 1937 issue of Theatre Arts Monthly, this page shows Lehmann “live” during actual opera performances. Since no flash was used, the photos are blurry, but since there are so few of them, it’s still interesting to see Lehmann in action.

New Painting

• Kathy Walsh send a photo of one of Lehmann’s paintings. She writes: “The painting is signed, but you can’t see it now that we had it framed. Also, there is a note on the old mat that says ‘The Cliffs at Hope Ranch’. The woman who gave it to us was Barbara Holden. She was married to Francis’s brother Raymond Holden. Lotte gave the painting to her personally. We were very close friends with Barbara. My husband is from that area in California so he especially loves the painting and that is one of the reasons Barbara gave it to him before she died.”

Mildred Miller Passes

• We note with sadness the passing of Mildred Miller, one of Lotte Lehmann’s students. Below you can read several Miller obituaries and you may want to sample her updated Wikipedia page.

This is a photo of Lehmann with Miller in 1965 when the latter was singing a Lieder recital at Carnegie Hall.

Here is Miller speaking about Lehmann as her prospective teacher.

A Miller obituary:

Mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller has died at the age of 98. [just short of her 99th birthday]

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she attended the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and graduated from West High School in 1942. She then studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory.

She also went on to study at the Tanglewood Music Center and in 1946, made her opera debut as one of the nieces in the United States premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

She went on to perform at the New England Opera Theater and following her graduation she left for Italy where she studied for several months. In 1949 she became an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart and went on to make debuts at the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Glyndebourne Festival.

While in Germany she caught the eye of Metropolitan Opera General Manager Rudolf Bing, who offered her a contract but Miller initially rejected it due to the roles he offered. However, he returned with a better offer and Miller eventually made her Met debut in 1951. She went on to perform 338 performances with the company from 1951 to 1974. She sang a total of 21 roles and was well known for her “pants roles.” She made her Met debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” her most frequent role and one for which she holds the company record for the most performances, 67. She also sang Siébel in Gounod’s “Faust,” Nicklausse in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” Octavian in Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” and the Composer in Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos.”

Other roles included Suzuki, Lola, Rosina, and Carmen.

Outside of her Met career, the mezzo also performed at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, Kansas City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Opera Pasadena. She also sang at Carnegie Hall and at the White House and appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour, The Voice of Firestone, and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Miller also founded the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and served as Artistic Director and a vocal coach for the company. In 1999 she stepped down from her position but continued to be involved. She also taught at Carnegie Mellon and gave master classes all over the world.

This is the Metropolitan Opera’s Miller obituary: The Metropolitan Opera mourns the death of mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller, an admired and cherished artist who sang 338 performances with the company from 1951 to 1974. Her Met debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro was a first taste of what would become her most frequent role and one for which she holds the company record for the most performances (67). In all, she sang 21 roles with the Met and was particularly noted for “pants” roles which, in addition to Cherubino, included Siébel in Gounod’s Faust, Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Her broad repertory also encompassed roles such as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Lola in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and even two performances each of Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. Following her Met career, Miller continued as a major force in the opera world, founding the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and serving as teacher and mentor to generations of young singers. We extend our sincere condolences to her family, friends, and many admirers.

Early Masterclass

• Thanks to Lehmann fan Dr. Schornstein, we have an early (1947?) until-now-unknown photo of a Lehmann master class at the Music Academy of the West. It’s interesting to note Lehmann’s usual intensity and that her hair isn’t yet grey.

Wikipedia Pages Improved

• During 2023 my webmeister, Suchi Psarakos, and I have worked to correct, expand, and improve the Lotte Lehmann Wikipedia pages in English, French, and German. We’ve had the help of Blair Boone-Migura of New York and Damien Top from Paris, (for the French page) and Ulrich Peter of Aachen, Germany for the German page. Many thanks to those hard-working writer/translators. We have now worked with the Lehmann researcher, Ester González, for the Spanish page.

Lehmann on Countermelody Podcast

• Daniel Gundlach, a member of the board of the (now inactive) Lotte Lehmann Foundation, offers a regular podcast that includes a lot of vocal music. It’s called Countermelody and included the following from June 9, 2023: “Today we observe a significant event in the history of Countermelody, namely, our 200th episode! I decided that there was no better way to celebrate than to devote a full episode to the great Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976).”

Radio Interview (auf Deutsch)

• For the German speaker we have a radio interview with Lehmann recorded in January 1963 that, among other things, covers her work as a director of Der Rosenkavalier at the Met. Called “Lotte Lehmann sucht das Menschliche in der Oper” (Lotte Lehmann seeks humanity in opera).

Sharp Photos

• It’s always rewarding to discover unusual photos of Lehmann. One is familiar, a studio portrait dated 1916 of Lehmann as the Composer from Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss. The reason that I’m offering it is that it’s one of the best preserved, offering a lot of detail. The second photo is from the opposite side of Lehmann’s career in which she sang and acted as the mother of Danny Thomas, one of the characters you’ll see in the second photo that is new to me. The name of the MGM movie was Big City and the photo is from 1948.

Lohengrin Live

• David Alden, director of the San Francisco Opera’s recent production of Lohengrin, knew the opera intimately—he collects historic recordings, and has at least thirty historic recordings of Lohengrin. His favorites are the Rudolf Kempe recording, and the Metropolitan Opera live recording featuring Lauritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann conducted by Artur Bodanzky.

Last Night at Old Met

• The following photo of Lehmann shows her being led across the stage of the old “Met” (the last night of the old Metropolitan Opera) to be seated along with other luminaries of the past. The young man leading Lehmann is her friend, Ronald Mahler.

1958 Master Class

• Here’s a summary of Lehmann’s master classes at the Music Academy of the West in 1958, sent by Lois Alba.

James Standard sings Ravel’s Chanson épique from the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée set.

Grace Bumbry sings Der Tod das ist die kühle Nacht by Brahms.

Charles Buffam sings Und willst du deine Liebster sterben sehen by Wolf.

Lois Alba sings Brahms’ Feinsliebchen, du sollst mir nicht barfuß geh´n.

An unnamed baritone sings an Italian song.

Kay Griffel sings Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben and Du Ring an meinem Finger from Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben; LL: talks of not letting down just when you stop…and vowels. Demo

A tenor sings Die Mainacht by Brahms. LL: too explosive… “pipe down a little bit.”

Patricia Jennings sings Debussy’s La chevelure. LL: not sentimental; a spoken demo; “more with eyes.”

Joan Winden sings Botschaft by Brahms.

Lois Alba sings Schubert’s Im Abendrot. LL demos “vater”. After Lois is through LL gives her ideas, but they’re only suggestions. That Lois has her way with the song as well.

Bill Winden sings Verrat by Brahms. LL: “not so legato at the beginning.” Demo

Joan Winden sings Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgehn, the first of Mahler’s Kindentotenlieder. LL: “don’t start so loud”; Demo. LL: “life goes on.” “think of eternity.”

James Standard sings Ravel’s Chanson Romanesque from his set Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. LL: “too much reality,” “likable,” “enchanting for crazy exaggerations,” “more emotion,” “from fantasy to emotion.”

Kay McCracken (Duke) sings Mozart’s (really by Spies) Wiegenlied. LL: “a young frivolous mother.” Demo

New Outdoor Photos

• Here are some previously unknown photos of Lehmann outdoors. The outer two are in Salzburg.

Curtain Call

• We have very few photos of Lehmann taking curtain calls, but here’s a recently discovered one with Lehmann as Elsa in Lohengrin.

New Mature Photo

• It’s amazing how often we find never-before-encountered photos of Lotte Lehmann!

Bruno Walter Tempo

• Dr. Schornstein, who often travelled with Lehmann in her later years, recalls the following bit of interesting/historical/musical conversation concerning a performance of Fidelio with Bruno Walter: Lehmann said, “I honestly forgot the slow tempo he preferred during the finale duet (and he was furious with me). He muttered, You like it, they like it, but I don’t like it.”

Receives Mozart Medal (auf Deutsch)

• You can listen to Lehmann’s response (in German) to receiving Salzburg’s Silver Mozart Medal in 1969.

Vienna 1919 Portrait

• Here’s a Lehmann photo that we haven’t seen. It’s a studio portrait taken in 1919 when she was just making a big name for herself at the Vienna Opera.

15 Years of “Lotte Lehmann Woche” (auf Deutsch)

• The Lotte Lehmann Woche (Lotte Lehmann Week) which takes place in Perleberg, Germany (her birthplace), celebrates 15 years. Here’s an article (in German) from the local newspaper, that summarizes Lehmann’s life and tells about the vocal classes and performances.

Extra Concert

• Thanks to the research of the LAPhil’s archivist, Michelle Beacham, we have an article of May 11, 1947 from the Los Angeles Times providing the information on an unusual Lehmann concert. It was unusual because the Lieder were accompanied by an orchestra and the orchestra was not a famous one.

Current Baritone Compared

• In the July/August 2023 issue of Fanfare magazine, Raymond Beegle writes the review for a new recording by baritone Konstantin Ingenpass. The opening paragraph reads: “It is a wonderful thing when an artist with a beautiful voice, a secure technique, intelligence and depth of soul, draws the listener’s attention away from all these virtues, and becomes the very wayfarer, or lover, or holy man he sings about. The young baritone Konstantin Ingenpass has the ability to perform such alchemy…Perhaps not since Lotte Lehman (sic) have we heard this power in such abundance as on this recording.”

Army Camp 1943

• We have recently received photos from Lehmann‘s appearance on Easter Day 1943 at Camp Roberts, thanks to UCSB’s Special Collections. You can view these rare photos on this site.

Paper on LL’s Early Lieder Performances

• Marlina Deasy Hartanto submitted a paper on Lehmann called “Exploring Expressive Lied Performance: Re-enacting Lotte Lehmann’s Pre-World War II Lied Performances,” as a master project for the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague on November 9, 2021. We were able to access it at without charge at ResearchCatalogue.net on June 26, 2023. 

You can read this paper by going to https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/969662/1183012

There is no charge for accessing this work. The menu on the exposition page (or first page) appears when hovering with the mouse over the top of the page. Hovering on “content,” you will see the table of contents. Clicking on any of the items will direct you to the other pages.

Hartanto uses as examples of Lehmann‘s singing “An die Musik” and “Ich grolle Nicht” and assumes that they were recorded “acoustically” (using a horn instead of a microphone), but in each case, these were “electric” recordings, as were all of Lehmann‘s discs from 1927 on. The great advantage of a modern thesis paper is that the author can provide the very sound she wishes to analyze.

Die Frau ohne Schatten then and now

• “Standing in the shadows of love” is the title of Michael Anthonio’s June 6, 2023 review of a new San Francisco Opera production of Die Frau ohne Schatten which he puts into historical perspective and then writes: “In a way, that event probably served as one of the reasons for the lukewarm reception of the premiere in Vienna, despite the participation of two of the greatest singers of the century, Maria Jeritza and Lotte Lehmann, as the Empress and Dyer’s Wife respectively.”

Grace Bumbry Passes

• Grace Bumbry, Barrier-Shattering Opera Diva, Is Dead at 86

• Grace Bumbry Zoom guest about LL for Wagner Society

A flamboyant mezzo-soprano (who could also sing meaty soprano roles), she overcame racial prejudice to become one of opera’s first, and biggest, Black stars.

By Alex Williams

May 8, 2023

Grace Bumbry, a barrier-shattering mezzo-soprano whose vast vocal range and transcendent stage presence made her a towering figure in opera and one of its first, and biggest, Black stars, died on Sunday in Vienna. She was 86.

Her death, following a stroke in October, was confirmed in a statement by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she was long a mainstay, performing more than 200 times over two decades.

Growing up in St. Louis in an era of segregation, Ms. Bumbry came of age at a time when African American singers were a rare sight on the opera stage, despite breakthroughs by luminaries like Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson.

But with a fierce drive and an outsize charisma, Ms. Bumbry broke out internationally in 1960, at 23, when she sang Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Paris Opera.

The following year, she landed in something of a national scandal in West Germany when Wieland Wagner, a grandson of Richard Wagner, cast her as Venus, the Roman goddess of love, in a modernized version of Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” at the storied Bayreuth Festival.

She was the first Black woman to perform at the festival, cast as a character typically portrayed as a Nordic ideal in an opera written by a composer known for his antisemitism and German nationalism. The festival — and newspapers — were flooded with letters asserting that the composer would “turn in his grave.”

Ms. Bumbry was undeterred. Indeed, she was well prepared.

“Everything that I had learned from my childhood was now being tested,” she recalled in an interview with St. Louis Magazine in 2021. “Because I remember being discriminated against in the United States, so why should it be any different in Germany?”

The audience did not share such misgivings: Ms. Bumbry was showered with 30 minutes of applause. German critics were equally enchanted, christening her “the Black Venus.” The Cologne-area newspaper Kölnische Rundschau credited her with an “artistic triumph,” and Die Welt  called her a “big discovery.”

Her landmark performance helped earn her a $250,000 contract (the equivalent of more than $2.5 million now) with the impresario Sol Hurok.

It also won her another honor: a performance at the White House, in February 1962. On the advice of European friends who had seen Ms. Bumbry at Bayreuth, Jacqueline Kennedy, the first lady, invited her to sing at a state dinner attended by President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other Washington power brokers.

Suddenly, she was a star.

“If there is a more exciting new voice than Grace Bumbry’s skyrocketing over the horizon I have not heard it,” Claudia Cassidy wrote in The Chicago Tribune in a review of a recording of her arias the same year. “This is a glorious voice, by grace of the gods given its chance to be heard in its fullest beauty.”

Of her Carnegie Hall debut in November 1962, Alan Rich of The New York Times gave a qualified review, but allowed that “Miss Bumbry has a gorgeous, clear, ringing voice and a great deal of control over it.”

“She can swoop without the slightest effort from a brilliant high to a beautiful resonant chest tone,” he wrote.

Ms. Bumbry transcended not only racial perceptions but vocal categorizations as well. Originally a mezzo-soprano, she made a striking departure by taking on soprano parts, too, which gave her access to marquee roles in operas such as Richard Strauss’s “Salome” and Puccini’s “Tosca.”

“She gloried in the fact that she was able to perform both roles in Verdi’s ‘Aïda,’” Fred Plotkin wrote in a 2013 appreciation for the website for the New York public radio station WQXR. “She could be Tosca and Salome, but also Carmen and Eboli.”

Ms. Bumbry displayed a broad range in her choice of roles. In 1985, she received raves for her performance as Bess in the Metropolitan Opera’s 50th anniversary performance of George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” despite her conflicted feelings about a folk opera set among the tenements of Charleston, S.C., and rife with unflattering Black stereotypes.

“I thought it beneath me,” she said in an interview with Life magazine. “I felt I had worked far too hard, that we had come far too far to have to retrogress to 1935. My way of dealing with it was to see that it was really a piece of Americana, of American history, whether we liked it or not. Whether I sing it or not, it was still going to be there.”

Grace Melzia Bumbry was born on Jan. 4, 1937, in St. Louis, the youngest of three children of Benjamin Bumbry, a railroad freight handler, and Melzia Bumbry, a schoolteacher.

A musical prodigy as a youth, she honed her skills in the choir at St. Louis Union Memorial Church and by performing Chopin on the piano at ladies’ tea parties. At 16, she saw a performance by Ms. Anderson, who would become a mentor, and was inspired to enter a singing contest on a local radio station. She took top prize, which included a $1,000 war bond and a scholarship to the St. Louis Institute of Music. She was nonetheless denied admission because of her race.

“The reality was wounding,” Ms. Bumbry said in an interview with The Boston Globe. “But when it happened, I also thought, I’m the winner. Nothing can change that. My talent is superior.”

Embarrassed, the radio contest organizers arranged for her to appear on “Talent Scouts,” a national radio and television program hosted by Arthur Godfrey. After hearing her heart-rending performance of “O Don Fatale,” from Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” the avuncular Mr. Godfrey informed the audience, “Her name will be one of the most famous names in music one day.”

The exposure helped put her on a path to Boston University, and later, Northwestern University, where she fell under the tutelage of the German opera luminary Lotte Lehmann, who became another valuable mentor as Ms. Bumbry moved toward her debut in Paris.

As her star continued to rise over the years, Ms. Bumbry was never afraid to inhabit the prima donna role offstage as well as on, outfitting herself in Yves Saint Laurent and Oscar de la Renta and tooling around in a Lamborghini.

After marrying the tenor Erwin Jaeckel in 1963, she settled in a villa in Lugano, Switzerland. The couple divorced in 1972. Ms. Bumbry left no immediate survivors.

Beyond her prodigious vocal skills, Ms. Bumbry brought a famous sultriness to her roles, a reputation she put to good use for a 1970 performance of “Salome” at the Royal Opera House in London.

She leaked word to the press that for the racy “Dance of the Seven Veils,” she would strip off all seven veils, down to her “jewels and perfume,” as she put it — although the jewels, it turned out, were sufficient enough to serve as a “modest bikini,” as The New York Times noted.

It hardly mattered. “In the history of Covent Garden,” Ms. Bumbry said in a 1985 interview with People magazine, “they never sold so many binoculars.”

• NEW YORK (AP) — Grace Bumbry, a pioneering mezzo-soprano who became the first Black singer to perform at Germany’s Bayreuth Festival during a career of more than three decades on the world’s top stages, has died. She was 86.

Bumbry died Sunday at Evangelisches Krankenhaus, a hospital in Vienna, according to her publicist, David Lee Brewer.

She had a stroke on Oct. 20 while on a flight from Vienna to New York to attend her induction into Opera America’s Opera Hall of Fame. She was stricken with the plane 15 minutes from landing, was treated at NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens and returned to Vienna on Dec. 8. She had been in and out of facilities since, Brewer said Monday.

Bumbry was born Jan. 4, 1937, in St. Louis. Her father, Benjamin, was a railroad porter and her mother, the former Melzia Walker, a school teacher.

She sang in the choir at Ville’s Sumner High School and won a talent contest sponsored by radio station KMOX that included a scholarship to the St. Louis Institute of Music, but she was denied admission because she was Black. She sang on CBS’s “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,” then attended Boston University College of Fine Arts. and Northwestern, where she met soprano Lotte Lehmann, who became her teacher at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and a mentor.

Bumbry, known mostly as a mezzo but who also performed some soprano roles. was inspired when her mother took her to a recital of Marian Anderson, the American contralto who in 1955 became the first Black singer at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Bumbry became part of a generation of acclaimed Black opera singers that included Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, Reri Grist and Martina Arroyo.

Bumbry was among the winners of the 1958 Met National Council Auditions. She had a recital debut in Paris that same year and made her Paris Opéra debut in 1960 as Amneris in “Aida.”

The following year, she was cast by Wieland Wagner, a grandson of the composer, to sing Venus in a new production of “Tannhäuser” at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. Bumbry’s casting in a staging that included stars Wolfang Windgassen, Victoria de los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau resulted in 200 protest letters to the festival.

“I remember being discriminated against in the United States, so why should it be any different in Germany?” Bumbry told St. Louis Magazine in 2021. “I knew that I had to get up there and show them what I’m about. When we were in high school, our teachers — and my parents, of course — taught us that you are no different than anybody else. You are not better than anybody, and you are not lesser than anybody. You have to do your best all the time.”

Reviews of her Bayreuth debut on July 23, 1961, were mostly positive.

“A voice of very large size, though a little lacking in color. It is a voice that has not as yet `set,? as the teachers say,” Harold C. Schonberg wrote in The New York Times. “She is obviously a singer with a big career ahead of her.”

As a result of the attention, Bumbry was invited by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at a White House state dinner the following February. Debuts followed at Carnegie Hall in November 1962, London’s Royal Opera in 1963 and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in 1964.

She appeared at the Met on Oct. 7, 1965, as Princess Eboli in Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” the first of 216 performances with the company.

“Her assurance, self-possession, and character projection are the kind from which a substantial career can be made,” Irving Kolodin wrote in the Saturday Review.

Bumbry’s final full opera at the Met was at Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” on Nov. 3, 1986, though she did return a decade later for the James Levine 25th anniversary gala to sing “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (Softly awakes my heart)” from Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila.”

