CHAPTER 8 Role Screams for Lehmann The Habsburg Empire was falling apart. In April 1918 Clemenceau had revealed that Karl I had made secret negotiations for a separate peace. Germany, furious, forced him to surrender all independent power of action. The German armies...
CHAPTER 7 That Something Extra Let Lotte Lehmann herself give the prelude to her long love affair with Vienna: The year 1916 was a rather important one in my life; I left the Hamburg Municipal Theatre for what at that time still bore the proud name of “Royal and...
CHAPTER 6 Raining Gold Lotte had good luck with Gluck. Eurydice had brought her to the attention of Caruso. Now his Iphigenia in Aulis opened the new season 1913-1914, her fourth. She sang the title role, which her ancestress Sophie Arnould had created in Paris. With...
CHAPTER 4 A Chambermaid in Valhalla August 25, 1910. First rehearsal: Gerhilde in Die Walküre. Felix Landau, the coach, thundered out the “Ride of the Valkyries” at the piano and Lotte, with a quick prayer and a big breath, let loose a hearty...
Beaumont Glass and his wife moved into Lehmann’s old house in 1987 in order to write her biography. He had been her assistant at the Music Academy of the West, and his wife had studied with Lehmann. Francis Holden gave them complete access to everything...
INTRODUCTION Arturo Toscanini called her “the greatest artist in the world.” Richard Strauss uttered the words that are now engraved on her tombstone: “Sie hat gesungen, dass es Sterne rührte”—her singing moved the stars. Puccini preferred her...
