This Lotte Lehmann Chronology is divided into four parts. A condensed one-page version can be found below.
- Studies & Hamburg Opera Years: 1888–1916
- Vienna Years: 1916–1937
- U.S. Opera/Recital Years: 1937–1951
- Teaching Years: 1951–1976
The following people have helped with the chronology research: Dr. Herman Schornstein, Shirley Sproule, Hertha Schuck; chronology researcher Nicolai Heske provided the recital and church concert dates that Lehmann sang early in her career in Hamburg. Historic chronology work continued with help from chronologists Charles Mintzer, who wrote Rosa Raisa’s biography, and Bob Tuggle, Director of the Metropolitan Opera Archives. The Lehmann Chronology also had help from researchers in Vienna (Karin Neuwirth, Peter Claussen, Jean-Pascal Vachon), Stockholm, Hamburg (Alfred Kaine), Paris (Jean-Pascal Vachon), and Chicago (Rebecca Kahn).
Condensed Lehmann Chronology
1888 Born in Perleberg, Germany
1910 Hamburg Opera debut
1916 Sings premier of Ariadne auf Naxos, Vienna Opera
1919 Sings premier of Frau ohne Schatten, Vienna Opera
1920 Sings Vienna premier of Suor Angelica, Vienna Opera
1924 Covent Garden debut as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
1924 Sings premier of Intermezzo, Dresden Opera
1926 Sings Vienna premier of Turandot, Vienna Opera
1930 First US appearances
1932 First Town Hall recital
1933 Sings Vienna premier of Arabella, Vienna Opera
1934 Metropolitan Opera debut (Sieglinde in Die Walküre)
1937 Leaves Vienna for the US; tours Australia
1939 Her husband, Otto Krause, dies
1946 Final opera appearances
1947 Helps found the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, where she lives and teaches both privately and at the MAW
1947 Appears in MGM’s Big City
1950 Exhibits her paintings
1951 Final song recital appearances
1952 Master Classes (Pasadena, MAW and later throughout the world)
1953 “Evening with Lotte Lehmann” a series of staged performances, in which her students sang, and Lehmann spoke
1960 Produces Arabella at MAW (regularly produces opera performances there)
1961 NET records her opera and Lieder master classes at MAW
1976 Dies, Santa Barbara, California, US
Operation 1923
Peter Clausen, sent this 7 December 1923 Lehmann clipping from Vienna’s Neue Freie Presse, which we 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 later life?]
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.
Knapp Castle 1940
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.
Berlin Column 2013
In April 2013 we 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.”