Met general manager Peter Gelb said “opera will be forever in her debt for the pioneering role she played as one of the first great African American stars. “

“Grace Bumbry was the first opera star I ever heard in person in 1967 when she was singing the role of Carmen at the Met and I was a 13-year-old sitting with my parents in Rudolf Bing’s box,” Gelb said. “Hearing and seeing her giving a tour-de-force performance made a big impression on my teenage soul and was an early influence on my decision to pursue a career in the arts, just as she influenced generations of younger singers of all ethnicities to follow in her formidable footsteps.”

In 1989, she sang in the first fully staged performance on a work at Paris’ Bastille Opéra in Berlioz’s “Les Troyens (The Trojans).” In 2009, she was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Bumbry’s 1963 marriage to Polish tenor Erwin Jaeckel ended in divorce in 1972. Bumbry was predeceased by brothers Charles and Benjamin.

Brewer said memorials are being planned for Vienna and New York.

With Colleagues Summer 1932

• Below a photo of Lehmann with opera buddies.

Lehmann in Exile

• Lotte Lehmann would be delighted to know of the University of Massachusetts Amherst PhD candidate Ester González. Originally from Spain, Ester studied classical music at the conservatory in her hometown, but was only vaguely familiar with Lehmann’s name and marvelous voice. She became interested in Lehmann later, as a PhD student in German Cultural Studies. While reading about Lehmann’s encounter with Hermann Göring in her autobiography, Ester was intrigued by Lehmann’s claim that music was international. Ester is fascinated by Lehmann’s notion of her art being different from that of her own country: “My blood is German, my whole being is rooted in the German soil. But my conception of art is different from that of my country.” [From the Postscript of the May, 1938 edition of Lehmann’s memoir, Midway in My Song.]

For her dissertation, Ester is studying the works of German/Austrian artists in U.S. exile during World War II, using five case studies in addition to Lehmann, including Kurt Weill and Stefan Zweig. She is analyzing their relation to/understanding of art and music, through a close, historically contextualized reading of selections from their works. She will then look at how music can be seen both as a national product and universal language.

Ester chose to focus on Lehmann’s novel (Orplid, mein Land, known in English as Midway in My Song) and novelette (On Heaven, Hell, and Hollywood). She was recently at UC Santa Barbara’s Special Collections Lehmann Archive, doing research for her dissertation chapter on Lehmann, and along the way she discovered some wonderful examples of Lehmann’s writing, which she shared with us for this website.

Recently Ester presented her work on Lehmann (Speaking of Music: The Transnational Writings of Lotte Lehmann Abroad) at the 2023 German Studies Association Conference in Houston, Texas. She wrote: “This is my first time talking about Lotte Lehmann and I am still learning about her, which so far has been a fascinating adventure. I hope to do her justice, as I really respect her work.”

Ester expects to defend her dissertation within the next 2–3 years. She hopes to eventually adapt its chapter on Lehmann to present at a future conference.

Lehmann’s Dichterliebe

• In the recent issue of VAN magazine you’ll find:

A “Dichterliebe” All-Stars Playlist

One poet’s love across 80 years of recordings

by Jeffrey Arlo Brown

April 26, 2023

Lotte Lehmann and Bruno Walter: “Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne” (1954) [really 1941]

Lotte Lehmann’s agile operatic soprano works surprisingly well in “Dichterliebe,” especially in the contracting rhyme structure of this movement. Her slightly breathless phrasing in this song shades Heine’s text with exactly the right hysteria: The narrator’s obsession with their lover has made enjoyment of life’s other pleasures impossible.

Newly Spotted Photo

• An unusual photo taken of Lehmann, probably at her home in Santa Barbara around 1940-50.

Photo with a Story

• Mike on Reddit posted the following with the photo of Lehmann that you’ll find below.

My Grandfather Earl was an orchid grower and cymbidium expert. He hybridized many orchids and became rather famous in his own right for helping bring cymbidiums to the Santa Barbara area.

Lotte Lehmann was a famous German opera singer who befriended my grandfather. He hybridized an orchid for her which he named after her. These (unfortunately) cut flowers are from that plant. Pretty cool family history!

Early Sighted Photo

• You’ll find a very early photo (hand colored) of Lehmann below that we haven’t encountered before.

Gown Misfunction

• The photo below shows Lehmann at the 1955 re-opening of the Vienna Opera with two of her colleagues from the past. She’s busy adjusting a gown malfunction while one of the men is obviously interested.

MGM Test Pressings

• We have just added Lehmann’s MGM test pressings for two of her songs in the movie Big City.

Unknown Photos

• Below you’ll find two Lehmann photos never before encountered by this fan. The man is Bernhard Paumgartner, 1887–1971, an Austrian conductor, composer, writer, and musicologist. This was the occasion of Lehmann being awarded the Silver Medal of Salzburg.

LAPhil Programs

• Below you’ll see that we have recently acquired programs for Lehmann’s appearances at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition, you’ll find Lehmann’s image as the cover photo for Musical America.

Klemperer Dedication

• Lehmann inspired the dedication of many works by composers including Wilhelm Kienzl, Paul Redl, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Robert Heger (Fünf Gesänge nach Versen von Lotte Lehmann, Op. 24), Léo Sachs, Felix Weingartner (An den Schmerz) (a song cycle dedicated to Lehmann), and we just today March 9, 2023 discovered: Otto Klemperer: “Gebet für eine Singstimme und Klavier” September 20, 1946. The songs were written to Lehmann poetry.

Last Recital in Vienna

• Below you’ll see an historic photo of Lehmann on the recital stage with Bruno Walter on October 1, 1937. This was to be the last time Lehmann would sing in Europe. The next spring Hitler’s troupes marched into Vienna and annexed the whole country. Lehmann returned for the reopening of the Vienna Opera house in 1955, but had already stopped singing.

Photo with Fan

• Here’s a Lehmann photo that we haven’t encountered previously. The flapper-age dress didn’t flatter any woman!

Newly Unearthed Poem

• We’ve found a Lehmann poem new to our eyes; the translation is mine.

December 3, 1932

Schubert’s Ständchen

• You can now hear how Lehmann performed Schubert’s Ständchen (Leise flehen…) from 1927–1950.

Christopher Nupen Passes

• We note with sadness the passing of Christopher Nupen, famed classical music film director, who wrote the Foreword for Volume 1 of our series Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy. 

Up-dating Wikipedia

• Thanks to our webmeister Suchi Psarakos, we have updated and upgraded Lehmann’s Wikipedia article. Note the information on her time at the Hamburg Opera, as well as a list of Lehmann’s most famous students.

Reviews with Sound

• New on this site: Reviews of Lehmann‘s Lieder recordings along with the actual recording. For example: Alan Blyth writes about “Ständchen” by Strauss: Lotte Lehmann in her 1941 record (Odyssey BRG 72073) – I haven’t heard her earlier version – transposes down a semitone. She follows most of the injunctions in her book (More than Singing), enjoying the ”Sweet secrecy” of the poem and its “Glowing desire”, but doesn’t quite fulfill what she so rightly describes as “its stealthily gliding quality”, using rather too much tone for its pp start, but the relishing of the text is more pointed than in any other performance, particularly “die Nacht”, also the sensuality of “von uns’ren Küssen träumend”. As always, one falls in love with this singer all over again.

Met Debut Review

• The “Parterre Box” celebrated the January 11, 1934 night that Lehmann made her Metropolitan Opera debut in what was called “the ideal Sieglinde” in Wagner’s Die Walküre with the review written by Leonard Liebling for the New York American:

Previously known here as a finished exponent of German Lieder in recital, Lotte Lehmann made her local operatic debut last evening at the Metropolitan as Sieglinde in “Die Walkuere.” Mme. Lehmann is no newcomer to the lyric stage, for at the Vienna Opera she has long been one of the adornments in Wagnerian and lesser soprano roles. Other European theatres and the late Chicago Civic Opera Company also are acquainted with Mme. Lehmann’s striking gifts in the realm of costumed song.

To tell the story of her achievement last night is to report a complete triumph of a kind rarely won from an audience at a Wagnerian occasion. The delighted auditors vented their feelings in a whirlwind of applause and a massed chorus of cheers. At the end of the first act Mme. Lehmann had half a dozen individual recalls and on every side one heard excited and rapturous comment. The stir made by the artist was in every way justified. Of statuesque figure and attractive features, Mme. Lehmann appealed to the eye as irresistibly as she wooed the ear. She has a full, rich voice, brilliant in the upper range and sensuously tinted in the middle register. It is a lyric-dramatic organ, ideal for the role of Sieglinde, and gives forth power as easily as it sounds the gentler accents.

More expressive, emotional, lovely singing has not been heard from any soprano at the Metropolitan for many a season, and, better still, Mme. Lehmann is musical and stylistic in the highest degree. A true Wagnerian artist whom the most diligent fault-finder would be estopped from faulting. In her acting, Mme. Lehmann interprets the impulsive, romanticist rather than the scheming woman who coldly plots the sleeping potion for her husband. Lissome, clinging, impassioned, here was the ideal Sieglinde to inflame Siegmund and sweep him to heroic deeds.

Quilt Dedication

• Susan and David Kuehn (David was president of the Music Academy of the West from 1993-2004) sent me a beautiful hand-crocheted table cloth with satin medallions in the corners all devoted to Lotte Lehmann’s career in opera and art song. The first one bears the inscription: Sang und Seele im deutschen Lied (Song and Soul in German song). If you look closely there’s actually notes that are from Schubert’s An die Musik (To Music). Below the lyre and laurel leaves is the name Lotte Lehmann. 

Going around the corner medalians we find Brahms. Of course Lehmann sang many Brahms Lieder.

The next medalian features the name of Robert Schumann, whose Lieder were also among Lehmann favorites. 

This is not meant to imply that Lehmann neglected the Lieder of Schubert, whose name may be found in the next corner. 

After that we can view the famous Lehmann roles such as Elisabeth (from Wagner’s Tannhäuser). Around that name other Lehmann operas are stitched into the fabric: Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier (in which Lehmann was the first to sing all three soprano roles: Sophie, Octavian, Marschallin); Mignon, by Ambroise Thomas, in which Lehmann sang the title role; Werther (for which the seamstress wrote Werthers Lotte, because in that Massenet opera, Lehmann sang the lead whose name was Lotte; search further and you’ll find Tosca, the Puccini opera for which Lehmann also sang the title role.

The following role is Eva from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. Around this role you’ll find Marschallin (from Der Rosenkavalier) Lehmann’s most famous role; Arabella, the Strauss opera for which Lehmann sang the eponimous role in the Vienna premier; Beethoven’s Fidelio, in which Lehmann sang the title role; Margarete from Gounod’s Faust; and Agathe from Weber’s Der Freischütz.

We now move to a partially destroyed portion of this table cloth. There’s a bit of a harp and a portion of Lehmann’s name. This has been re-sewn into the whole. The one formerly unmentioned Lehmann role  sewn here is that of Tatjana that we more often read as Tatyana or Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin.

The next panel is R. Strauss surrounded with flowers and laurel leaves. Lehmann sang in many Strauss operas: in the original Ariadne auf Naxos, she sang Echo. In the world premiere of the re-written version, she sang the Composer. Already mentioned were the three soprano roles of Der Rosenkavalier. In the world premier of Die Frau ohne Schatten Lehmann sang the Dyer’s Wife (also known as Die Färberin). In 1924 she premiered the role of Christine in Intermezzo. And finally, as noted above she sang Arabella in the opera of that name.

Here is the full table cloth laid out. If you know anything of its provinence or history, please let us know.

Two Fanfare Referrances

• Lotte Lehmann’s name appears in the November/December issue of Fanfare magazine. In the Classical Hall of Fame section Raymond Beegle writes positively about baritone Jochen Kupfer’s recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and writes “His genius as an actor outdistances every other recorded performance with the exception, perhaps, of Lotte Lehmann’s.  

• In the Fanfare magazine for September/October 2022 Henry Fogel writes about a Bruno Walter CD set from Immortal Performances recordings: “The two interviews of Lotte Lehmann recounting what Walter meant to her as a teacher are particularly illuminating.” In that same issue and reviewing the same set, Ken Melzer writes: “The final disc offers a broadcast memorial tribute to Walter by Neville Cardus, as well as interviews with soprano Lotte Lehmann…All of the interviewees have compelling personalities, and are gratifyingly forthcoming….” In a review of a recent release of Wagner’s Die Walküre Act I conducted by Christian Thielemann, Huntley Dent writes, “….Making comparisons with earlier recordings, one can draw a straight line heading downward from the classic Bruno Walter account with the Vienna Philharmonic (1935) to today. An age that saw Lotte Lehmann and Lauritz Melchior in the lead roles seems almost mythical to us now…”

Lehmann Ring Awarded

• The soprano Camilla Nylund has received the “Lotte Lehmann Memorial Ring”. The award was presented to her by the director of the Vienna State Opera, Bogdan Roscic, and the President of the Soloists’ Association of the State Opera, Hans Peter Kammerer, the house announced on Thursday. The ceremony took place on the open stage after the performance of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos on Wednesday evening – with Nylund in the title role. “Rings are the oldest sign of connection,” said the Finnish singer. “There can be no nicer recognition than a ring as a token of friendship from colleagues. Hopefully I can give them back the joy they gave me with it.” Nylund has “conquered the dramatic subject in an impressive way through the consistent, sensitive development of her genuinely lyrical voice, without losing the great qualities of her bright, soft sound,” said the soloists’ association. State Opera Director Roscic called Nylund “a worthy successor to the legendary previous holders of the Lotte-Lehmann-Ring”. The Association of Soloists of the Vienna State Opera donated the memorial ring in 1955 to honor the great services of the soprano Lotte Lehmann, who, as one of the outstanding artists in operatic history, had contributed to the fame of the Vienna State Opera between the two world wars. Lehmann herself was the recipient of the award until her death in August 1976. Three years later, the Soloists’ Association handed over the ring – in accordance with Lehmann’s request – to Leonie Rysanek, who in turn appointed Hildegard Behrens as her successor. After Behrens’ death in 2009, the Soloists’ Association decided to give the memorial ring to Waltraud Meier, who, according to the new statutes, wore the ring for ten years.

Five Recently Discovered Photos

• Some Lehmann photos that we haven’t seen before have just arrived.

Judy Sutcliffe on Lehmann

• We’ve discovered a long article Judy Sutcliffe wrote on Holden, Glass, and the impression that Lehmann‘s singing made on her (Judy). Sutcliffe on Holden et al.

Australian Connection

• We just received a letter with attachments from Australia with a wonderful Lehmann connection made in 1937.

Dear Gary,

I thought you might be interested in another small episode in the amazing life of Lotte Lehmann to add to your archive.

In 1937 Lotte travelled to Australia with her accompanist Paul Ulanowsky and performed at the Sydney Town Hall (see attached page from the concert program). A man named Charles ‘Oscar’ Rembert was a patron of the classical music scene in Sydney at the time and entertained Lotte when she was visiting Sydney. He clearly made an impression as you can see from these small dedications from Lotte.

Oscar lived in a cottage in the small Blue Mountains town of Wentworth Falls with his younger brother Edward ‘Harry’ Rembert. Oscar had served in the first world war as a gunner, was a bachelor and died in 1958. As the brothers had no close relatives, when Harry died in 1966 they bequeathed their home to my grandmother and her sons (including my father). The Remberts’ had a large collection of 78 classical records including a few of Lotte Lehmann’s recordings. The attached photo and poem were left in the home with all their possessions and unfortunately I don’t have any more information about Lotte Lehmann’s time in Sydney, but I thought you would find it intriguing and I wondered if perhaps Lotte may have spoken with you about her visit to Australia. [Mme Lehmann kept a diary/notebook of her Australian tour and that is available (only in German) on this site.]

Kind regards,

Murray Webber

Reading Rilke

• We have often been asked to offer the reading that Lehmann recorded of Rilke’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Coronets Christophe Rilke, and we have found it in iBook Volume 7 (German Interviews). Lehmann’s dramatic reading is powerful and engrossing. Here’s a link to the massive poem (in German).

Met Fees in 1935

• Recent research reveals the payments (per opera performance) that Lehmann received at the Metropolitan Opera. You’ll see other well-known singers of the time, and the amounts they were paid. Remember that this was shortly after the Depression. Also, the dollar in 1935 is worth about $22 as of 2022.

1935: Lehmann: $700

Rethberg: $900

Pons: $1000

Flagstad: $550

Melchior: $900

from 1936-on (the data is a little confusing), Lehmann was paid $750 ($16,500).

Dichterliebe Analyzed

• Daniele Palma has written a 10 page work called: “The fine art of lieder singer: Lotte Lehmann recordings of Schumann’s Dichterliebe.” It includes graphs and other technical information on performance techniques, as well as comparisons with other singers. Though written for the University of Florence, the paper is in English.

Marilyn Horne on Lehmann

• Jay Nordlinger recently interviewed Marilyn Horne for the National Review, and the subject of Lehmann was discussed. He writes that “Marilyn attended USC, where she was taught by Lotte Lehmann, among others.” Not true. Lehmann never taught at USC, but while Horne was there she attended Lehmann’s master classes at CalTech. He goes on to write “The budding singer also studied with Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West, in Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara [where Horne lives now]….Wanting to know more about Lehmann, I ask, ‘Did she enjoy teaching?’ Horne reflects on this for a moment. Then she says, ‘You know, my sense of it is that she enjoyed being in front of an audience. And out of it came the teaching.’ Lehmann was a real performer, and why not? In any event, ‘I learned a helluva lot from her,’ says Horne.’ Later in the article Nordlinger writes in reference to Christa Ludwig’s fondness for the songs of Hugo Wolf, “Horne sang a lot of Wolf, too. Lehmann stressed Wolf, and Horne learned from Lehmann.”

iBooks Converted

• The Apple iBooks Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are now available on this site.

Poem Discovered

• The following is Lehmann’s typewritten version of her “Dreiklang” followed by Judy Sutcliffe’s English translation.

Another Poem

• Here’s a discovery of a Lehmann poem that I hadn’t seen before. An English translation by Beaumont Glass follows.

Vergessen gibt,

Ich glaube, eines Engels Hand,

Denn abgewandt

Sind wir von dem was einst gewesen.

Genesen von vielen Menschenleben

Müssen, im Aufwärtsstreben,

Auf’s Neu’ und Aberneue wir ersteh’n,

Bis wir verweh’n

In jenem Morgenrot,

Das golden in mein Fenster loht —

Im Wind — in Meereswogen —

Im Sternenstrahl — im Regenbogen —

Im Lächeln Gottes, das du leuchten siehst,

Wenn Abendgold im Meer zerfliesst.

Perhaps it is an angel’s hand

That grants oblivion;

For we are turned aside

From what has been before.

Though healed from many human lives,

We must be born, and ever born again,

Until we fade away

Into that golden dawn

That now is glowing through my window,

One with the wind — the waves —

The starlight — and the rainbow —

One with the smile of God,

That lights the sky

When golden sunsets melt into the sea.

Betty Hanson Passes

• Bette (also Betty) Hanson, a Minnesotan trained to be an opera singer, found her life role in the tumultuous theater of civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama. She died on May 2, 2022 at the age of 95. Bette had lived in Washington, DC, for over 20 years before moving to her son’s home on Lake Anna at the outset of the pandemic.

Born Beverly Jane Johnson on August 10, 1926, Bette was raised in Duluth, Minnesota and played viola with the Duluth Symphony while still a student. She also studied voice and in 1944 went to the University of Iowa on a music scholarship. There she met her future husband, Roger W. Hanson of Rake, Iowa, who was then in medical school. After their marriage in 1948, they moved to Los Angeles, where Roger completed his Ph.D. in pharmacology and zoology at UCLA. Bette studied opera on scholarship at the music academy in Santa Barbara of the celebrated German soprano Lotte Lehmann.

After Roger was recruited in 1953 to the new University of Alabama in Birmingham to help build what would become one of the country’s foremost medical centers, he and Bette found themselves among a cohort of “outside agitators” defying the racial status quo in what Martin Luther King Jr. would call the most segregated city in America. As members of the state’s only functioning biracial organization, these white liberals acted on their conscience at a time when ignoring the color line brought them warnings from Ku Klux Klansmen under the escort of the Birmingham police.

