FOREWARD A Personal Note For two and a half years I was Lotte Lehmann’s assistant at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. I accompanied master classes in lieder and opera, coached students, and occasionally assisted with staging. During those years...
CHAPTER 5 Like Flying in a Dream Lotte’s second season in Hamburg was again dominated by page boys, fourteen times in Tannhäuser and ten times in Lohengrin, apprentices in Die Meistersinger (eight times) and a choirboy in The Prophet, plus such new variations as...
CHAPTER 3 A Pair of Miracles What to do now? Lotte and Fritz searched the want ads. Perhaps she could be a companion to some older lady and sing to her now and then. At least her voice would be good enough for that. Papa enrolled Lotte in the next starting session of...
CHAPTER 2 A Door to Wonderland Berlin was exciting. Mama was happy to be among her relatives. Papa was able to add Ober (chief) to the string of words that made up his title. Fritz formed a secret society with the lofty name, Justice. Mostly the members drank a lot of...
CHAPTER 1 A Drop of Theatre Blood The first Lehmann tones—not bel canto but probably expressive—rang out on February 27, 1888, in Perleberg, in the northern part of Germany, a middle-sized town about halfway between Berlin and Hamburg. The new arrival received a...
