Recordings You can listen to every commercial recording made by Lehmann from 1914–1949. These are in mp3 format.
You can read what critics wrote of Lehmann’s Lieder recordings found in Song on record from 1986. I’ve included the actual recording so that you can hear what the writers are referring to.
Special Aria or Song A concentrated account of a particular opera aria or the cycles, Winterreise, Dichterliebe, and Die schöne Müllerin with Lehmann’s own paintings and recitation, as well as her singing and teaching.
Compare Lehmann’s live vs. studio recordings.
You can hear the favorite Lehmann recordings of critics, reviewers, and fans.
Listen to Lehmann “live” in radio broadcasts of the 1940s. I’ve chosen fast moving Lieder. Some are Lieder that she never recorded in studio, and all featuring Lehmann’s unmistakable emotional commitment.
Songs in English Since many of the visitors to this site speak English, this can be an especially nice introduction to the world of Lehmann.
Light songs and operetta The division between “art” music and light music wasn’t so distinct in Lehmann’s time and she sang and recorded a lot of pop-like songs.
Lehmann sings two songs from Winterreise in a “live” radio broadcast: Gute Nacht Der Wegweiser
You can enjoy a radio broadcast of Lehmann singing Schubert’s “Ungeduld” from Die schöne Müllerin with string orchestra accompaniment. It’s “live” as you’ll hear with the applause at the end .
Lehmann sings four Strauss Lieder and two encores with orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, Eugene Ormandy conducting from 5 August 1948, complete with introductions, applause, and commentary.
Hear how Lehmann sang Schubert’s “Ständchen” (Leise flehen…) from 1927–1950.
Lehmann’s performances of Schubert’s “Der Doppelgänger” with article by Macaulay.
Lehmann’s recordings of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben (1924 – 1946)
Herman Klein reviews of Lehmann records 1924-1934 that you can also hear.
Hear Lehmann as the Marschallin in the live 1939 Met Der Rosenkavalier (excerpts) with commentary
Listen for the difference sound engineers can make on these following radio broadcast recordings. Mostly Lieder, but you’ll also find Puccini, Wagner, etc.
The 1940 Met (in Boston) Die Walküre (excerpts) with commentary is now available in good sound. You can also listen to the complete 16 January 1937 Metropolitan Opera performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre with Lehmann as Sieglinde, Melchior, Siegmund, et al. The noise level and the broken bits can be annoying, but the singing/acting that you’ll be able to decipher is beyond anything that you may have heard.
For the Lehmann completest, we have a few seconds of her singing as Eva in Die Meistersinger conducted by Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival of 1936. You’ll hear the tenor sing the prize song twice and then Lehmann sings a bit at 3:24. And you can also hear a slightly cleaned up version of the acoustically horrible (but exciting) short-wave broadcast of Toscanini conducting Lehmann in the Abscheulicher and Komm’ Hoffnung from the Fidelio of 16 August 1936.
Perhaps also for the completest, though some of the recordings are difficult to listen to, we offer excerpts from Vienna Opera performances with Lehmann of: Die Meistersinger, Tannhäuser, Andrea Chenier, Die Walküre and Der Rosenkavalier.
We have a whole page dedicated to a live concert Lehmann performed with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in 1946. The orchestra doesn’t sound professional, the recording is poor, and since it was performed outdoors (in the University of Washington Stadium), there’s ambient noise. But Lehmann sings well, despite everything. Schubert’s Die junge Nonne, Der Jungling an der Quelle, and Der Erlkönig. She also performs Wagner’s Träume, from his Wesendonck Lieder.
Many songs on the Bruno Walter Society LP have never found their way to CD. Here’s that 22 minute recording. BWS LP; many of these songs appeared on the LP odyssey Mono 32 16 0179. In any case, the recordings can be also heard in the “Sound” Discography on this site.
Here’s a section from the movie that Lehmann made: MGM Movie Clip: BigCity You can also see her sing a portion of the Kerry Dances.
You can hear the 6 January 2015 presentation called “Lotte Lehmann, Legendary and Unknown” prepared by Gary Hickling for the Vocal Record Collectors Society. The presentation included Lehmann singing well known as well as rare aspects of her repertoire. Gary Hickling provided the introductions to each selection Part One. Part Two. It lasts just over 30 minutes.
Lehmann CDs: A list of her CDs and their contents.
Famous Conductors with whom Lehmann Sang
Comparisons It’s always interesting to hear how Lehmann sounds in comparison with others of her time and ours.
Roles & Repertoire One can view the roles that Lehmann sang on the opera stage, how many times she sang them and when she first essayed them. The list of her art song (Lieder) repertoire is also available there.
Discography This discography is useful for those who want the details of matrices, takes, and recording dates. The first listed “Recordings” above offers a simplified “discography” with the sound recording for each entry.
Missing Recordings These are radio broadcasts for which we have little or no sound documentation. Keep your eyes out!
Here’s a live excerpt of Lehmann in the final Die Meistersinger quintet: Selig wie die Sonne_with the Vienna Opera conducted by Weingartner in 1935 in quite bad sound, but fun to hear on the stage. YouTube has posted a really well-filtered version of one of Lehmann’s most popular recordings, the 1924 acoustic of Korngold’s famous duet from Die tode Stadt with Richard Tauber.