Bette built an independent career playing viola for the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and taking starring roles in civic productions ranging from Madam Butterfly to Annie Get Your Gun. It was when she was given her own local television and radio shows that she found fame and at times notoriety as the media personality “Bette Lee.” She turned the “women’s affairs” beat away from fashion and food and into a platform of serious news, covering legalized abortion in Scandinavia, a Planned Parenthood bus clinic serving rural counties, and Japanese-American relations post-Hiroshima. Bette even did a broadcast in flight from an Air Force jet and, to cover the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, moved into a fallout shelter at the state fairgrounds with her mother.

Roger had grown accustomed to death threats, but when an anonymous phone caller told him, “We know which way your children walk home from school,” he took a research job with USAID in Indonesia to get his wife, son and daughter out of town. Following the CIA-backed coup against the government there, the family returned to Birmingham in 1965, and Bette resumed her challenging career in local journalism, as a fulltime news reporter, public radio news director and producer of documentaries, including one on Birmingham that won an award at the 1979 International Film & Television Festival in New York.

After retiring, Bette and Roger moved to Washington to be near their children and families. Roger died in 2002.

Vienna Recital 1929

A “Lehmann” Voice?

• In a 15 May 2022 review of Arabella by Strauss, performed at the Zurich Opera, the critic (rml) wrote:  The problem is that “tonal glamour” is a requirement for Arabella, and I was curious of how she would fare in a Lotte Lehmann role. Well, it seems I’ll still have to discover, since she was replaced in the last minute by Jacquelyn Wagner. I am not sure that Ms. Wagner has a Lotte Lehmann voice either –

Two Lehmann References

• In the May/June 2022 issue of Fanfare, Raymond Beegle reviews a recent release of mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozená singing songs including some Lieder of Brahms. He writes: …“‘My soul has the wings of a nightingale,’ she sings, but does one really believe her? When the words come from the lips of Lotte Lehmann or Christa Ludwig, there is no need to even ask the question. Of course, we believe. But how is it that the same intervals, the same vowels and consonants, rhythms, and tempos of these two past singers, tell us something that Magdalena Kozená does not, cannot tell us? What is it that these earlier singers have that she does not have? This listener guesses that it is wonder, and consequently, sincerity, that goes missing in this singer’s presentation of notes, so adroitly, so carefully cobbled together….”

In the same issue of Fanfare, Beegle is the critic of a recording of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben sung by Alta Marie Boover. Beegle writes: “…When one thinks of the earlier recordings of Theresa Berganza and Lotte Lehmann, one finds Schumann’s Frau diminished and caricaturized here….”

Hand-written Notes on Die schöne Müllerin

• Though missing its first page and the ending, here’s a recent discovery, in Lehmann’s handwriting, of her thoughts on Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin.

Intermezzo by Strauss

• In a May 2, 2022 review of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Boston Musical Intelligencer, Nicolas Sterner writes in connection with the orchestra’s performances of Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo by Richard Strauss. Of the opera, he writes: “The work is semi-autobiographical in nature, written during a turbulent patch with Strauss’s notoriously high-strung soprano wife, Pauline; when fellow Straussian soprano Lotte Lehmann, who premiered the role of Christine, congratulated Pauline on the ‘marvelous present to you from your husband,’ Pauline retorted, characteristically, ‘I don’t give a damn’…”

Lotte Lehmann-Style

• Joseph So wrote in a podcast of April 21, 2022: “For music lovers of a certain age, yours truly included, the classical song recital of yore was typically a rather formal affair steeped in the historical tradition. The singer, conservatively attired in evening wear, stands in front of the curved tail of the concert grand, hands clasped, delivering the songs Lotte Lehmann-style, with sincerity and beauty of tone, but with little fanfare other than the appropriate expressiveness.…”

One Page Auto-Bio

What she said to her students

• In the March/April 2022 issue of Fanfare magazine: “…Roderick Williams is a polished singer with a pleasant voice. However, it is overly sweet, overly sentimental, overly ‘sensitive.’ One feels he is trying to convince the listener of his sincerity. ‘I don’t believe you!’ Lotte Lehmann used to say to her students.”

Recital Program Bucharest 1931

Tribute Pamphlet

• Ulric De Vaere (poet, author, born in 1932) wrote a Lotte Lehmann tribute pamphlet in 1971.

TIME ad 1950

Judith Beckmann Passes

• On February 19, 2022, Lehmann student and soprano Judith Beckmann died at the age of 86.

The American-German soprano was born on May 10, 1935 in Jamestown, North Dakota into a musical family. She received her musical education at the University of Southern California and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, studying under her father and Lotte Lehmann.

In 1961, she won a singing contest in San Francisco and was awarded a scholarship to study with Henny Wolff at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and with Franziska Martienssen-Lohmann in Düsseldorf.

In 1962, she made her debut at the National Theater of Braunschweig, in the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. That debut led her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 1964 Beckmann became a member at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. In 1966 she made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera and in 1967 became a member of the company where she would become one of the most revered singers of her time. With the company, she sang 381 performances in 27 roles and in 1975 she was appointed a Hamburg Kammersängerin. Her final performance with the company came in 1989.

She appeared with the Vienna State Opera in 1969 and in 1986 portrayed the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. This was not her first appearance in that role, for which, after years away from the Music Academy of the West, she returned to Santa Barbara for coaching with Mme Lehmann. In 1988 she appeared as Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Theater Dortmund.

Following her performance career she taught.

Her husband, Irving Beckmann, was a pianist and conductor, who predeceased her.

She is survived by her daughter, conductor, Catherine Rückwardt.

Marschallin Live

Flagstad on Lehmann

• From the November/December 2021 Fanfare magazine: “Faulkner raises the not unlikely possibility that the Norwegian soprano [Kirsten Flagstad] was infuriated at an April 1937 article promoting Lotte Lehmann‘s return to New York, calling her ‘prima donna at the Met.’…It was Lehmann’s publicist who had placed the article, [not verified] and she was also Melchior’s publicist, causing Flagstad to argue with him about it. She retaliated by pressuring the Met’s general manager, Edward Johnson, to hire two additional Heldentenors, Carl Hartmann and Eyvind Laholm, neither of whom was even close to Melchior’s equal. Flagstad also disapproved of the specificity of Lehmann’s acting; when the two met backstage, Flagstad apparently told Lehmann that she did things on stage which only a married woman should do with her husband in the privacy of their bedroom….” –Henry Fogel

Bio & Drawing 1933

Trapp Story

From The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp, 1949

On a memorable day in August, 1936, we were sitting together once more behind the screen of pines in our park. It was late in the afternoon, a Saturday. Everybody had stopped working and changed into Sunday clothes. Together we had said the rosary, a ritual which began our Sunday. During the week we had been working on the motet, “Jesu meine Freude” by Bach. Now we sang the movements already memorized, the different verses of the chorale and that wonderful fugue. And then we sang over and over again our newest favorite of which we were especially proud because it was in English: “The Silver Swan” by Orlando Gibbons. 

All of a sudden we were interrupted by a strange clapping of hands. A little bewildered, a little embarrassed, we went around the pine screen and met –who could describe our amazement? –the one whom we had so far admired from afar as Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, or as Fidelio–none other than the great Lotte Lehmann.

She had heard that we had let our house in previous summers and wanted to inquire about renting it; and now, just by chance, she had heard us sing, hidden behind the pines. Right there and then she proved how really great she was, for only the great ones can appreciate the achievements of others. With what enthusiasm, her beautiful eyes glowing with warmth, she talked about our “art,” which made us blush and want to kiss her.

“O, children, children,” she exclaimed over and over again; “you must not keep that for yourselves. That precious gift. You must give concerts. You have to share this with the people. You have to go out into the world; you have to go to America!”

Her genuine enthusiasm swept us off our feet. Not that we believed it. Even the poor boy in the fair tale must have a hard time to believe it when he is suddenly told he is a prince.

“Don’t forget,” our illustrious guest continued, “you simply have gold in your throats!”

But the mere thought of having to step on a stage was so frightening that the gold –hidden in the depths of our throats anyhow –was no temptation at all.

“Tomorrow is the festival for group singing. You have to take part in that contest. You simply have to!” She coaxed earnestly and fervently.

Pale with anticipated stage fright, we insisted: “Nnnno…nnnnever!”

My husband was aghast. He loved our music, he adored our singing; but to see his family on a stage –that was simply beyond the comprehension of an Imperial Austrian Navy offer and Baron.

“Madam, that is absolutely out of the question,” he said and meant it.

“Oh, not at all,” Lotte Lehmann said with a twinkle in her eyes. Finally, believe it or not, she had us all convinced. She herself placed a telephone call, which, at this late hour entered us in the contest.

After Lotte Lehmann had left with renewed expressions of her enthusiasm and best wishes for good luck for tomorrow, we woke up. What had we done?

[Of course they won the next day…]

Final Marschallin

Fanfare Favorite

• Fanfare magazine’s Want List 2021 offers their readership the magazine’s critics’ four favorites of the year. Once again, the iBook series Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy was selected. I write “once again” because the first volume of the now nine volume document, was chosen in 2016. Here are the words of David Cutler, one of Fanfare magazine’s reviewers: “These new iBooks on German soprano Lotte Lehmann, from expert Gary Hickling, are a very attractive proposition indeed. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the wealth of material here, covering all aspects of Lehmann’s long life and career. The format is fresh, new, and inventive in covering the career of such an historical singer. What is wonderful is being able to click on the various examples of songs, masterclasses, or performances at the press of a finger! You can hear her as you read!”

Karan Armstrong Passes

• Lotte Lehmann student Karan Armstrong, born in 1941, passed away on 28 September 2021. Born in Havre, Montana, she first studied at Concordia College, later studying with Mme Lehmann. She made her debut in 1965 in San Francisco as Musetta. In 1966 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and soon appeared in smaller roles at the Met. She sang major roles at the New York City Opera until 1974 when she first appeared in Europe, including at La Fenice, Bayreuth, and Deutsche Oper Berlin, where for almost four decades she sang in over 400 evenings in 24 different roles. You can hear her sing with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig in 1988 with Kurt Mazur conducting “Träume” from Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

William Cochran Passes

• William Cochran, one of Lehmann’s students, passed away on 16 January 2022. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Cochran studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Marital Singher and at the Music Academy of the West, with Lehmann. A winner of the Lauritz Melchior Heldentenor Foundation Award, he made his debut at the Met in 1968, in 1969 with San Francisco, and Covent Garden in 1974. He was a member of the Oper Frankfurt for years, and appeared at the Bavarian State Opera multiple times. Other companies include Hamburg, Vienna, etc. You can hear him singing in his :”Fach” (as Heldentenor) in this live recording from Act I of Die Walküre with Eileen Farrell, soprano.

Final CBS Program

• In 2021 I emailed many friends the following: “It was exactly 80 years ago that Lotte Lehmann’s radio program was cancelled after the Pearl Harbor attack etc. Since we’d declared war on Germany, Lehmann became an enemy alien and CBS could hardly broadcast her any more. They allowed her to finish with her Christmas program and one of the selections she chose was the following”:

Here are some of the responses I received: 

I join Lotte Lehmann and Paul Ulanowsky in wishing you a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Thank you for the LL song and the fascinating background story. Unbelievable, that this happened 80 years ago. It must have been a difficult situation for Lotte Lehmann as a German in the US, when the war began.

How wonderful this recording is! Thanks so much for sending it. And the little tale about canceling her show etc. I’m not sure we’ve moved much beyond that…and maybe gone way backward…since then. 

..thanks for the `Es ist ein Ros entsprungen` wunderbar gesungen von Madame Lehmann

What a lovely song. I figured out that she was 53 then, and her voice sounds very much like it did on the recordings I have of her. Thank you so much for sending it. It’s a perfect time of the year to hear such a song from such a great artist. 

A familiar hymn to me. And a performance with a historical link between Lotte Lehmann and Pearl Harbor.

I just listened to this lovely rendition. I hope that Rose can Bloom again for this troubled world.

Thank you for the lovely Lehmann greeting!  

Thank you for this gem from Lehmann. I am going to save it and play it on Christmas day as a special gift from you.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful music!  It definitely puts me in the holiday spirit…

Thank you for the wonderful performance by Lotte.  Thanks to you we honor her work and her achievements.

The first time that a Christmas Carol has stirred me as much as that.

I have listened to Ms. Lehmann’s song several times, as Eric and I snuggle in our cozy Minnesota bed.  It brings a tear to my eye, to think of that radio program 80 years ago and the heartbreak that followed. 

Thank you. That takes me back to a quiet and more sincere celebration of Christmas, in contrast to the big commercial thing it has become nowadays. 

Thank you so much for this beautiful and very old song. Yes, this is one we always sing at Christmas time.

Lotte Lehmann’s singing was exceptional in the recording! You don’t hear many singers with that range and warmth nowadays.

What a touching holiday treat to hear Lotte Lehmann singing one of my favorite Christmas songs with all the deeply felt emotions she had to be feeling.

A lovely song and a beautiful rendition.

 So beautiful with her warm and rich mature voice.

Absolutely perfect. Now it is Christmas!

Boy, she comes about as close to “The Voice of Humanity” as one can get, doesn’t she? It’s probably the best thing I’ll hear this Christmastime.

Now that is a Christmas card! So beautiful.

Her voice is so pure, so lovely——and yet there is a hint of sadness in “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” that I’ve never quite noticed elsewhere, when people sing that song.  Now I know why.  It must have been very difficult to be a German living in the United States at that time.

This is one of my preferred Christmas-Songs. Very often I don’t like the interpretations of those songs by opera singers, but Lehmann is simply overwhelming. She was not a young woman when this song was recorded, but what wonderful voice, what moving interpretation; simply, ideal to transmit the emotion of this Weihnachtslied.

First and Last Love Pages

• Recently added: Lehmann-related pages from Vincent Sheean’s First and Last Love

Glass’ Up-dated Lehmann Bio

• Over a decade ago, the late Beaumont Glass, who wrote the biography Lotte Lehmann: A Life in Opera & Song, decided to update the book and reinstate material that had been edited out to allow the book to be less than 350 pages. You may now read that entire book (including the published sections and additions).

Photos from Wings of Song

• Photos from the London publication of Lehmann’s autobiography Wings of Song have been added.

Hollywood Bowl 1948

Bad Review: Tosca

“Live” Ungeduld from Die schöne Müllerin

• A recently discovered radio broadcast of Lehmann singing Schubert’s  “Ungeduld” from Die schöne Müllerin with orchestra accompaniment.

Photos Arrive

• Many thanks to you researchers for sending in these unusual Lehmann photos

• Recently encountered Lehmann ephemera

Documents Page Improved

• The Documents page has been re-organized so that you can easily find the material you seek. Many additions have been made: unusual or rarely encountered live recordings and test pressings; technical recording matters; letters Mme Lehmann sent to me.

Misc. Added Pages

• Many new additions that refer to Lehmann’s recordings: Odeon catalog pages that include Lehmann (1924-1934); Lehmann Recording Worksheets from the 1940s; Available Records; Test Pressings; CD Index: to help you find the particular song or aria on CD; Transfer Engineers’ Tasks.

Beneath the Southern Cross

• We now offer Lehmann’s Australian Diary Beneath the Southern Cross in her own typing with suggested alterations (available in the original German) as well as in English.

Misc. Documents

• Here is an assemblage of original documents about Lehmann: Book Review of Lehmann’s Eighteen Song Cycles; Excerpt from Ewen’s Men and Women Who Make Music; New York Times1943 Review of Lehmann’s Schumann at Town Hall; Risë Stevens’ Lehmann recollections; Critic Max de Schauensee’s Liner Notes for LL record; Program of 1929 French recital; Review (in French) of above recital; German translation of the above review; Short appraisals of LL by her contemporaries; From Lehmann Centennial: Notes on the Winterreise presentation; Music Academy of the West first page with faculty listing etc.; Playbill for 1919 Frau ohne Schatten performance; A short LL poem (in German) signed by Lehmann; Cleveland Program from 1937-1938 season; Opera News Lehmann obituary written by Walter Legge.

Of Heaven, Hell and Hollywood

• You can read all 162 pages of Lehmann’s satirical fantasy Of Heaven, Hell and Hollywood. Her art work, drawn and painted for this novelette can be viewed in the PDF from  Volume 7 of the iBooks, Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy.

Lehmann in the Original Ariadne

• We have discovered the program for Lehmann’s short excursion out from the Hamburg Opera to make her Berlin Opera debut. Here are the details: 15 May 1913 Berlin debut: Ariadne auf Naxos (before being re-written); LL: Echo/First Sängerin; Hafgren-Maag, Ariadne; Sommer, Baccus; Andrejewa Skilong, Zerbinetta; Mr. Geisendörfer, Komponist (at this point performed by a male voice, this being the first version of the opera: a play and an opera); Dr. Besl, cond., Berlin Staatsoper (Schauspielhaus).

Janet Baker on Lehmann

•.In the late 1950s Janet Baker sang in one of Lehmann’s Wigmore Hall master classes. At the beginning of this interview she discusses her unhappiness with the way Lehmann taught.

Conversations with Lehmann

•.We can offer a recent discovery: Sylvia Dreyfus wrote an article called “Notes on Singing: Conversations with Lotte Lehmann.”

South American Tour 1922

•.Our Vienna friend and researcher, Peter Clausen, has sent a wonderful photo of the singers and the captain of the ship, that took them on their South American tour in 1922. You can find Lotte Lehmann: she is marked with the number 7, standing at the top of the group, just below number 6. In case you have difficulty reading the German script: 1. Is the conductor of the German contingent, Felix Weingartner; 2. His wife; 3. The Captain; 4. Kirchhoff; 5. Schipper; 6. Braun; 7. LL; 8. Bandler; 9. Wildbrunn; 10. Dr. Kaifer; 11. Bedjtein; 12. Hirn; 13. Mertens; 14. Herr Wildbrunn (husband of the soprano Helene Wildbrunn); 15. Impresario Schraml. Following that photo are two halves of an article about the trip that Herr Clausen has written out in German. I have tried my best to translate those words.

Herr Clausen has also helped with researching two Vienna culture magazines that offered many photos of Lehmann. You can see a condensed version of what we’ve worked on.

In den lang entschwundenen Zeiten, da es uns gut ging, durften wir unsere Kunst noch als eine Luxussache betrachten. Heute ist sie ein wichtiger Exportartikel, eine der groszen Moeglichkeiten unseres Wirtschaftslebens geworden. Unter solchem Gesichtspunkte will auch die Tournee betrachtet werden, die ein Ensemble erstklassiger Wiener Kuenstler unter der Leitung des Direktors Felix Weingartner in Suedamerika unternimmt.

Die Gesellschaft, der auch Frau Weingartner, Fraeulein Lehmann, Herr Bandler, Dr. Kaiser und andere angehoeren, hat die Ueberfahrt an Bord des “Tomaro di Savoia” gemacht und wird unter anderem in Valparaiso und Rio de Janeiro gastieren. Es ist bekannt, daß sich diesem Gastspiel anfaenglich große Schwierigkeiten in den Weg stellten. Direktor Weingartner hat aber drueben einen sehr guten Namen und man darf mit Sicherheit annehmen, daß es ihm und seiner Schar gelingen wird, der öesterreichischen Kunst in Suedamerika neue Freunde zu gewinnen.

In long ago times when we were doing well, we were still allowed to regard our art as a luxury thing. Today it has become an important export item, one of the great opportunities in our economic life. The tour undertaken by an ensemble of first-class Viennese artists under the direction of director Felix Weingartner to South America should also be viewed from this point of view.
 
The company, which also includes Mrs. Weingartner, Miss Lehmann, Mr. Bandler, Dr. Kaiser and others, made the crossing on board the “Tomaro di Savoia” and will be visiting Valparaiso and Rio de Janeiro, among other places. It is known that this guest performance initially met with great difficulties. But director Weingartner has a very good reputation over there and one can assume with certainty that he and his group will succeed in making new friends for Austrian art in South America.

Bumbry Meets Lehmann

• In a recent (2021) interview video, Grace Bumbry tells of meeting and studying with Lotte Lehmann.

