CHAPTER 16 Nothing but an Earthquake SOBBING DIVA FAINTS ON STAGE DIVA STRICKEN WHILE SINGING LOTTE SEASICK, COLLAPSES ON STAGE HYSTERICAL, SHE STOPS OPERA DIVA FLEES STAGE, NEAR COLLAPSE Such were the headlines that appeared the next day, May 5, 1938, in...
Chapter 15 Above All, a Woman For the moment, Lotte’s new family presented no problems. Their mother had left them well-provided for, and there was a well-to-do uncle. The three athletic young men were Ludwig (always called “Pucki”), 21; Hans, 18;...
CHAPTER 14 Like a Flow of Lava When Lotte returned to America in the fall of 1934, she brought her brother, Fritz, with her. She hoped to help him establish himself in New York, as a dramatic coach for singers. They arrived November 6 in New York. Constance Hope put...
CHAPTER 13 The Lioness Was Less Dangerous What singer has not dreamed of a Metropolitan Opera contract, the sweetest confirmation of operatic success? There are a few great singers who made a name in opera during the past hundred years without ever having appeared at...
CHAPTER 12 One Does See the Garden January 7, 1932, was a major new landmark in Lotte Lehmann’s career. It was the date of her first New York recital, at Town Hall, and the beginning of a long series of such recitals, a series that made musical history. Success...
CHAPTER 11 Wild Indians and Other Dangers The new decade began auspiciously. Who, at that time, would have guessed that it would end in war and disaster? On January 1, 1930, Lotte Lehmann sang Fidelio at the Vienna Opera in a performance conducted by Richard Strauss....