Fanfare Reviews of 9 Lehmann iBooks

• Fanfare magazine has reviewed all nine volumes of my Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy in Apple Books. You can read their reviews (there are three).

Wagner Society with Lehmann

• I was honored to be asked by the Wagner Society of London to present two webinars: Lotte Lehmann as Wagner Singer, and Lotte Lehmann as Wagner Teacher. With the Society’s permission, here are the video and audio recordings of the two events: April 9 and 16, 2021. Click here for the video and audio versions of the webinars.

Judy Sutcliffe Passes

• Judy Sutcliffe died 3 March 2021. Judy was born in 1941. She had suffered a return of cancer. Judy was a stalwart supporter of the efforts to preserve Lotte Lehmann’s legacy. 

Here’s the one sentence obituary I contributed to her Santa Barbara one: Beginning with her participation on the board of the UCSB Lotte Lehmann Centennial Festival, Judy was a consistent advocate for Lehmann’s legacy, whether in editing the Beaumont Glass biography of the soprano, writing newsletters for the Lotte Lehmann League which she founded, traveling to Europe to uncover historic Lehmann documents, or providing her lifetime accumulation of such material to relevant institutions. 

Judy and I first met during 1987 as so much of the world was preparing for the Lotte Lehmann centennial of 1988. Beaumont Glass and his wife had moved into Lehmann’s Santa Barbara home and with Frances Holden, her companion, he was writing the authorized Lehmann biography. We were invited to meet at Orplid, Lehmann’s home, to work together on the centennial. The dedicated members included Holden; Glass, who’d worked with LL at the Music Academy of the West; Joe Boissé, University Librarian; Dan Jacobson, Teaching Associate at UCSB, and at that meeting as Coordinator of the Centennial Festival; Christian Brun, head of UCSB’s Special Collections which housed the Lotte Lehmann Archive; as well as Judy, who was editing Glass’ LL bio; and me, beginning to write the LL discography that would end up in the bio. 

Judy secured Capra Press in Santa Barbara to publish the Lehmann biography. Glass had access to LL’s letters as well as her archive’s memorabilia. The book was to contain many photos, and of course, my discography. Roger Levenson joined Judy in the editing of the bio. –GH

Here’s what Judy wrote in the lead article of the first Lotte Lehmann League newsletter:

As we enter the second Lehmann century…

Let’s build on the momentum generated worldwide in 1988 to reach more young singers and listeners, your friends and your students, with the art, the teaching and the life of Lotte Lehmann.

Some say you had to see her on stage to know the real artist, that recordings alone are a shadow of her vital presence. That may be true for those lucky enough to have experienced her magic. But many of us–including we who create this Lehmann journal–were born too late for that privilege.

It is through recordings, books and the vivid memories of those who saw her on stage that we know her. For us, that is an enormous quantity of inspired musical art to absorb over a lifetime. She made nearly 500 commercial recordings and there are hundreds of tapes of her master classes and radio interviews.

If anyone thinks the magic died when she did in 1976– here’s an example of the power she still possesses today, electronically expressed. Gary Hickling, Lehmann’s discographer, double-bass player/teacher and art song disk jockey in Hawaii, tells of a truck driver friend of his who had heard him talking off and on the past year or two about “this Lehmann person”. He finally asked Hickling if he could hear what her voice sounded like. Hickling gave him a tape of his Hawaii Public Radio Lehmann Centennial Program aired in February 1988. The man called back later to say that he had listened to the tape in tears, her voice “just got to me.”

Lehmann’s art communicates. It did during her lifetime; it still does. We want more people in this world to hear her voice, to be touched by her art and to learn from her example.

Gary Hickling and I are starting this Lehmann League Newsletter because we feel that in her recorded and written art, Lehmann is still alive and has much to say to us all. Right now, it’s just the two of us, with one computer in Santa Barbara, the other in Kailua, and a mailing list of people who have indicated either a mad passion or at least a passing interest in Lotte Lehmann.

We’re not attempting to be a nonprofit corporation, at least not yet, because of the fuss-and-bother bookwork. And we’re not asking for subscriptions (yet!) because the list is relatively small and we plan to produce this little journal inexpensively and just pay for it ourselves as an offering on the altar of art.

We are independent of the Lehmann Archives at the University of California in Santa Barbara, but we work closely with them, and you will read some news on Archive developments in this issue. We hope you will share with our readers your views, your memories, your research, your Lehmann letters. Keep in touch through the Lehmann League with other Lehmanniacs. Send us addresses of interested people. Write to us. We’d like to hear from you.

–Judy Sutcliffe

From that same first newsletter Spring 1989:

Looking for Lehmann

Judy Sutcliffe and Gary Hickling will be traveling in Germany and Austria May 15-31, looking for material for the Lehmann Archives.

“It is an exciting prospect to try to find in Europe Lehmann-related items to enhance the already prestigious collection at UCSB,” says Gary Hickling, Lehmann discographer. “There may be radio, master class and interview material which the Archives does not have. We will also be seeking copies of the many Lehmann Centennial tributes aired on German and Austrian radio and TV last year.

“We also want to have a look at recording archives and radio vaults in the slim chance that there might be original metal masters that were never released, as well as acetates, wire or tape recordings and rare 78 rpms.

“We’ll also be looking for non-aural Lehmann items.” says Hickling. “Photos and negatives, letters, programs, reviews and other articles will all be useful in preserving the Lehmann legacy.”

Lotte Lehmann League Newsletter Summer 1989 Volume 1, number 2

From the phone booths of Vienna to the marble stairs of Munich

by Judy Sutcliffe

A critical period of our May 15-31 Lehmann trip to Europe was spent in stuffy phone booths in Munich, Frankfurt and Vienna. These are special booths one finds at post offices, from which one can make numerous calls, paying for them all at the end. Gary Hickling tied those phone lines in knots, making connections with people he had formerly only written to, chasing down one tip after another, finding the sought-for person “on vacation”, checking home phone numbers or talking with other people in the same department, on and on, one referral leading to another, all of this almost impossible to have done from the US.

We went to see as many people as we could, so when we were not in phone booths we were running to catch street cars or trains or we were running up stairs. The stairs were always marble and the person we were scheduled to see always seemed to have an office three stories up. Gary galloped the stairs two steps at a time, and I jogged after him, feeling like a short-legged dachshund only able to take one step at a time.

Our first day in Vienna we went up and down the stairs to the third-floor Austrian Radio Archive at least seven times, always at a dead run. (Yes, there are elevators, but why wait when you can run?) In between, through streetcar windows we caught glimpses of cascading lilacs and chestnut “candles” in Munich, enjoyed the Vienna inner city full of people spooning Italian ices while lounging about in the pedestrian malls, and we smiled at the green expanse of hills and forests we saw from train windows as we journeyed from city to city.

Everyone we met was extremely helpful very interested in the UCSB Lehmann Archives, and more than willing to give us their cooperation and suggestions.

Gary and I are both 48 and many of the older people we talked with expressed pleasure that a younger generation who had never heard Lehmann on stage could be crazy about their beloved Lehmann. We, too, were pleased to find along the way a number of Lehmann enthusiasts who are younger than we are. Our intentions, of course, are to assist in bringing the voice of Lehmann to the ears and hearts of generations yet unborn. Tapes, records, writers, TV, radio and record producers and announcers, vocal music teachers and the supporting archives are the means to do this. Interconnections need to be woven, so that enthusiasm can be shared with more people.

What did we come back with in our carry-on luggage? Little note-books full of scrawled names, addresses, phone numbers, two large open reels of German language interviews of Lehmann, a cassette containing short interviews from the Austrian Radio Archive, several rare 78rpm records, a charming autographed note, an interview on tape with Horst Wahl (Lehmann’s recording technician from 1925–35), a phone interview with Martha Mödl about Lehmann, and copies of two of the four new Lehmann CDs we found in record scores.

And not in our baggage but forthcoming: 150 photos of Lehmann from Salzburg and Vienna archives; more taped interviews and off-the-air performances; archival materials from the Theater Collection of the University of Hamburg and from the Hamburg Opera Archives; tapes from the German Radio Archives; a second filmed interview by Werner Baecker; The Leo Slezak Centennial Celebration tape with Lehmann; a missing BBC interview; better copies of rare live performances; invitations to join ISIA and Friends of the Vienna State Opera; Lehmann data from Korngold expert Berndt Rachold and from the Richard Strauss Institute in Munich; private films of Lehmann; two filmed interviews, TV memorials and celebrations from Austrian Television and suggestions about two out-of-print books about the Vienna of Lehmann’s time by Otto Strasset and Hugo Burghauser. We ordered a recent book on the history of the Salzburg Festival and bought another detailing the history of the Hamburg Opera. Both books include generous sections on Lehmann. Great numbers of photos, critical comment, theater announcements, programs and letters await further research in Vienna and Hamburg.

Among the people whom we met and talked with (and whom we deeply thank) include: VIENNA: Marcel Prawy of the Vienna Opera, who has produced many TV and radio programs and articles relating to Lehmann; Robert Werba, Austrian Radio producer, author and Lehmann record collector; Gottfried Cervenka, record collector, producer and distributor who ordered Lehmann Centennial Albums for his Da Caruso record shop across from the Opera; Erwin Heidrich, retired bookstore owner, a Lehmann enthusiast who has donated several rare items to the Lehmann Archives; Hertha Schuch, collector and friend of Lehmann since the ’30’s who provided many important names for our research; Dr. Robert Kittler, head of Photo Archive of the Theater Collection of the National Library; Dr. Rainer Hubert, director of the Austrian Phonotek; Herr Neuwirt, most helpful at Austrian Radio. FREIBURG: Horst Wahl, recording technician at Odeon in the early days. MUNICH: Frank Manhold, classical radio announcer/producer at Bavarian Radio; Dr. Hejak, Archivist of the Bavarian State Opeta; Jürgen Grundheber, sound archivist, record producer/distributor; Andreas Dürrwanger, young lawyer/researcher; Walter Schwarz, Munich Philharmonic percussionist/researcher; Kevork Matouchian, sound archivist/dealer. FRANKFURT: Mechthilde Brüning and Anke Bingman at German Radio Archives. BY TELEPHONE: Berndt Wessling, author of Mehr als eine Sängerin; who has many letters and interviews of Lehmann which he is sending; Hans Landgraf of EMI Records who is sending a tape of the out-of-print LP of Lehmann which he produced; Otto Preiser of Preiser Records, who provided the name of an American distributor of his Lebendige Vergangenheit series; Jürgen Schmidt of Preiser Records, who gave us much valuable information; Fr. Cordes, Archivist of the Hamburg Opera, who is sending printed matter on Lehmann; Peter Aistleitner, record collector, Toscanini expert and researcher, who told us of relevant Lehmann people; Gunther Walter, editor of the magazine Stimmen die um die Welt gingen, who is sending Lehmann material such as copies of letters and contracts, and Christopher Norton-Welsh, record collector and vocal expert living in Vienna, who has promised us help in our on-going Vienna projects.

Did we miss anything? Yes, we missed a rendezvous with music critic Alfred Frankenstein, who arrived in Vienna two days after we left, which we much regret. He had written two delightful letters to us after receiving the first LLL newsletter, and we had hoped to meet. But you will hear more about him later. We were not able to interview as many artists as we wished, but some have expressed interest to do this on their own and send us the tapes. We plan to contact: Otto Edelmann, Eric Werba, Hans Weigel, Sena Jurinac, Hermann Prey, Jörg Demus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Söderström, Regine Crespin, Christa Ludwig, Birgit Nilsson, Judy Beckman, Dalton Baldwin, Erna Berger, Joseph Witt. We tried without success to contact André Tubeuf in Strasbourg, France. He wrote to us just prior to our trip and was most anxious to provide information or material from his vast collection of Lehmann recordings and letters.

As we finished our work in Vienna towards the end of our trip, Michael Schuch took us to lunch at Kahlenburg, overlooking the city, and then dropped me off at the railroad depot café with all our baggage and a large plate of cakes to wait for the train to Munich which would leave in two hours. Michael meanwhile went home and Gary took off to Da Caruso near the Opera to pick up an amazing list of Lehmann live recordings. From there he ran to Austrian Radio for a second meeting with Robert Werba, trying to get everything discussed in 10 minutes, then he grabbed a taxi back to the station. Michael Schuch meanwhile had come back to the train station to check on me and the diminished plate of cakes. It was 15 minutes to departure time. I told Michael not to worry, Gary would arrive at the last minute. So he waved goodby.

When Gary loped in a few minutes later he said he’d been running up the stairs to the café when he heard clapping. He looked up and there stood Michael Schuch applauding the long distance runner.

Lotte Lehmann League Newsletter Fall 1989 Volume 1, number 3

Lehmann Centennial in Vienna

by Judy Sutcliffe

In the summer of 1987 I heard that there was to be a special performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna Opera on Lotte Lehmann’s 100th birthday, February 27, 1988, followed by a lecture the next day by Marcel Prawy, of the Opera. I decided to go. Eric Hvolbøll, a young Santa Barbara lawyer, volunteered to accompany me. His mother, Elizabeth Hvolbøll, is a local singer who studied at the Music Academy during Lehmann times.

In Vienna we contacted Hertha Schuch, one of Lehmann’s friends and admirers from the Golden Days before the war. The three of us sat in box seats for the Rosenkavalier performance, Eric and I much awed at the whole spectacle. During intermission we admired and photographed the extensive display of Lehmann photographs, programs, paintings and memorabilia that Marcel Prawy had assembled for this Lehmann weekend.

The opera was opulently performed. Hertha remarked afterward, however, with a sigh, “Lotte wasn’t there.” Those whose memories hold her indelible image are rarely satisfied with today’s substitutes.

But Lotte was there the next day, and I was mightily surprised and overwhelmed. There was to be a lecture by Prawy. Somehow, I expected a small academic room somewhere in the opera building, and a lot of elderly people and some empty seats, it having been 50 years since Lehmann was on that stage. (I had walked into a classical record shop in Santa Barbara one day, asked the clerk if he had the new EMI CD of Lotte Lehmann, and he said, “Who? Oh, I always wondered who that concert hall was named for.”) With that small expectation, I walked into the Vienna Opera itself, to box seats arranged by Hertha, and we looked out and up at a full house, thronged with people, 2,000 or more, all ages. There was a lively bustling of voices across the hall, I thought I spotted Grace Bumbry in one of the box seats.

Marcel Prawy came on stage at 2 p.m. and lectured–talked extemporaneously, I should say, with humor and vivacity–about Lehmann for two and a half hours. His comments were interspersed with tape recordings of Lehmann’s voice. I don’t know much about sound systems and hall acoustics, but I was thoroughly shaken by the resonance of her voice as it soared, clear and vibrant, filling that opera house with its magnificence. Tears, welled up in my eyes, and I could hear sniffles in the handkerchiefs across the house every time her voice rang out.

During his lecture, Prawy invited several colleagues to talk. He asked Egon Seefehlner, a past director of the Vienna Opera, to describe the indescribable, Lehmann’s voice. Seefehlner said simply that it was the only one that could make him weep.

We who are left with the legacy of her records, tend to listen to them in small living rooms, being careful not to disturb the neighbors with too much volume. There was a dimensional difference to hearing her recorded voice in the Vienna Opera, and I can only wonder at what the added dimension of her living fibre did to those who were born early enough, on the right side of the Atlantic, to hear. But I understood why all those people were there, weeping.

Seefehlner, if my understanding of German was anywhere accurate, said that he had first heard Lehmann sing when he was fourteen, and then many times after until the war. He met her again during the 1955 reopening of the Vienna Opera, the first time she returned after 1937.

He then said that his next meeting with Lehmann was in 1976 when he sat in his office at the Opera, staring in disbelief at a small bronze box on his desk labeled Lotte Lehmann. “All that was left of that glorious voice and presence was a mere handful of sand,” he said. The urn of ashes had been sent from Santa Barbara for a memorial service on the marble steps of the Opera entryway, the old section which had survived the war. Her remains were buried in a place of honor in the Vienna cemetery.

As a special tribute to Lehmann, Grace Bumbry, her most famous student, came down to the stage to talk with Prawy about Lehmann’s influence as a teacher of lieder and opera interpretation. Miss Bumbry sang “Auf dem Kirchhofe”, by Brahms, twice to demonstrate the dramatic and emotional difference in presentation that she had learned from Lehmann.

After the lecture, we walked through the snow back to Hertha Schuch’s apartment, and, as if we had not had quite enough, we watched with her a half hour TV presentation on Lehmann by Marcel Prawy. This, by the way, capped a week that contained four radio programs on Lehmann as well.

The love, honor and respect I saw showered upon the memory of Lehmann in Vienna last year made me smile at this comment in a letter we received from Dr. Herman Schornstein: “On one of my jaunts to Bad Gastein with Lehmann in the late 60’s, we journeyed by car across Austria to spend part of the time in Schruns. We stopped, without any prior planning, in Innsbruck for lunch. Within minutes some Austrian youth came up with a postcard of LL to sign! So I imagine they did something special for her 100th”

• Gary Hickling offered two Lotte Lehmann Webinars for the Wagner Society in April. The first one features Lehmann’s operatic performances of Wagner (9 April 2021) and the second one demonstrates Lehmann as a teacher of Wagner performance (16 April 2021). There are many recordings of Lehmann teaching Wagner in master classes and not just to sopranos. To experience this Zoom Webinar, you must either join the Society or pay for the event. Use the link in the first sentence to make the arrangement you want. The events are given at 6:30pm (London time), so you need to figure what time that means for your zone.

PDF of LL iBooks

• There’s a PDF version of Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy at Lehmann Documents. Note that it doesn’t offer audio or video. We now offer in html all of these iBooks here with audio and video in tact:

Beethoven Centennial 1927 Egmont

• Herr Peter Clausen of Vienna has once again added to our knowledge of Lehmann’s Chronology. In the following announcement, it includes Lehmann, not in an opera or recital, but singing in a staged performance of Goethe’s Egmont with Beethoven’s music in celebration of the 100th year since the composer’s death. You’ll find her name at the bottom as performing “Klärchen-Lieder” with Felix Weingartner conducting.

Live Winterreise?

• A Detective Story: Searching for Lehmann Live

A young Frenchman living in Lyon has spent years searching for the fabled Lotte Lehmann Winterreise broadcast of one of Lehmann’s last Town Hall recitals of 1951. Christophe Pizzutti’s quest was rewarded when he uncovered a wire recording, (yes, when a tape recording wasn’t available wire was used) that purported to be of this very broadcast.  After considerable time, M. Pizzutti was able to procure this rare recording which could have been lost or destroyed without his intervention. He has been able to verify that the reel of wire that he received was indeed of the historic concert. M. Pizzutti writes: “the original media was fragile and unstable (wire recording is something of a nightmare, if the wire broke during the process, the sound is irreversibly lost).” In the end, it seems to be in excellent sound and almost complete. There may be some cuts due to the radio’s time limitations. A dedicated and sincere Lehmann fan, M. Pizzutti considers this culmination of his epic quest to be “one of the most beautiful” of his life. 

The result of M. Pizzutti’s research has unearthed the only known live performance of Lehmann’s ground breaking Winterreise. She was the first female to attempt the Schubert cycle and, although many women have since then performed and recorded it, Lehmann’s venture was in her time deemed an affront to the wishes of Schubert and the poet, Müller. But even during World War II both RCA and Columbia regarded her Winterreise undertaking worth recording (in excerpts).

What will happen with this rare document? Some enterprising recording engineer, transfer specialist, or other techie will definitely want to work on the fragile wire copy of this Lehmann masterpiece and make it available to Lehmann fans.

Here are some of the reactions to excerpts from this find: “All your patience and good efforts have borne fruit. You must be thrilled. It’s a wonderful accomplishment. And with excellent sound too!” “My heart beats so much on the last verse of ‘Gute Nacht.’ So human. ‘Der Wegweiser’ is also impressive. It’s as if Lehmann is sharing something very secret and important to her.” “For me, one of the most beautiful moments in the history of sound recording.” “A musical and human great discovery.” “The quality of sound was a marvelous surprise. I never imagined that wire could have such a great sound.”

Franz Schalk Memorial

• Franz Schalk was one of the most important conductors in pre-World War II Vienna. From 1918 to 1929 he was director of the Vienna State Opera, a post he held jointly with Richard Strauss from 1919 to 1924. He was later involved in the establishment of the Salzburg Festival. During Lehmann’s most important years in Vienna Schalk was her mentor and almost a father figure. She was the chosen soloist in his Memorial Service. The rare program of this event was uncovered by Peter Clausen who sent the original to me. I share this antique, important memorial thanks to him.

Fidelio 1931

• Many thanks to Peter Clausen in Vienna for the rare treasure of the opera announcements that include Lehmann.

Die Meistersinger 1921

Die Walküre 1921

Many New Photos

• We have transferred many Lehmann photos from Volume 8 of the iBook series Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy. A sample of one of these photos below.

Review of Marston Lehmann Box

• Here is a personal review of Marston’s latest Lehmann box by Henning Bert-Biel, a German who has lived most of his life in France.

I had time enough to listen to all the 6 CDs of the Lehmann-Box that is really a miracle. The presentation is extraordinary. Good articles and a lot of wonderful photographs, with many detailed explanations. One can’t give a better homage to Lehmann.

This wonderful soprano will be forever in the memory of humanity. It is important to edit CDs like that because our époque easily forgets great things.

I know well the records of Lehmann. When I compare the first discs to the records of 1927-33, I dare say that I love them all. The first group gives all the splendor of a unique voice, the second gives the maturity of a voice with an intelligence of musical expression and pronunciation. The timbre of Lehmann is unique. I like her especially in the German roles (Agathe, Rezia, Elisabeth, Elsa, Eva, Marschallin, Ariadne, Arabella). But that doesn’t mean that the other sides of her repertoire don’t please me. Her Rosalinde is great. Technically Schwarzkopf or Güden are perhaps a little bit more adapted to the great aria of Rosalinde, but none has this natural charm and sensuality of Lehmann. The Italian roles are wonderful. It is regrettable that she didn’t record them in Italian. I was every time astonished that Lehmann didn’t sing more Verdi. I imagine Lehmann as a wonderful Amelia (Ballo in Maschera).

The records of Lieder are sensational. I prefer it when they are accompanied only by piano, but even with the little orchestras Lehmann manages to give an outstanding interpretation. The two Christmas-Songs were for me a  revelation. Very often opera singers don’t manage very well to sing those Weihnachtslieder. Lehmann is unbelievable. She sings the songs with simplicity and reveals all the charm, all the magic of those melodies. It sends me back to my childhood and I had a great emotion. It is one of the great marks of Lehmann –this simplicity which in fact is not simplicity. There is no sophistication like Schwarzkopf, but it touches me more. (In spite of that Schwarzkopf is with Grümmer one of my darlings).

The Marschallin of Lehmann is a miracle. She is a woman who knows love, who is sensual and at the same time sensible, ironic, with a good heart and a good sense of reality. Her monolog from the first act is the best interpretation I know.

For me there is another role I cherish about all: Sieglinde. The records of acts 1 and 2 with Walter are monuments. Often I dream that –without Hitler and the Third Reich– they would have been a complete record of Die Walküre with my dream-cast: Lehmann, Melchior, Schorr, List, Leisner (or Branzell) and my beloved Frida Leider.

There are yet so many things to say: The “Wiegenlied” of Strauss, “Der Nussbaum” of Schuhmann, and, and, and…. It’s a pity that “Der Erlkönig” should have sung so quickly (even like this– Lehmann managed it well)…

The songs of her era are interpreted with a lot of charm. I understand that people loved those records. Unterhaltungsmusik (light music) is very difficult to interpret. Many singers do too much; Lehmann or Tauber do just what is necessary for those songs.

I could speak hours and hours about Lehmann and for sure I will read once more her autobiography and the other books I own:  My Many Lives and More than Singing.  The book by Wessling is interesting, but I prefer the other books. [Wessling’s books on Lehmann are filled with errors.]

Gary, you have accomplished a great thing. All my congratulations!!! If there is a life after the dead (I don’t believe it) Lehmann will be happy about this wonderful edition. 

Listening through the Lens by Christopher Nupen

• Christopher Nupen, best known for his many videos of classical musicians at work has written a book: Listening Through the Lens. Its longest chapter is all about meeting Lotte Lehmann in 1955 as a 19 year old. It was she who influenced him in the direction of the arts when he was still a young man. The book is available at Amazon. Please let us know how you like it and we’ll publish your review.

Dalton Baldwin Passes

 • Dalton Baldwin, one of Lehmann’s greatest fans and an important pianist in the art song world, died in December 2019. He and Souzay coached with Lehmann at her home in Santa Barbara. Below, the New York Times obituary.

Dalton Baldwin, an Eminence Among Accompanists, Dies at 87

Often described as an equal partner to the singers he performed with, he preferred to be called simply a pianist.

By Anthony Tommasini Published Dec. 24, 2019 Updated Dec. 26, 2019

Dalton Baldwin, an American pianist and recording artist who was acclaimed for nearly six decades as a recital accompanist to major singers, including Elly Ameling, Jessye Norman and especially the French baritone Gérard Souzay, died on Dec. 12 in Kunming, in the Yunnan Province of China. He was 87.

His death, a week before his 88th birthday, was announced by Ben Turman, the vice consul of the United States Consulate in Chengdu. Mr. Baldwin had recently completed three weeks of performances and coaching sessions with students in Japan and was returning from a short trip to Myanmar to visit Buddhist temples when he collapsed on a flight to Tokyo. The plane made an emergency landing in Kunming, where he was taken to a hospital and died.

He had performed on five continents and made more than 100 recordings over his career.

Although Mr. Baldwin was an eminence among accompanists, he was not fond of that word. Like many of his colleagues, he preferred to be called simply a pianist.

Critics affirmed that he was no mere accompanist. While consistently praising the refinement, sensitivity and technical command of his playing, they routinely described him as an equal partner to the singers he performed with.

In a review of a 1978 recital by Ms. Ameling at Alice Tully Hall, John Rockwell of The New York Times wrote that Mr. Baldwin “was worthy of a review all his own.” This was “piano playing of a lyrical and dramatic sympathy and a rhythmic energy that superbly partnered the singer,” Mr. Rockwell concluded.

Writing about a 1968 recording of songs by Francis Poulenc, featuring Mr. Souzay and Mr. Baldwin, the Times critic Allen Hughes observed that “the two performers work together so superbly that their interpretations are almost inseparable into individual elements.”

Mr. Baldwin was 22 when he met and first worked with Mr. Souzay, who was 13 years older and already an admired interpreter of song. Their professional relationship grew into a personal one, though they remained discreet about it; they built a home together in Antibes, on the Riviera, where Mr. Souzay died in 2004 at 85.

The important singers with whom Mr. Baldwin partnered on concert tours inevitably attracted more attention than he did, as he wryly noted in a 1983 interview with The Times. Speaking of a recital at the Salzburg Festival with Ms. Ameling, Mr. Baldwin said that his name was as large as hers on the poster, which gave him “a good feeling” — though, he added, “of course, I didn’t get anything like her fee.”

“Accompanists are underrated in every respect — financially, acclaim,” he said. Once, he said, a critic even referred to him in a review as someone else: Gerald Moore, the distinguished British accompanist.

In another Times article, from 1996, Mr. Baldwin was quoted as explaining that being an accompanist required not just musical talent but also a flair for ad hoc psychiatry, because “singers are such vulnerable people.” Mr. Baldwin clearly handled this element of the relationship sensitively; some of the major singers of his era were tenaciously loyal to him.

Dalton Baldwin was born on Dec. 19, 1931, in Summit, N.J., to Dalton Graf Baldwin, who worked in the insurance business, and Helen (Cahill) Baldwin. He is survived by a sister, Martha Baldwin Nelson. Another sister, Anne Baldwin Kurtosi, died before him.

Mr. Baldwin was drawn to music early. As a high school student, he attended a recital in Morristown, N.J., by the great English contralto Kathleen Ferrier that proved pivotal.

“You know immediately when a singer has a personal message,” he said in the 1996 interview. Ferrier “had lovely rosy cheeks and an enchanting way, and there again was a message, introducing me to the world of song.”

After studying at the Juilliard School, he attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he received a bachelor of music degree. In Paris he studied with the renowned pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, began his association with Mr. Souzay and was coached by several composers, including Poulenc and Frank Martin.

Mr. Baldwin is best known for his performances and recordings of French art songs. His extensive discography includes the complete songs of Poulenc, Debussy, Faure and Ravel. He also won high praise for his performances of Schubert and Schumann. And he introduced a number of new works, including, with Mr. Souzay, the 1969 premiere in Washington of Ned Rorem’s “War Scenes,” a cycle of five songs with texts from Walt Whitman’s “Specimen Days,” dedicated by the composer to “those who died in Vietnam, both sides.”

The illustrious singers he worked with also included Marilyn Horne, Nicolai Gedda, Jennie Tourel, Frederica von Stade and José van Dam. He began his long association with Ms. Ameling in 1970 and, a few years later, began working with Jessye Norman (who died in September).

Mr. Baldwin was a teacher and coach to young pianists and singers and regularly gave master classes at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the national conservatories of Paris and Madrid, a summer academy in Nice and elsewhere. In recent years he taught at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., and had a home near the campus.

Though he also performed with leading instrumentalists like the violinist Henryk Szeryng and the cellist Pierre Fournier, Mr. Baldwin said he liked working with singers best.

“I worship the human voice,” he said in 1996. “There’s nothing like singing; it’s a romance when you share the music and the poem. The voice is God’s instrument. I want them to enjoy music making. That’s what it should be about: la joie.”

Carnegie Hall with Bruno Walter 1933

Mentioned in Fanfare Review

• In the November/December 2019 issue of Fanfare magazine Raymond Beegle reviews a new art song CD of baritone Stéphane Degout and makes several complimentary references to Lehmann. “Like Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Lotte Lehmann, this French baritone found in the songs he chose to sing both words and music that were already in his heart, and that he seems ineluctably compelled to express.…” [Beegle refers to the fact that this is a live recording which adds to its intensity. He then writes:] “It brings to mind Lehmann’s last recital [actually there were a handful that followed], and though Degout is far from the end of his career, his artistry is undeniably equal to hers.…[T]he artists seem to say, ‘Here I am, why shouldn’t I tell you the truth?’ and in each case, the audience members, unified by what was given them, falls into rapt silence, as well they should. What they were hearing were performances of a lifetime.…[Toward the end of the article Beegle expresses his negative reaction to the sound engineering of Degout’s performance, writing…] that makes it considerably less satisfactory than the sound of Lehmann’s 1951 recording.”

New Posters

• Some new opera posters have arrived. Note the famous co-stars.

Queen’s Hall Recital 1930

• Thanks to Michael Hardy we now can view Lotte Lehmann’s recital program from her Queen’s Hall appearance of 25February 1930.

New Marston Set

• This final section of the Lehmann Queen’s Hall program serves as a perfect transition to the new (2019) 6 CD set of Lehmann’s Odeon electric recordings made from 1927–1933 and available now from Marston Records.

Greenberg on Lehmann

• Robert Greenberg posted the following nice article remembering the anniversary of Lehmann’s death:

“She had only to walk on stage to reduce the audience to a melting blob”

On August 26, 1976 – 43 years ago today – the German-born soprano, opera star, lieder singer, movie actress, internationally renowned teacher, music historian and author, published poet, painter and illustrator Lotte Lehmann died in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 88.

In 2004 and 2005, I had the honor of speaking at The Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California, just east of Santa Barbara. The Academy, which was founded in 1947, is one of the great summer music conservatories and festivals in the world. It is also among the most beautiful music facilities anywhere. Perched on over ten acres of beachfront property in the beyond-toney enclave of Montecito, the Academy occupies the former site of the Santa Barbara Country Club. (For our information, along with The Music Academy of the West, other residents of Montecito include Drew Barrymore, Patrick Stewart, Rob Lowe, Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges, Gwynwth Paltrow, and Kirk Douglas. The median price for a house there is a cool four million dollars. Heaven knows how much those ten-plus acres on which the Music Academy sits are now worth!)

My presentations at the Academy took place in the main concert hall, a 300-seat theater called Hahn Hall, and the post-lecture receptions were held in a magnificent, Mediterranean Revival-styled room called Lehmann Hall. I inquired as to the name of the room and was told that it was named for one of the principal founders of the music academy, the soprano Lotte Lehmann. My brain preceded to short-circuit in a manner unusual then but rather more often today, and I responded on the lines of, “Wow. A performance space named for Rosa Klebb!” (“Rosa Klebb” was the SPECTRE agent in the second James Bond film From Russia With Love, a Soviet bloc harridan who killed her victims with a poisoned blade that would emerge from the toe of her right shoe. She was played by the Vienna-born Tony Award-winning singer and actress Lotte Lenya. Lenya rose to fame playing Jenny in the original Berlin production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, with music composed by her husband, Kurt Weill.)

With great tact, the lovely lady with whom I was talking gently observed that the room in which we were standing was named for Lotte Lehmann, and not, marvelous though she was as Agent Klebb, Lotte Lenya.

Duh.

The founding mothers and fathers of the Music Academy of the West were an impressive bunch, and include along with Lehmann the conductor Otto Klemperer, the violinist Roman Totenberg, the pianist and harpsichordist Rosalyn Tureck, the operatic baritone John Charles Thomas, and the composers Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, Roy Harris, and Arnold Schoenberg (Schoenberg was the Academy’s first composer in residence). Impressive, yes, though not a one of them has a hall named after him or her except Lehmann. That’s because Lehmann was instrumental (no pun intended) in the founding of the Academy; she was a resident of Santa Barbara and after her retirement from the stage in 1951 she taught there for many years. How this German-born diva got to Santa Barbara, and what she accomplished along the way, should be an inspiration for all of us.

She was born on February 27, 1888 in Perleberg, in the northeastern German state of Brandenburg, midway between Berlin and Hamburg. Trained in Berlin, she made her operatic debut in Hamburg in 1910, at the age of 22. In 1916 she joined the company of the Vienna Court Opera (later the Vienna State Opera), where she quickly established herself as one of the premiere singers of her generation.  She sang everything: Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Bizet, Gounod, Massenet, Puccini, Mascagni, Richard Strauss, Korngold; the list goes on; I shall not. She sang everywhere and with everyone; such was her fame (and the affection with which she was held) that she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on February 15, 1935.

Lehmann was not just a great singer but a great actress as well, someone who appears to have been universally admired by her peers (no small thing for an operatic diva). When Enrico Caruso heard her sing for the first time, he embraced her and delivered what was, for him, the highest possible compliment:

“Ah, brava, brava! Che bella magnifica voce! Una voce Italiana!” (“Ah, wonderful, wonderful! What a beautiful, magnificent voice. An Italian voice!”)

Lotte Lehmann was Richard Strauss’ favorite soprano, hands down. Her most famous Strauss role was the world-weary Marschallin from Der Rosenkavalier. Of Lehmann’s portrayal of the Marschallin, Harold Schonberg – the often-curmudgeonly music critic of The New York Times – wrote:

“Talking about it, strong men snuffle and break into tears. They discuss her with the reverence of a legal mind talking about Justice [Oliver Wendell] Holmes, or a baseball connoisseur analyzing [Rogers] Hornsby’s form at the plate, or the old?timer who remembers Toscanini’s Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera. In short, she was The One: unique, irreplaceable, the standard to which all must aspire. . . She generated love, [and] had only to walk on stage to reduce the audience to a melting blob.”

The American journalist and novelist Vincent Sheean was haunted by Madame Lehmann:

“The peculiar melancholy expressiveness of her voice, the beauty of her style in the theater, the general sense that her every performance was a work of art, lovingly elaborated in the secret places and brought forth with matchless authority before our eyes, made her a delight that never staled. She was like that Chinese empress of ancient days who commanded the flowers to bloom—except for Lotte they did.”

A great story. In August of 1936, Lehmann was in Salzburg, [where she regularly sang in the Festival] looking for a villa to rent. During the course of her search, she overheard children singing in the garden of a nearby home. Stunned by what she heard, she knocked on the door, and in doing so discovered the Trapp Family Singers, who would be made famous by The Sound of Music. She told the children’s father that his family had “gold in their throats” and strongly suggested that they enter the Salzburg Festival contest for group singing the following night. However, the father – Baron Georg von Trapp, every inch the haughty aristocrat – told her that performing in public was beneath the dignity of a von Trapp and was thus out of the question. But this was Lotte freakin’ Lehmann he was talking to and her enthusiasm won the day. The Baron relented, and the Trapp Family performed in public for the first time the following day.

Lehmann made her American debut in 1930 and thereafter returned to the United States every year. In 1937, sickened by the rise of Nazism (Michael Kater’s excellent biography of Lehmann is entitled Never Sang for Hitler), she emigrated to the United States and became an American citizen in the early 1940s.

In 1948 Lehmann made her film acting debut in a movie called Big City, which starred Danny Thomas (who was born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yakhoob, the child of Lebanese immigrants, who in the movie plays a Jewish Cantor), Robert Preston, George Murphy and Margaret O’Brien. In the movie, Lotte Lehmann – a Christian Prussian – plays Danny Thomas’ Jewish mother, a character named “Mama Feldman.” Ah, Hollywood.

(For our information, Lehmann’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1735 Vine Street is marred by a misspelling: “Lottie” Lehmann.)

Later in her life Madame Lehmann said that: “there was no art form that was safe from me.”

Truer words were rarely spoken. She was a prolific writer, whose first collection of poetry was published in the early 1920s; whose novel, Eternal Flight, was published in 1937, and whose first memoir was published in 1938. Among her many additional publications were books on song and operatic interpretation, a memoir of Richard Strauss, and a second book of poetry, published in 1969.

Lehmann was also a skilled painter and illustrator, and a loving and passionate teacher, who numbered among her many, many students Grace Bumbry and Marilyn Horne.

She was a true polymath, by any standard.

We close with a story from Alden Whitman’s New York Times obituary of Lehmann, an obit that appeared on August 27, 1976, the day after her death:

“It was at a lieder recital in [New York City’s] Town Hall in 1951 that Lehmann announced her retirement as a singer. Stepping to the footlight at intermission, she said, ‘This is my farewell recital.’

‘No! No!’ the audience cried.

‘I had hoped you would protest,’ the soprano continued when the shouting had abated, ‘but please don’t argue with me. After 41 years of anxiety, nerves, strain and hard work, I think I deserve to take it easy.’

Then, referring to the aging Marschallin, who gives up her young lover in Der Rosenkavalier, Mme. Lehmann said:

‘The Marschallin looks into her mirror and says, ‘It is time.’ I look into my mirror and say. ‘It is time.’’

Many in the throng wept.

Later, backstage, she remarked:

‘It is good that I do not wait for the people to say: ‘My God, when will that Lotte Lehmann shut up!’”

To see the article with photos

Ad for “New Electrical Records”

André Previn Passes

• You may have learned of the death of André Previn (February 28, 2019). His only connection with Lotte Lehmann was when he met her during the filming of the MGM movie Big City. I’ll let him describe the event. Previn on LL and Big City

Same Takes?

• Listen to the two recordings of Lehmann’s 1941 Columbia “Morgen” by Strauss and see if you can determine if they’re both the same take or different ones. Please let me know. Morgen #1. Morgen #2

Live Die Walküre 1933

• Go to YouTube and you’ll find a new item with Lotte Lehmann in it: a 14 September 1933 performance (in excerpts) of Die Walküre recorded live at the Wiener Staatsoper. Besides LL, you’ll hear a splendid Franz Völker as Siegmund and an almost comical Brünnhilde of Maria Jeritza. Clemens Kraus conducts. The sound is variable: from excruciating to almost bearable. But certainly historic!

First Day Covers

• The first day covers for Lehmann’s German stamps have two issues: one for Bonn (the capital of West Germany at the time) and one for West Berlin.

Bostridge Article

• Here are the Lehmann-related portions of the August 16, 2018 issue of The New York Review of Books. Ian Bostridge wrote the review.

Crying Out Loud

Singing in the Age of Anxiety: Lieder Performances in New York and London Between the World Wars by Laura Tunbridge

University of Chicago Press, 239 pp., $55.00

“…One of the most striking scenes conjured up in Laura Tunbridge’s new book, Singing in the Age of Anxiety, a study of lieder singing in New York and London between the wars, is a coda, Lotte Lehmann’s tearful farewell recital in New York, nearly six years after the end of World War II, in February 1951. Born in 1888, Lehmann had been one of the great singers of the age. In the field of opera she was particularly associated with the works of Richard Strauss, who declared, in words that could have come straight out of a Schubert song, that “she sang, and the stars were moved.” Strauss was the last of the great lieder composers, and it was as a lieder singer that Lehmann ended her career. The speech she gave before her performance is a rhetorical bridge to an earlier age, echoing one of the most famous of lieder, Mendelssohn’s “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges” (On Wings of Song—another Heine text). “You were the wings on which I soared,” she told her pianist and her audience, “a flight into beauty and another world.” As was widely reported at the time, Lehmann broke down during her final encore. Here is Life magazine’s account:

She had sung these words of Schubert’s immortal song “To Music” (“An die Musik”) hundreds of times before, but this time was different. As the statuesque soprano came to the final lines her eyes began to fill with tears. She broke down with a sob and covered her face with her hands. The piano finished alone.

Tunbridge is aware of the “element of showmanship” involved in the soprano’s farewell: the involvement of her PR agent Constance Hope; the Life photo-story, complete with its picture of Lehmann “head bowed, face behind her fingers, as the pianist carried on.” But she also finds listening to Lehmann’s breakdown (a recording was made and can be found on YouTube) “deeply moving…mak[ing] one contemplate how to write about expressive surplus in performance, as well as aging and failing voices.”

Listening myself to Lehmann I hear this—though some of the supposed vocal failings of age can equally be heard as stylistic choices (portamento, short breaths, the persistent wobble)—but I am also struck by a Romantic continuity that Strauss’s tribute to Lehmann and Lehmann’s own tribute to her pianist and audience have already suggested. There is no sense from the recording that Lehmann is overwhelmed and cannot continue, no sense of something being stifled or of a rising emotion finally taking the singer by surprise (and it is remarkable that so much of the lied is about tears but that tears make singing utterly impossible). Instead she stops almost deliberately. Du holde Kunst (“you holy art”), she sings, enunciating that final t of Kunst, leaving the words ich danke dir (“I thank you”) that complete the poem to echo only in the mind as the pianist continues playing. And he does not in fact finish the song; the piano postlude is left unplayed, which reinforces a sense that this is a performance as much about the singer as the song.

There is something deeply Romantic about Lehmann’s lachrymosity, but also about her artful caesura. …Lehmann’s performance of “An die Musik” crystallizes one of the central paradoxes of lieder singing: a lyrical form with an emphasis on individual subjectivity is at the same time necessarily performative and, in the best sense, mannered. The effect is very often of intimacy and of natural expression, of authentic access to the heart. But the means are calculated by composer and performer, not a mere spontaneous overflow of emotion. The artful conspires with the artless.”

I (Gary Hickling) wrote the following to the editors of The New York Review of Books: 

Regarding the Ian Bostridge review of Singing in the Age of Anxiety: Lieder Performances in New York and London Between the World Wars by Laura Tunbridge, there is one point that needs clarification. When writing about Lehmann’s final Town Hall recital in which she breaks down at the end of Schubert’s hymn to music, Bostridge leaves us with the impression that her crying was staged. “…she stops almost deliberately.” In Volume I of my iBook Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy I provide ample evidence to the contrary with the actual voice of her pianist, Paul Ulanowsky, commenting on the occurrence. He said, “…it was only after she had said ‘I will try to sing “An die Musik,”’ that may have been the psychological cue for her that there was an attempt to do something which would include so much personal emotion for her in singing this, you might almost call it theme song, for the last time in Town Hall, that prompted her to abandon this discipline, this control, just a few seconds before the end of her singing when she broke down. I’d like to say that this was not a studied thing. She didn’t expect it to happen, and as she went from the piano out the [stage] door of Town Hall, she said to me ‘This is terrible; an artist with that much experience should have the discipline not to let this happen.’ So this was entirely impromptu. I think that you ought to know that.”

Further, as you can hear in Lehmann’s recorded master classes found in Volumes III-V of the above mentioned iBooks, she always counseled her students against sentimentality or crying. She wanted her student singers to cause their audience to cry. By the way, when I make  the references to my own iBooks it isn’t to enrich myself. They are all offered free.

Performance Posters

• Recent poster announcements of opera and Lieder performances that included Lehmann:

Lehmann Cartoons

• Laura Mullen sent these Lehmann cartoons drawn about her very active grandmother Esther Bear. She  was married  to Donald Bear  the founding director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; after his death in 1952 she built a house in Montecito and opened a gallery there in 1965. She ran the gallery for a decade. Here’s a link to information about Esther Bear’s gallery.

Souzay and Baldwin

• Dalton Baldwin on Lotte Lehmann:

On April 9, 2018 Dalton Baldwin wrote to me in answer to my questions about how he and Gérard Souzay came to coach with Lotte Lehmann. Here’s his reply: “Gérard Souzay and I had a recital in Santa Barbara and Lotte came backstage afterwards–thus began her infatuation with a handsome French baritone! We stayed at her Hope Ranch Park home several times–Lotte coached him in Lieder. We spent evenings listening to her recordings especially Winterreise. She came to our Carmel  [California] recital and introduced us to Noel Sullivan…[1890-1956, an amateur singer, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. Since Sullivan died in 1956 this means that the coaching that Baldwin refers to occurred before that.]

The greatest thrill of all was when she flew over for our recital in Munich–the audience went wild. She painted a kind of comic strip scene where she, as Salome, holds the head of John the Baptist (Souzay) only to be thwarted by an angel (me [Dalton]).”

He spoke, on a poor recording, that “there’s no one who’s ever come along who could equal Lotte in deep, spontaneous  expression. I’ve never, ever come across anyone who can equal her in my 65 years of career. Of course Gérard is an exception; also he sang in so many different languages…” [Baldwin goes on to speak about the great Salzburg Fidelio that Lehmann sang with Toscanini. He reminds us that Toscanini fell in love with Lehmann and wrote her many pornographic love letters…] “What was it that attracted him? This Italian guy with a mustache to this oversized German prima donna…It wasn’t just her body. It was the totality of her expressiveness…just overwhelming. He was crazy about the woman!”

Youthful Photo

• I just discovered a new Lehmann photo. She’s rather young and this is not in a studio.

Master Classes Available

• The audio tracks from many of Lehmann’s master classes are now available right on this site: Opera Arias & Scenes; Individual Art Songs and Song Cycles. These are condensations of the Apple iBooks Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy Volumes I–V. The original iBooks are still available without charge.

Reviews from the 1930s

• Jerry Minkoff has sent some wonderful Lehmann reviews from the 1930s. 1935 01 02 – Bori in Boheme, Lehmann in Tannhäuser; 1935 01 05 – Rosenkavalier with Lehmann; 1935 02 24 – Sunday column – Rosenkavalier and the Marschallin; Lehmann’s portrayal; 1935 03 22 – Lotte Lehmann as Tosca; 1937 02 28 – Critics Disagree – Lehmann reviewed – 2019; 1937 02 28 – Critics Disagree cont. – Lehmann reviewed

Acoustics in Great Sound

• Ward Marston has made all of Lehmann’s Acoustics available in great sound! 

• You can now obtain technologically advanced sound for the acoustic recordings of Lotte Lehmann (plus some wonderful electrics) from Marston Records. Here’s what Ward Marston wrote:

Lotte Lehmann is today revered for her stellar portrayals of Sieglinde and the Marschallin with commercial recordings and Metropolitan Opera broadcasts giving testament to her in those roles. These highly regarded historic documents have been continuously available together with her no less admired performances of lieder. But most of the recordings now available of this great singer were made during the second half of her forty-year career, by which time she was no longer in her absolute vocal prime. Lehmann is sometimes now remembered as a consummate interpreter and musician, but one with a less than perfect vocal technique. Such judgments are incorrect: In her early recordings we can discover the ease and beauty of her vocal production, her voice fresh and youthful. Lehmann’s earliest records also give us a better idea of her extensive repertoire during the first half of her career. As noted in Dr. Jacobson’s essay, Lehmann sang a large range of roles during her years in Hamburg and Cologne. We are fortunate to get a glimpse of those portrayals through her acoustic recordings, made for Pathé, German Grammophon, and Odeon, between 1914 and 1926.

Lehmann’s first records were made for Pathé—just two sides recorded in 1914. In a hand-written letter from Lehmann to the Pathé administration in February 1915, she confirmed the extension of her contract until February 1916, also requesting payment of 400 Goldmarks. If Lehmann made any additional Pathé records, none were released. In fact, more than three years would pass before Lehmann would again make records. This lone Pathé disc is surely one of the most elusive of all records; in my forty years of collecting, I have never seen a copy offered for sale. We are grateful to Christian Zwarg for making a transfer of this great rarity available for this compilation.

With the outbreak of war in 1914 came a huge upheaval in the record industry in Germany. Relations between the German branch of the Gramophone Company Ltd. and the parent company in London ceased, but the German company continued to make records using the Gramophone Company name. During the first months of 1917, however, the company officially severed all connection to the Gramophone Company, reconstituting itself as the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. The new company began recording operations in September 1917 with Lotte Lehmann as one of their first artists. DGG also claimed the right to continue selling any Gramophone Company recordings made before the separation. In 1917, DGG began assigning new numbers to each disc, not only to their newly-produced discs, but also to any earlier Gramophone Company discs. This is why one finds Deutsche Grammophon pressings of records of artists such as Melba, Battistini, and Chaliapin with newly assigned numbers. To make matters more confusing, DGG continued using the old Gramophone Company catalog number system, printing these numbers on the record labels together with their new order numbers. Sometime in 1920, however, they stopped using the old catalog numbers, replacing them with new numbers that began with a letter prefix that denoted the city of location. Therefore, Lehmann’s later DGG discs all bear catalog numbers that begin with the letter B for Berlin. For this compilation, we have listed three numbers for each of Lehmann’s DGG recordings: first, the matrix number is given in parentheses; next is given the DGG order number followed by the company’s internal catalog number in brackets. The first three DGG sessions use the old Gramophone Company catalog numbers, while the fourth, fifth, and sixth sessions use the new DGG numbers.

Many of Lotte Lehmann’s DGG records were issued as single-faced discs, but by the early 1920s, all of her forty-six issued acoustic DGG records were coupled on double-faced discs with new order numbers. These later pressings are preferable because of their quieter background noise. For this compilation all transfers were made from such late pressings.

Lotte Lehmann’s acoustic Odeon discs were issued only in double-faced format, but pressings dating from the late 1920s sound far quieter than the earlier pressings from 1924–1926. We have made every effort to locate late pressings, but they are scarce and, in some cases, we had to use earlier, slightly noisier pressings. For the Odeon recordings especially, the choice of stylus was critical in bringing Lehmann’s voice into focus. In remastering all of the discs, obtrusive clicks, pops, and undesirable noises have been eliminated, and we have made an attempt to remove the harshness caused by horn resonance. The electric recordings chosen for the appendix are all available in beautiful, quiet copies with almost no restoration necessary. We hope that interest in this set will permit us to continue the Lotte Lehmann series with a second volume of her complete electric Odeon recordings.

Light Music

• As of 4 August 2017 you may now hear a new Lehmann CD called “Lotte Lehmann Sings Light Music” on the Jube label (JUBE1414). Here are the contents of this 81 minute remastered CD:

Arnold, E:	Da draußen in der Wachau
Benatzky:	Ich muss wieder einmal in Grinzing sein
Berlin, I:	God Bless America
Brahms:	Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4 (Lullaby)
Cowler:	Es gibt eine Frau, die dich niemals vergisst
Engel-Berger:	Frühling ist es wieder
Ketèlbey:	The Sacred Hour Sanctuary of the Heart
Lehár:	Wär es auch nichts als ein Traum vom Glück (from Eva) Ich hol’ dir vom Himmel das Blau
Leopoldi:	Wien, sterbende Marchenstadt
May, H:	Der Duft, der eine schoene Frau begleitet
Meyer-Helmund:	Lieder (3), Op. 21: No. 2, Das Zauberlied
Molloy:	The Kerry Dance
Ralton:	Eine kleine Liebelei
Rosen, W:	Wenn du einmal dein Herz verschenkst
Schumann:	Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Träumerei
Siecynski:	Wien, du Stadt meiner Traüme
Stolz, R:	Im Prater bluh’n wieder die Baume, Op. 247
Strauss, J, II:	Mein Herr, was dächten (from Die Fledermaus) Klänge der Heimat (from Die Fledermaus) Herr Chevalier, ich grüße sie (from Die Fledermaus) Er ist Baron (from Der Zigeunerbaron) Ein Furstenkind, ein Wunder ist gescheh’n (from Der Zigeunerbaron) Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 sung as ‘Heut’ macht die Welt Sonntag fur mich’

80th Birthday Dinner

• Many thanks to Brian Hotchkin for sending the wonderful program that accompanied the elaborate celebration of Lehmann’s 80th birthday in 1968. Notice all the famous names associated with the event.

MAW/UCSB

• The following announcement is interesting because both the Music Academy of the West and UCSB have Lehmann connections:

The Music Academy of the West and the UCSB Library have renewed a partnership to preserve and digitize the Academy’s archive of open reel tapes and transfer the organization’s paper archives to the UCSB Library, where they will be available for research, teaching, and personal enjoyment. Located in nearby Montecito, the Music Academy of the West has been developing “the next generation of great classically trained musicians” through its summer conservatory program and festival since 1947.

In fact, the Music Academy and the UCSB Library have intersecting histories. Legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, one of the founders of the Music Academy, also served as a longtime leader and supporter of the Friends of UCSB Library.

“UCSB Library is an international leader in historic sound preservation and digitization,” said Denise Stephens, University Librarian, “and we are honored that the Music Academy of the West is entrusting their archives to us so we can ensure their accessibility for future generations of scholars, teachers, performers, and the greater community.”

The Music Academy’s recordings of concerts, recitals, and masterclasses from 1961-2001 have been housed in the UCSB Library’s Department of Special Research Collections and available for public research access since 2007. Four hundred of the earliest and most fragile recordings will now be digitized for their 70th anniversary, including special performances by Lotte Lehmann, Marilyn Horne, and Jerome Lowenthal. The Music Academy will be releasing select recordings on their new website launching this spring and through social media.

“The Music Academy is delighted to partner with UCSB Library to preserve the written and musical archives we have compiled over seven transformative decades,” said Scott Reed, President and CEO of Music Academy of the West. “The opportunity for us to align with a team with such tremendous expertise is an enormous opportunity and one that has fortuitously arrived as we celebrate our 70th anniversary.”

The Music Academy of the West’s archives join UCSB Library’s robust collections in the performing arts, including the Lehmann Collection, which contains letters, scrapbooks, manuscripts, photographs, video cassettes, art works, and sound recordings relating to the life and career of Lotte Lehmann.

iBook Reviewed

• You may read the interview and reviews of my Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy iBook that appeared in the May/June 2016 issue of Fanfare magazine.

Brahms Lullaby with Orchestra

• For the Lehmann fans who want every note that she sang, here’s a rarity: An excerpt from a 1944 “Command Performance” radio broadcast aimed at the American troupes overseas. You’ll hear Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra kid around and then Lehmann sings an English translation of Brahms’ Lullaby.

Odeon-Parade 1933

• Many thanks to Mr. Kai-Uwe Garrels for the following letter.

Dear Mr. Hickling, thank you very much for your fascinating web site about Lotte Lehmann. This really is a labor of love and I very much appreciate that you share your work with the public. I only have a tiny bit to contribute to this huge amount of precious information. As I happen to own the 78 record “Odeon-Parade”, I can fill in that the Lotte Lehmann selection on side B is from “Dich, teure Halle” (No. 169 in your discography), combined with excerpts from Frieder Weißmann, Berliner Philharmonisches Orch.: Rienzi-Ouvertüre; Elisabeth Rethberg: O habet Acht (Der Zigeunerbaron); Gregor Piatigorsky – Cello, Karol Szreter – Piano: Träumerei and Lehmann at the end. The excerpts with Alpár, von Sauer and Tauber are on side A. Be 9912 is not the correct matrix, but Be 10110-5-0 (the fifth take of a re-recording). The actual mixing with live commentary by Paul Nikolaus took place on January 3, 1933, after the first four takes from December 1932 were rejected. The (German) order number was Odeon O-11756. (Nikolaus committed suicide less than three months later in Swiss exile.) paul-nikolaus_-odeon-parade-alpar_-lehmann_-tauber-etc-_-1933 Please keep up your great work on Lotte Lehmann, thanks again and best regards from Austria, Kai-Uwe Garrels.

Bust Background

• Below are excerpts from an article about the sculptor and his Lotte Lehmann bust. Here’s a photo of it in its location in Perleberg, Germany, with people from the Lotte Lehmann Woche.

The sculptor, Bernd Streiter, who has also made statues of former German Chancellors, was commissioned by the city of Perleberg [the city of Lehmann’s birth] to create a bust of Lotte Lehmann [which he manages to do based on photos]. The bronze cast was made by Klaus Cenkier, based on the silicon form made by Streiter. The necklace on the bust contains the crest of the city of Perleberg. On the sculptor’s website he writes that he seeks to bring out the personality in his interpretation of the portrayed person.

Trapp Family Movie

• There’s a new movie out that includes Lehmann. Here’s some background: The von Trapp Family – A Life of Music includes the mention of Lehmann. The story is told through Agathe von Trapp: “She develops her beautiful voice and stimulating musical talent together with her family and with the support of the famous singer Lotte Lehmann (opera singer Annette Dasch).”

All 9 iBooks Available

• The iBooks, Lotte Lehmann & Her Legacy, Volumes I–IX are now available from Apple. You can download it free. Really, no charge! You need to have an iPad or iPhone that’s recent enough to work with iBooks. You can also use an iMac, but it must also be of recent vintage. Just tap or click on the title above and you’ll be taken to the Apple store. When you see the book, don’t bother with the “Sample” just click “Get” because it’s free. It will allow you to start downloading immediately. This will take approximately 8-10 minutes depending on your download speed. There’s a lot to enjoy, be careful not to overdose. By the way, it is designed to be viewed in the “Portrait” mode (up and down) not the “Landscape” mode (sideways). I welcome your feedback and impressions. I’m working on Volume II and would like to make it as good as possible.

Sound of Music

• How does the 50th anniversary of the movie “Sound of Music” have a Lehmann-connection?  TIME magazine is revisiting its 1947 story on the Trapp Family: “As a novice in a Salzburg convent, Maria Augusta began to get “bad headaches,” she says, and her superiors decided to give her a vacation helping care for the seven children of the widowed Baron Georg von Trapp. Maria Augusta married the baron, bore him three children. All the Trapps sang and in 1937 Soprano Lotte Lehmann heard them at it. She insisted that they enter choral competition at the Salzburg Festival that year. They took first prize, but never sang at Salzburg again; ardently Roman Catholic and ardently anti-Nazi, they left home just before Hitler seized Austria.” And as they say, the rest is history.

Town Hall Recital 1938

• Another review of a Town Hall recital has arrived. This is from 27 March 1938. 

HPR Press Release

• Here’s a nice press release from Hawaii Public Radio “e-scape” which keeps listeners informed.

Gary Hickling, host of HPR-1’s Singing and Other Sins, the only radio program in the world focused on art songs, will be delivering the lecture at this month’s meeting of the Vocal Record Collectors’ Society in New York City, entitled “Lotte Lehmann: Legendary & Unknown.” Gary was a friend of Madame Lehmann (pictured above), and is the creator and maintainer of her discography. He is honored by this invitation and grateful for the technology that allows him to be spared travel to NY’s current wintry clime — his presentation will be only the second in VRCS’s history to be delivered long-distance (via CD).

Ulanowsky Interview

• Philip Ulanowsky sent an excerpt from an interview his father gave with Studs Terkel in which Lehmann’s Town Hall Farewell Recital was discussed. You can hear that interview as well as expanded information on that Farewell Recital.

Ulanowsky Tribute

• Philip Ulanowsky sent a tribute to his father that was broadcast shortly after his death in 1968. You can find excerpts from this memorial.

New Town Hall Recital Listing

• The renowned New York City sound engineer and vocal expert Seth Winner has informed me of an unknown Lehmann Town Hall recital of 2/4/45.

Youthful Photo

• Another photo of the young Lotte Lehmann.

 

Review of Music & Arts Box

• Fanfare magazine reviewed the Lehmann Music & Arts box set:

LOTTE LEHMANN: A 125th Birthday Tribute • Lotte Lehmann (sop); various pianists; various conductors; various orchestras • MUSIC & ARTS 1279 (4 CDs + CD ROM: 295:05)  Producer Gary Hickling, a friend of Lehmann’s, the creator and maintainer of her discography, and a generous enthusiast of her art, approached Music & Arts to issue 19 previously unreleased recordings of the singer. This is the result. In all honesty, there’s nothing revelatory about the fresh material, here. The unissued live selections, in particular those recorded at a Los Angeles school auditorium in 1949 and parts of Town Hall recitals from 1943 and 1946, are a delight to hear, but not mandatory in the sense that they shed new light on her gifts, expertise, or repertoire. Indeed, two of the 19 are short speaking excerpts by Lehmann and Bruno Walter, while a third has Lehmann reading a poem of hers. But for the completist it provides yet further examples of the soprano’s intensity, radiant voice, and exceptional interpretative skill. And of course, by being extended to four very full discs, it not unintentionally furnishes an excellent entry point for the new listener curious about the singer.

The emphasis is not on opera, though we do get one selection a piece from Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Lohengrin, and Tosca. (Hickling’s web site is the place to go to sample much more opera, from a rapturous “Alles pflegt schon längst der Ruh’” [Der Freischütz] of 1929, to a delightfully flirtatiously “Mein Herr, was dächten Sie von mir” [Die Fledermaus] of 1931.) Instead, there’s a great deal of Wolf, Schubert, Brahms, and a fair amount of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Given that there’s so much of Lehmann available, Hickling was able to focus on some of the very best: “Der Doppelgänger,” “Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’,” a remarkable “Der Wanderer,” and Mendelssohn’s “Schilflied” in a performance that demonstrates a careful expending of breath to create a seamless legato—not a usual feature of this passionately expressive artist. We also get some choice rarities, including a test pressing of Beethoven’s “Wonne der Wehmut” from 1941 that was never released on 78s, a “Vissi d’arte” in Italian from a 1938 radio broadcast, and an early 19th-century nationalistic song, Groos’s “Freihart die ich meine,” which the Thousand Year Reich revived in an entirely new context.

Both Music & Arts and Hickling deserve praise for their willingness to place texts and translations on a fifth disc as part of a PDF file. This saves on the cost of what would be a fat and rather awkwardly managed booklet, as well as allowing the producer the luxury of adding numerous Lehmann images and a plethora of personal observations. Curiously, the lengthy biography preserves a myth about Lehmann’s interaction with Goering started by the singer herself, and corrected in an essay on Hickling’s Lotte Lehmann League web site. The late author of the notes may not have been aware of the detective work that assembled an accurate picture of the events, but those errors of fact could have been reasonably edited out without affecting the considerable quality of the rest of the material.

It is not relevant to the wealth of musical content on this set, however, or indeed to anything in Lehmann’s art and her legacy of recordings, students, and her extremely insightful book, More Than Singing: The Interpretation of Songs. Both Hickling and Music & Arts deserve praise for this excellent set, in very good sound, that is clearly a labor of love. Enthusiastically recommended. Barry Brenesal

Mildred Miller

• Lehmann coached the already successful opera singer Mildred Miller in the 1960s. She was proud enough of her student to fly from California for Ms. Miller’s Carnegie Hall recital. Mildred Miller was kind enough to provide interview material (which we recorded by phone) for two programs celebrating her 90th birthday in December 2014. You can find those programs on the Singing and Other Sins archive. Now, Ms. Miller has sent us a photo of her with Mme. Lehmann.

La Scala?

• You can’t believe everything you read. This appeared in the Neue Freie Presse of 20 January 1924. In English: Tomorrow (Monday) Lotte Lehmann‘s single concert [we’d call it a recital] at 7pm. At the piano: Professor Ferdinand Foll. Miss Lehmann appears as Lieder singer before the Vienna public for the first time in several years. Her program contains songs of Brahms, Schumann, Cornelius, Marx, and Strauss. In this concert, Miss Lehmann takes leave of the Vienna public for a longer period of time, because only a few days later she travels to Italy for several months, where she first appears as a guest singer for two months at La Scala, Milan. Remaining tickets…..The recital information is correct, but Lehmann didn’t sing on those dates at Italy’s La Scala. Rather, in this case, she traveled to Berlin, first to record on 13 February and then to sing opera there with Georg Szell, among other conductors at the Berlin Staatsoper, where she remained, making records and singing opera until 21 May 1924 the date she sang her first Marschallin in London under Bruno Walter’s direction. She continued singing opera (Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier and Die Walküre), not returning to Vienna until the next season when on 9 September 1924 she sang in Faust. As usual, many thanks to Peter Clausen for the clipping. P.S. Lehmann did eventually sing a recital at La Scala, but in 1935.

Australia 1939

• A wonderful connection leading to Lehmann’s 1939 Australian tour has evolved. Lyndon Garbutt writes: “During the 1939 tour Madame Lehmann insisted she have her own flats or apartments to stay in at each of the capital cities.  In one of the articles, she mentions how she wanted to feel as though she were at home – even if it were only for a few days.  One of her assistants would set up photographs of her loved ones in each apartment to give it a personal touch. [Her husband Otto had died earlier in the year.]  I presume this is why she ended up staying in our apartment, as opposed to some leading hotel. And here’s the photo of her practicing in that apartment.”

Lyndon Garbutt has also led me to the large on-line source of the National Library of Australia where I found one of the rare photos taken during a recital.

Radio Broadcast 1943 & 1948

• Many thanks to recording specialist Ward Marston for sending seven hitherto unknown Lieder performances of Lehmann in live radio broadcast recitals from 1943 and 1948. They will be added to my VRCS presentation, “Lotte Lehmann, Legendary and Unknown” on Friday, February 6, 2015, in New York City.

Recital with Foll

• I had hardly written about the notice above before another email came from Herr Clausen with the missing information. Lehmann was indeed scheduled to sing in the “Great Concert Hall” and the pianist is none other than Professor Ferdinand Foll. He was a former friend of Hugo Wolf and knew what a recital should be. The composers included Brahms, Schumann, Cornelius, Marx, and Strauss.

Added Recital

• Once again, Peter Clausen in Vienna, has unearthed another recital date to be added to Lehmann’s Chronology. This concert is on 21 January 1924 and the “Gr. K-S” must refer to the large concert hall…Sadly no reference to a pianist or the program contents. 

Another Student

• Thanks to Jen Ferro, Reference and Instruction Librarian at the Lane Community College Library, we’ve learned of another Lehmann student: Nitza Niemann, dramatic mezzo, born in 1927 and still alive and living in Los Angeles. I’ve entered her name on the list of Lehmann students (which grows and grows!).

Posing for Sculptor

• Judith Sutcliffe sent a wonderful photo (above) of Lehmann posing for her statue with sculptor Frances Rich. Many thanks! This resulted in the terracotta version that we’ve seen both at the MAW and at Lehmann’s home “Orplid”. The bronze version was shown in the foyer of the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall at UCSB. It was stolen from its pedestal and never recovered. Here’s information on Frances Rich: Though her longtime studio was in Palm Springs, she spent many years in Santa Barbara caring for her mother, who died at 96 in 1988. Besides Lehmann, Rich made portrait busts of other friends such as birth control activist Margaret Sanger, painter Diego Rivera and composer Virgil Thomson, as well as a 1965 terracotta statue of actress Katharine Hepburn, depicted as Cleopatra for the American Shakespeare Festival and Academy in Stratford, Connecticut. Frances Rich, once a Hollywood actress, had devoted much of her life to making sculptures of saints and celebrities. She died at the age of 97 at her home in Payson, Arizona, after a heart attack.

Error in the Chronology

• Thanks to the alert reader of the Chronology for noticing the repeat of the “Recording in Berlin” on two of the same dates: 24 March 1924. I will correct it when I upgrade the Chronology.

Singing in Budapest

• Thanks again to Peter Clausen for uncovering this announcement in the 28 December 1923 Neue Freie Presse. The Vienna newspaper proudly notices that Lehmann sang (as guest) at the Budapest Opera as Elsa, Desdemona and Margarete with great success.  On the occasion of the last role,  critics praised ”the magic of her, through her distinguished art, ennobled voice, her gesture and complete personality”. Here’s the original German: “Lotte Lehmann hat an der Budapester Oper als Elsa, Desdemona and Margarete mit großem Erfolge gastiert. Die Kritik lobt anlässlich der letzten Partie den Zauber ihrer durch vornehmsten Kunst geadelten Stimme, ihrer Bewegung und ganzen Persönlichkeit”. By the way, two days later she was back on the Vienna stage singing the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos.

Die Meistersinger Cast

• Some new information about Lehmann’s Die Meistersinger performance at Covent Garden on 12 May 1926. The Hans Sachs was the highly respected Emil Schipper, Fritz Kraus sang Walter and Hans Clemens, David.

Rosenkavalier Photo

• Simone from Perleberg, Lehmann’s birthplace, has sent us an absolutely astonishing photo of Lehmann as the Marschallin from 1939. I’m not sure anyone has seen this photo since that time. Certainly, I haven’t.

Review of Schumann Songs 1943

• The following review that speaks for itself has come to my attention. Take the time to read it through to understand the level of artistry that Lehmann had reached by 1943.

New York Times 25 January 1943
LEHMANN IS HEARD IN SCHUMANN SONGS
Soprano is assisted by Paul Ulanowsky in Program at Town Hall
By Olin Downes

A very distinguished recital of songs and song cycles by Robert Schumann was given by Lotte Lehmann yesterday afternoon in Town Hall. The capacity of the hall was brought out by an exceptionally attentive and appreciative audience days in advance of the event. There was no fuss about that either. The audience was practically all seated when the singer came in. The program began by Mme. Lehmann’s inviting the audience to sing the national anthem with her. Then she and her excellent accompanist, Paul Ulanowsky, began their task of communicants with the songs.

These were sung with a matchless simplicity, with an art that concealed an art now fully developed and shorn of every excrescence or superfluity of style, and the interpretation proceeded directly from the heart.

Mme. Lehmann sang these reveries and avowals with a fineness of style and a sense of proportion that had no slightest savor of exaggeration or less than utter sincerity, and her performance said plainly that if this was sentimental the audience could make the most of it. She believed what she sang. She herself was moved by it.

The “Dichterliebe” cycle permitted a wider range of expression and a greater variety of color. But the same simplicity, the same warm poetry and perfect proportion remained. Nor are the postludes of the piano to be forgotten. That is to say that there was complete unity of intention between the two performers, and that Mr. Ulanowsky with rare taste and sensibility completed the poetic thought of interpreter and composer.

One remembers those earlier years when Mme. Lehmann’s own nature swept her away and this resulted in prodigal and at time explosive outburst of tone, or disproportionate emphasis of phrase. All that is of the past. The thoughtful expenditure and shaping of tone, the maximum of communication with the minimum of effort, an intensity of emotion that requires no noisy heralding spoke more eloquently than any description could do.

Mood was established so completely that there was comparatively little demonstration till the end of the recital. For that matter the two cycles were sung without opportunity for applause between the songs that make them. But it is doubtful if in any case there would have been such a sign. There was the rapport between the artist and her listeners made possible by her achievement and also by the proportions of the hall. At the end the audience was loath to leave. Mme. Lehmann wisely refrained from an encore. To the best of her ability she had done a complete thing, and what she had done will long be cherished by those who heard her.

With Horowitz

• Lehmann shared the stage with many famous singers (Melchior, Slezak, Piccaver etc.) and instrumentalists such as Heifetz, Arrau, Rubinstein, Szigeti etc., but until now, I hadn’t seen Horowitz listed in a joint recital. This “Aeolus” program of 12 May 1932 shows a very prestigious house concert! Here’s the contents of the program: Lehmann began with Brahms: Von ewiger Liebe; An die Nachtigal; Sandmännchen; Botschaft; Vergebliches Ständchen; Schumann: Der Nussbaum; Alte Laute; Ich grolle nicht; Widmung. Usually she’d sing an encore or two as well. And after intermission Horowitz continued with 32 Variations, Beethoven; Adagio (from Toccata in C Major), Bach/Busoni; Rondo in Eb Major, Hummel; Capriccio in E Major, Scarlatti; Four Walzes Op. 39, Brahms; Two Mazurkas in C# minor, Chopin; Etude in F Major, Chopin; “Petrushka” Semain grasse, Dance Russe, Stravinsky. Not a shabby concert!

No More Third Reich Concerts

• From the Pariser Tagezeitung of 8 April 1938, Peter Petersen has sent the following article, which I translate: LOTTE LEHMANN SINGS NO MORE IN THE THIRD REICH; Lotte Lehmann, the great singer famous even at the Casino Theater in Desuville, who yesterday returned to America, stated the following to a French journalist: “No, I haven’t been driven from Germany. I am Arien and so is my husband.”

“Why are you leaving your homeland, you who just last year, was celebrated as no other artist, in Fidelio under the direction of Bruno Walter and Toscanini; you who give the artistic fame to the Vienna Opera and who experiences such triumphs from your too seldom Paris appearances?”

“Why? Because I don’t feel free in my homeland, because I can’t live freely and have the right to choose songs by Mendelssohn, Hugo Wolf or [Joseph] Marx. This is why I have left my homeland, but I have left freely…Certainly, nothing in the world is more important than freedom. Thus, I will seek American citizenship.”

Oakland Recital 1936

• On 24 November 1936, two days after one of the few performances of Die Walküre in which both Mmes. Lehmann and Flagstaff sang, I find that Lehmann gave a recital in the Oakland Auditorium Theatre.

Wellington, NZ 1939

 • A nice announcement in the 14 June 1939 “Current Entertainment” section of the Evening Post in Wellington, New Zealand during Lehmann’s second Australia/New Zealand tour.

Operation 1923

• Peter Clausen, sent this 7 December 1923 Lehmann clipping from Vienna’s Neue Freie Presse, which I’ll try to translate: Yesterday the State Opera singer Lotte Lehmann needed to undergo a small operation for a neglected infected spot on the mouth proven necessary by Professor Dr. Lotheisen, assistant to Dr. Zifferer. The artist suffered violent pain already on the day of Piccaver’s Farewell Concert, but postponed the operation to avoid canceling. Miss Lehmann will withdraw from artistic activity for about two weeks. [I wonder if this is the cause for the endearing drooping lip that Lehmann displayed so much of her life?]

Updating the Chronology

• I have updated the Vienna years and the US years of the Lehmann Chronology, as of October 2014.

Intermezzo 1931

• A program from Lehmann’s appearance in Intermezzo by R. Strauss appeared on Ebay.

New 78s

• Many thanks to the staff at UCSB’s Special Collections (Lehmann Archive) for a large number of 78rpm rarities that have not been heard outside of that format. You can listen to these newly acquired recordings at: The Lehmann Recordings. The way you can recognize these recent acquisitions is by the label that I’ll insert.

Negative Review

• At the point that the critic concerns herself with the acting abilities of a soprano in the review of a live 1962 performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the September/October issue (38:1) of Fanfare magazine, Lynn René Bayley lapses for a parenthesis into a negative appraisal of Lotte Lehmann’s acting abilities. (“[Her] recordings and live performances show nothing despite her high reputation”).  I wrote a “letter to the editor” with a few of the many high praise words that Lehmann’s live and recorded performances elicited.

No Program for the Town Hall Debut

• I’ve never seen the actual program of Lehmann’s Town Hall debut of 7 January 1932. If anyone has it, please let me know. I understand that she sang Schubert songs, “Von ewiger Liebe” and other Lieder by Brahms, Schumann’s “Ich grolle nicht,” as well as songs of Strauss, Hahn, Chausson and Fauré. Her pianist was Kurt Ruhrseitz.

Article from 1996

• The author/photographer Simone Ahrend sent us one of her articles on Lehmann, written in 1996. Click on it to see it full size.

New Photos

• Some new post-card photos of an early Lehmann role, as well as some studio recital portraits have been received from an anonymous donor. Many thanks!

Rare Late Photo

• Thanks to Lehmann student, Shirley Sproule, for the photo of Mme. Lehmann at the microphone for the recordings of poetry she made for Caedmon Records in 1957.

Tosca Photos

• Shortly before he died, Fred Maroth of Music & Arts sent me some wonderful glossy photos of Lehmann as Tosca at two points in her career. He also sent a “candid” one of Lehmann at her 80th birthday celebration at the San Francisco Opera. She’s seen viewing the “Lehmann” exhibit which they’d assembled for the occasion. I believe they performed Der Rosenkavalier on her birthday as part of the tribute. Lehmann was vain enough to have abhorred the photo, but it’s a treasure for those of us who only knew her as an old woman. 

Lehmann League Newsletters

• You’ll find the Lotte Lehmann League Newsletters (1989-1994) available now on this site. They had lost the link to the now mostly defunct Lehmann Foundation site.

Dichterliebe & Frauenliebe und -leben

• The Pristine company recently offered this Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und -leben at a 25% discount. Contact them directly for the current price.

Religious Songs

• Corny? I had always assumed that Lehmann’s recordings of various religious pieces with organ were dismissed in her time as just pandering to a particular audience and without artistic consideration. There was also a hint that both she and Parlophone/Odeon (the record company) were just out to make as many Marks as possible, especially around holidays. So it has come as a huge surprise to read a serious critic, Herman Klein in Gramophone, even bothering to acknowledge the releases of these chorales and Marienlieder, much less to recommend them.

He is perceptive enough to deplore the “orchestration” of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, while delighting in Lehmann’s “careful study not only of Schumann’s wonderful music but of Chamisso’s intensely sentimental poem…she has brought to bear…both the light of her artistic intelligence and ripe experience.”

So it was a surprise for me to discover what he has to say about 122 and 123 (see below): “The vocal Christmas gifts enshrined in these…records are quite well worth purchasing—the sacred because they are old German hymns that the children will love…”

122 O du Fröhliche (Traditional); Be 7187; O-4810; 1)RO 20098; 3)23052; (J.: Brazil A 3122; 8)AR 150); chamber orch.; LP: none; CD: Pearl: GEMM CDS 9234; O, du Fröhliche
123 Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Gruber); Be 7188; O-4810; 1)RO 20098; 3)23052; (J. Brazil A 3122; 8)AR 150); chamber orch.; LP: none; CD: Pearl: GEMM CDS 9234; Stille Nacht

Of the following recordings, Klein writes: “Here is Mme. Lehmann’s annual contribution to her store of German Christmas music (for German it certainly is, durch und durch, words, tunes, singing, and everything else). The hymns belong probably to the modern rather than the ancient category…given out with all possible earnestness and vigour by singer and organist alike.”

“A ready sale, both here [England] and in Germany, of the records of sacred pieces sung by this artist has evidently encouraged a further search in the same direction, and for other religious seasons beside Christmas. With Easter at hand there should be abundant opportunity for utilizing two Kirchenlieder (Church hymns with organ accompaniment) so beautifully sung as these. In form and character they recall nothing so much as the Lutheran chorales of Bach’s Passion or his cantatas, the tune of course, being limited to a solo voice, with harmonies supplied ad libitum by the organist—in this instance a very good one. The words Christi Mutter stand in Schmerzen will be recognized as a German translation of the opening line of the Stabat Mater, and it indicates at once the source whence the text of this particular hymn is derived. The words and tune of the other [O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden] are no doubt equally traditional, and the recording of both cannot fail to satisfy the most exigent listener.”

139 O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (Bach); 28 Feb. ’29; (J.: 26 Feb. ’29, speed 76 RPM); Be 8038; O-4811; 1)RO 20215; 3)20336; 8)AR 220; organ; LP: none; CD: none; O Haupt
140 Christi Mutter stand in Schmerzen (Trad.); Be 8039; all other data see 139; Christi Mutter
141 Geleitet durch die Welle (Marienlied); Be 8040; O-4803; 1)RO 20205; 3)20337 8)AR 203; with organ; LP: none; CD: none; Geleitet durch die Welle
142 Es blüht der Blumen eine (Marienlied); Be 8041; O-4803; 1)R0 20205; 3)20337; 8)AR 203; with organ; LP: none: CD: none; Es blüht der Blumen eine

Recital 1931

• The Lotte Lehmann Chronology is constantly updated by various means. I recently found this program for a 15 May 1931 joint recital that Lehmann and Elisabeth Schumann gave as part of the series given by Lady Cunard. These private concerts at 7 Grosvenor Square must have been well attended by London’s high society.

Lotte Lehmann Woche

• In connection with the Lotte Lehmann Woche (the Lotte Lehmann Week of singing and master classes that takes place each summer in Lehmann’s birthplace), there was a radio program broadcast, which we can listen to. (It’s in German).

Shared Recitals with Melchior

• For those of you interested in knowing how Lehmann and Melchior divided their joint recitals, I have the complete (without encores) program of their Constitution Hall performance of 18 November 1941.

Troy Chromatic Concert 1933

• Thanks to Karl Moschner, the President of the Troy Chromatic Concerts, in Troy, New York for sending the information of Lehmann’s recital there (February 23, 1933), as well as the program and a review.

With Jeanette MacDonald

• Many thanks to Fay La Galle, a fan of Jeanette MacDonald, for the photo of them together. Lehmann had coached  MacDonald.

Article from 1937

• Here you can read Lehmann’s article for the 1937 Theatre Arts Magazine: “A Singing Actress Attacks Her Part” which includes some “live” on-stage photos. On Lehmann’s miscellaneous writings page, not only have I added this, but also the Sieben Lehmannlieder, by Pasatieri, and a silly sarcastic piece in forced rhyme by Lehmann…..

Youthful Photo

• A new youthful photo of Lotte Lehmann has arrived. 

Tributes

• As it has the past few years, this summer (2014), The Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival will offer Vocal Masterclasses and Recitals in tribute to Lotte Lehmann.

On opera vs recitals

• In a November 1938 interview for the Vassar College newspaper: When asked which she preferred, opera or concert singing, Mme. Lehmann replied, “When I return to the stage after having left it for a while, I always feel as though I were coming home, but then when I go back to concert singing, I have the same warm feeling of home-coming. It is really wonderful to be at home in two worlds. However there is still another world in which I live, for my writing is more than just a hobby. It is my third means of self-expression in this world of ours.”

Records Banned

• This article of 17 October 1938 was news to me: Lotte Lehmann’s Records Banned in Austria: The Austrian authorities have announced a ban on records by Lotte Lehmann, Metropolitan Opera soprano. (She recently took out her first citizenship papers in the United States.)…

Sieben Lehmannlieder

• “Sieben Lehmannlieder” by Thomas Passatieri were commissioned for the Lehmann centennial in 1988. Both the premiere performance and the booklet which accompanied it can now be heard/viewed on another page. Lehmann’s student Judith Beckmann sings and the composer accompanies.

Autobio Review

• Finally we have the “review” of Lehmann’s autobiography Anfang und Aufstieg. Sadly, it only notices how famous she is, mentions various engagements and then quotes from the book.

Workshop with Altmeyer

• The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival on the Big Island of Hawaii featured a two day workshop with Lehmann’s last student, Jeannine Altmeyer, as the coach/clinician. Called “Lotte Lehmann Workshop with Jeannine Altmeyer” it was well attended and by all accounts, the young singers performed well. You can view a PDF of the Friday, July 12, 2014 class. Here are more photos.

Silly Poem

• The typed-manuscript (on Lehmann’s own stationery) of her silly poem about presenting her trained dog to sing at the Met is now available, with my somewhat questionable English translation.

Meeting Goering

• I have added the typed-manuscript of Lehmann’s recounting of her meeting with Goering. You can find Dr. Kater’s response there as well.

Review of Music & Arts Box

• Here’s a review of the Lehmann Music & Arts box set from the Grammophone magazine. Just click on it to make it large enough to read.

New Writing

• I continue to add excerpts from Lehmann’s writing.

Chancellor Schuschnigg

• You can listen to more of Lehmann’s master classes, which I’m posting at this time. Because it doesn’t fit with the master classes, I’ll offer the short talk that Kurt Schuschnigg gave at the end of a master class. Schuschnigg  For those of you not familiar with his name and importance, here’s the Wikipedia bio: Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg (14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Nazi Germany’s annexing of Austria, (Anschluss), in March 1938. He was opposed to Hitler’s ambitions to absorb Austria into the Third Reich. After his efforts to keep Austria independent had failed, he resigned his office. After the invasion he was arrested by the Germans, kept in solitary confinement and eventually interned in various concentration camps. He was liberated in 1945 by the advancing United States Army and spent most of the rest of his life in academia in the United States.

Discography with Sound

• I have added more to the Lehmann Recordings page; the only “illustrated” discography that I know.

Hundley Photos

• Photos have arrived for the presentation of the World of Song Award to Richard Hundley. Just scroll down to the bottom of that page.

MUSIC & ARTS BOX

• The 4 CD set of rare Lotte Lehmann recordings (with a 5th CD ROM containing notes, texts, and translations) is available for purchase at Music & Arts. It represents almost three years of research, editing and finally producing. (Full disclosure: I am the producer). Some background: In July 2013 I finished working with Lani Spahr, who was the restoration engineer for this Music & Arts Lehmann CD set that features her live performances and other rarities. It was amazing to listen to the improvements he was able to make on some of the noisy radio broadcasts of the 1930s and 40s. And of course, Lehmann never fails! I do believe that the audience brought out even more intensity in her interpretations. That implies that some of these tracks contain material that Lehmann recorded in the studio, which is true. But there is also a huge amount of music that she did not record. And a total of 21 items never heard before in any format! In November 2013 I had the pleasure of working with the graphic designer, Mark Hamilton Evans. The set is called Lotte Lehmann: A 125th Birthday Tribute. Besides the four CDs of Lehmann’s singing, there’s a fifth CD that holds the liner notes, which includes the article “The Life and Art of Lotte Lehmann” by the late Beaumont Glass. There are also many photos, my short article, as well as the texts and translations, all total: 111 pages!

LOHENGRIN 1935

• There’s a sort of “second” take on the 1935 Lohengrin with Lehmann, Melchior, Lawrence, Schorr, List, et al, from Immortal Performances. Better sources and, of course the meticulous restoration work of Richard Caniell, make this recording one to really enjoy. Some of the problems associated with such private recordings still persist, but there is MUCH to appreciate.  This release is, as the company states, “superior sound to all previously released CD albums by various labels, though it still is afflicted with the compressed 1935 transmission characteristics. Our restoration is taken from the original transcription, with broadcast commentary and curtain calls, and offers a booklet containing extensive articles about the performance, singers and composer, together with rare photos.” Lehmann never disappoints. She sounds young and innocent (she was 47 years old at the time!) in her two major arias that occur in the first act. And Melchior can sing sweetly as well as fervently. The surprise for me was the strong acting/singing of Marjorie Lawrence as Ortrud. All the high expectations you may have for Friedrich Schorr as Friedrich and Emanuel List as King Henry are happily satisfied. And there is a lot of good playing from the Metropolitan Opera orchestra under Artur Bodanzky’s direction. There are two bonuses on the third CD: first the excerpt from the 1939 live performance of Lehmann and Melchior in the first act of Die Walküre (from Winterstürme through Du bist der Lenz and Wehwalt heist du für wahr) in amazingly clear sound. And the set concludes with the Robert Schumann duets that Melchior and Lehmann recorded in 1939 (with orchestral accompaniments). These recordings (as well as the whole set of three CDs) are worth hearing again, in this new improved sound, even if you already know them. The company has discovered new sources and now provides (at no cost) replacement CDs for the second and third ones.

Report on South American Tour 1922

• Peter Clausen, my research connection in Vienna, has sent a wonderful report that Lehmann wrote about her important opera tour in South America in 1922. It appears in the Neue Freie Presse of 3 November 1922.

Maria von Trapp Dies

• Though certainly peripheral to Lehmann’s life, it is interesting to note the news that the oldest daughter of the von Trapp family, Maria, died recently at the age of 99. Lehmann’s connection: she heard the family sing when she was in Salzburg and recommended a professional career to them (which they accomplished!).

Classical Musicians Who Passed in 2013

• At the end of year I like to recognize the passing of some great classical musicians during 2013. Though famous names such as Van Cliburn, James DePreist, Janos Starker, Colin Davis, have no real connection with Lehmann and need no elaboration from me. But there are two great artists that do: Risë Stevens, 99 and Lotfi Mansouri, 84.

Stevens sang Octavian to Mme. Lehmann’s Marschallin and was a great admirer. She studied with her and they became dear personal friends. In the year 2000 I interviewed Stevens about their relationship and she had consistently positive things to say. There was one amazing thing that she couldn’t understand Lehmann saying. Evidently, she thought that Stevens (a mezzo soprano) should study and sing the role of Fidelio. This seemed like a mistake and Stevens did not follow her advice. Stevens also tried to forget the details of Lieder that Lehmann had taught her. Stevens’ husband said that she sounded like she was only imitating Lehmann.

Lotfi Mansouri was best known for his years as opera director and especially as General Director of the Canadian Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera (1988-2001). He introduced surtitles to the opera house and for the Lehmann Tribute CD he spoke a wonderful reminiscence. He had, after all, studied (as a tenor) with Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West. Here is what he had to say: Lotfi Mansouri Speaks He also wrote about Lehmann in his book, Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey. “she taught me to look deeper into the material, the atmosphere, the substance of the work.”

Contest Winners include a LL “student”

• You can hear the HPR Art Song Contest winners in a Singing and other Sins recorded broadcast from December 1, 2013. The winners’ websites are also linked to their names on that page. One of the winners, Christine Steyer, studied the role of the Marschallin with Beaumont Glass using the notes that he’d made in his score while working with Mme. Lehmann. Once again, Lehmann’s influence continues through her students, colleagues, and of course her recordings. You can hear her speak about her studies with Beaumont Glass, just click here.

Turandot Review

• Many thanks to Peter Clausen for the historic Turandot Vienna premier review. Turandot – 1926 Heft 102 Die Buehne

Intermezzo, Ariadne auf Naxos  and Frau ohne Schatten

• Also from Herr Clausen, Lehmann in Intermezzo, Ariadne auf Naxos  and Frau ohne Schatten. You can click on the image to see it larger or here, to see full-size. And now, from 1927 a photo of Lehmann in Fidelio.

Recital Program 1935

• Here’s a complete 1935 Lehmann recital program.

Trumblr

• A tumblr exists for Lehmann, with nice photos, recordings and quotes.

Knapp Castle

• When Lehmann first came West to live with Frances Holden, they moved into the “Knapp Castle,” which soon burned. Here’s a blog with photos of the burned remains as it looks today.

Versa in Prosa

• For those of you interested in reading Lehmann’s earliest book of poetry, I’ve begun to upload that. It’s called Versa in Prosa.

World of Song Award

• I’ve just added a page for the World of Song Award, that has been revived after a few year hiatus. The Award for 2013 was offered to Christa Ludwig and accepted. Her dedication to Lieder is legendary. Her recordings a testament to her life of song. The calligrapher Denis Paul Lund has completed his work and you can  see a copy of the award on the World of Song page. The 2014 World of Song Award was given to the art song composer, Richard Hundley. You can view his award on this same page.

Die Walküre 1936 Act II

• Music & Arts has released a recently restored 1936 Die Walküre (Act II) with Lehmann, Flagstad, Melchior, et al. Conducted by Reiner. From new sources! A copy arrived and I compared it to their earlier (1999) version. This one is much less raw, (better source material) and easier listening. Some may prefer the first publication for its primitive, slightly more exciting edge. But for me, this 2013 release, still with surface sound, is a joy. As I listen to more of these older live recordings, the importance of a good conductor becomes more apparent. Reiner fills that requirement. And the singers are uniformly as good as their reputations would predict. Since it’s Act II Lehmann only sings for a short time, but it’s dramatic, powerful and believable in its dramatic intensity.

Manon

• This photo of a painting of Lehmann as Manon was taken many years ago in the Lehmann Hall of the Music Academy of the West. It often stuns people to realize that she sang this role in Vienna more often than any other.

As Fidelio

• Here is a photo that I took of the wonderful portrait of Lehmann as Fidelio in Beethoven’s opera of that name. It hangs in the lobby of the Music Academy of the West. It is almost life size, so it’s as if Lehmann/Fidelio is stand right there!

Bad Reviews

• In the various Lehmann biographies one can read glowing reviews of Lehmann’s performances. I’ve finally found one full of negative comments and a second one with mixed thoughts. These are English critics. The first,  acknowledges Lehmann’s success at Covent Garden and the enthusiasm of the Queen’s Hall audience (probably of 25 Feb 1930), as well as the “insinuating beauty of her voice–perhaps the loveliest one has ever known” and “her quick and warm response to poetic suggestion.” Then he begins with his problems: “There was a streak of the maudlin in her programme that proved rather too much for a modern English audience. We accept nothing more gladly than German songs from Mme. Lehmann, for we know the sort of thing she excels in, but her scheme to-night would have been better for a little more spice. One or two Schubert songs, Brahms in one of his irascible moods, or some of the acid of Hugo Wolf would have made all the difference, and none of these masters was represented at all. Beethoven sounded a little meagre, though the two “Egmont” songs were an interesting revival, and Schumann was shown in his wan and tearful manner, except in the enthusiastic “Frühlingsnacht,” which surged magnificently to the singer’s most jubilant tones. It was this song one wanted to hear a second time, not the once incredibly overrated “Ich grolle nicht,” which nowadays seems not so much a song as a smear. For the Liszt songs there were two excuses–that they really represented the composer adequately, if unflatteringly, and that much of their cloying perfumery was made tolerable by the persuasive beauty of the singing.” Of the same performance another critic wrote, “Last night she really convinced a large audience that she is a brilliant exception to the general rule that opera singers are not at their best away from the stage. She does not sing Lieder as if they were dramatic scenes, but with her perfect feeling for curve and phrase she sings those German sentimental love songs that are so dear to the heart of the Teutonic maiden with a rare lyric eloquence. Her generous programme last night composed songs by Giordani, Monteverdi, Gluck, Beethoven, Liszt, Marx, and R. Strauss. Naturally certain songs in her list were more closely suited to her ability than others, but to them all she brought a clarity and precision of technique, an earnest approach, and a sensitive understanding which were matched only by the charm and spirit of her delivery.” He goes on to list the songs he likes and then: “…she was not quite so successful with the Beethoven group and she certainly should not sing  ‘Freudvoll und Leidvoll’, [which the above critic praised!] which she screams at the top notes.”

Rosenkavalier “Live”

• I have discovered this rare “live” photo from a Rosenkavalier performance with Lehmann. One can imagine that such photos are rare! How were they even taken during performances? Perhaps a dress rehearsal?

Interview in English

• Here’s a wonderful “interview” with Mme. Lehmann in 1959 for the “castaway” radio program from Britain.

Berlin Column

• In April 2013 I received an email from Ulrich Peter: “I was in Berlin last week, on business, but I had a day off and so I discovered the city by bicycle. What a breathtaking city, a real Weltstadt, sprudelndes Leben everywhere. When I came to the center, at the Berlin Dom and famous Lustgarten, right next to the Brandenburg Gate, Lotte Lehmann jumped into my eye. It is an open air exhibition called ‘Zerstörte Vielfalt,’ the ‘Litfass-Säulen’ show many courageous people who turned against the Nazis in the years between 1933 to 1938 and 1945. The Lehmann  text says: 1933, Opernstar Lotte Lehmann kehrt dem NS-Staat den Rücken/Opera star Lotte Lehmann turned her back on the Nazi state.”

Rosenkavalier 1939 Improved

• One of the other Lehmann-related sources has been Richard Caniell of Canada’s Immortal Performances. First, he completely re-worked the 1939 broadcast from the Met, of Rosenkavalier. This was an important performance because it includes a lot of material missing from the HMV recording of 1933. The Met performance has a good cast, including the young Risë Stevens, as Octavian. To me, the orchestra portions still sound boxy, but when Lehmann sings, it’s quite natural with plenty of detail. Lehmann’s diction is apparent, as is her complete command of the role. It’s worth the price just to hear the Marschallin sections. By the way, there are extensive “liner” notes with unusual photos, as well as two interviews (in English) with Lehmann and non-Lehmann Act III recordings from 1928. I was in email touch with Richard Caniell and in a P.S., Richard writes: “Immortal Performances was also the source for the Naxos release in 1998 when that company formed its Historical label around our work. Their issue of it was disastrously denigrated in its sound and this was one, of many such occurances, that led us to resign from the project. Anyone who has the Naxos set deserves apologies. I am glad, at last, to be finally associated with something listenable of this broadcast.”

“Dream” Die Walküre

The next project that Richard is working on is the “Dream Ring” which many Wagner and Lehmann fans will remember was released a few years back on the Guild label. The main draw was to combine various off-the-air performances of Die Walküre to meld a dream performance with Flagstad and Lehmann (among others). Let me here, quote Richard again: “[it] will be re-issued in improved sound as part of our re-mastered release of our Dream Ring under a grant by the Getty Foundation. Hope to see it emerge by April-end if not sooner.” On the CD sample he sent me, scenes from the first act really bounce strongly into the ear. Lehmann’s vitality and expressiveness once again assures me that the audience drove her to greater heights. Once again, I quote Richard: “The re-pitch of Act I and other improvements put Lehmann’s incomparable Sieglinde into still better focus…I’ve put a huge energy into re-mastering the Ring re-doing transitions, heightening the tone, balance and dynamics. Wonderful to get the chance to do it. As a non-profit society we could never have afforded to redo the whole thing; given the fact that those who had great interest in it had already purchased our Guild edition. Hats off to the Getty Foundation for making it possible.”

In America

• The other Lehmann-related object of my attention is the recently published book on Lehmann’s teaching called Lotte Lehmann in America: Her Legacy as Artist Teacher, with Commentaries from Her Master Classes by Kathy H. Brown. I’ve just finished reading the book. It’s thankfully mostly free from typos and factual errors (though Lehmann didn’t sing in Salzburg in 1917 and she wasn’t the first opera prima donna to appear on the cover of Time magazine). There are a lot of photos and nice summaries of Lehmann’s life and career before she made America her home. There is a large section of Lehmann’s suggestions on art song taken directly from recordings of master classes and private lessons. Often, only Lehmann’s translation appears, which though accurate and charming doesn’t offer that much information that can’t be found in other sources. There’s a smaller section on opera arias. The original core of the book was Dr. Brown’s questionnaire that she sent out years ago to 29 of Lehmann’s students. Their responses on Lehmann’s teaching methods is informative. And throughout the book we’re treated to Lehmann’s humor and insight. An accompanying CD of actual lessons or masterclasses might have added immediacy and authenticity to the book, but I can imagine that would add too much cost.

There are two appendices, the first one Lehmann wrote for a magazine on “The Joy of Singing at Home” is just ok. Much more interesting are Lehmann’s detailed descriptions of American in “Three Impressions.”

Both vocal students and Lehmann fans will enjoy the book.

Classical Artists Who Passed 2012

• It’s appropriate to remember the many great artists we lost in 2012. Some of them gave mightily to opera and art song: Elliott Carter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (there’s a page devoted to him on this site), Dave Brubeck, Ruggiero Ricci, Richard Adler, Ravi Shankar, Zvi Zeitlin, Eduard Khil, Jacques Barzun, Hans Werner Henze, Roman Totenberg (chairman of the string department of the Music Academy of the West, where Lehmann was a founding member, in 1947), Edward Shanbrom, Marvin Hamlisch, Maurice Sendak, Evelyn Lear, Grigory Frid, Nan Merriman (who had been coached by Lehmann), Jonathan Harvey, Gloria Davy, Paavo Berglund, Alexis Weissenberg, Maurice André, Gustav Leonhardt, Michaela Ursuleasa, Charles Rosen, Galina Vishnevskaya, Lisa della Casa (who coached with Lehmann), and Richard Rodney Bennett.