Background
Lotte Lehmann was born in Perleberg, Germany, the daughter of Carl Lehmann, a minor official of a benevolent society, and Marie Schuster. Her full christened name was Charlotte Sophie Pauline Lehmann.
(Disc one tracks 1. - 8., performed 10 February, 1946 (Sch...)
Disc one tracks 1. - 8., performed 10 February, 1946 (Schubert) are: 1. An Eine Quelle, 2. Der Tod und das Madchen, 3. Der Jungling und der Tod, 4. Auflosong, 5. Die Forelle, 6. Dass sie hier gewesen, 7. Schwanengesang, 8. Die Manner sind mechant. Disc one tracks 9. - 21. "Zigeunerlieder" are 9. He Zigeuner, griefe in die Saiten ein, 10. Hochgeturmte Rimaflut, 11. Wisst ihr, wann mein Kindchen, 12. Lieber Gott du weisst, 13. Brauner Bursche fuhrt zum Tanze, 14. Roslein dreie in der reihe, 15. Kommt dir manchmai in der Sinn, 16. Rote Abendwolken ziehn am Firmament, 17. Wie bist du meine Konigin, 18. Die Keanz, 19. Es traumte mir, 20. Fruhlingslied, 21. Willst du dass ich geh?.
https://www.amazon.com/Lotte-Lehmann-Town-Hall-Recitals/dp/B000IVL46K?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000IVL46K
(A marvelous collection of 'rarities'. Selected by produce...)
A marvelous collection of 'rarities'. Selected by producer Gary Hickling from archival radio performances and studio 'test pressings.' Included are 10 previously unreleased recordings. All selections superbly restored in 2013 by Lani Spahr Includes a bonus CD-ROM featuring discographical information, liner notes, photos, texts and translations!
https://www.amazon.com/Lotte-Lehmann-125th-Birthday-Tribute/dp/B00I0VTO5I?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00I0VTO5I
(This CD is not just a ''must'' for all true Wagner devote...)
This CD is not just a ''must'' for all true Wagner devotees, it is sure to be of great interest to all lovers of historic recordings whether they follow great conductors of the century, nforgettable vocal soloists or illustrious orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic. On June 22, 1935, the star Wagner cast of all time assembled in a Vienna studio to record the first act and the Siegmund/Sieglinde scenes of the second act from ''The Valkyrie'' by Richard Wagner, as yet unaware that their recording would acquire a cult following and benchmark status. This was the lineup: the unsurpassed Danish heroic tenor Lauritz Melchior as Siegmund, the richly expressive soprano Lotte Lehmann as Sieglinde and one of the darkest and gloomiest basses ever recorded, Emanuel List, as Hunding. True, the Thirties sound lacks the polished stereo perfection of the presentday, but the original tracks have been subjected to very careful and thorough restoration. The recording is brought to life by its dramatic fire. Lauritz Melchior, always in a class of his own, invests Siegm und with consuming intensity and brings out the expressiveness of the tiniest details. Lotte Lehmann transmits the full brilliance of her wonderful, lyrical voice. Emanuel List gives Hunding the dark eminence of a shadowy statue, powerful in sound and hreateningly sinister in tone. And all this takes place under the expert baton of conductor Bruno Walter, who inspires the Vienna Phil to give of their very best a life-changing experience of music drama and the crowning achievement among all historic Wagner recordings.
https://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Die-Walk%C3%BCre-Act-1/dp/B00CSHCIHG?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00CSHCIHG
(Dust jacket notes: "Lotte Lehmann is the last - and argua...)
Dust jacket notes: "Lotte Lehmann is the last - and arguably the greatest - ornament of the golden age of singing. In each of her great operatic roles - as Marschallin or Leonora or Sieglinde, or enchanting Rosalinde - she demonstrated an unique ability to match great singing with equally great acting. She was, in the fullest sense of the word, an interpreter. So, too, on the concert platform, she was an ideal interpreter, conveying to her audience a profound understanding of the rare marriage of words and music which is the hallmark of great Lieder. In her retirement she has become a distinguished teacher and this book is a distillation of her unique experience and knowledge of the singer's art. It is a book which will be read with pleasure and profit not only by students but also by lovers of Lieder everywhere. The eighteen song cycles range from Beethoven to Richard Strauss and include five cycles by Berlioz, Debussy ad Ravel. In his Foreword to the book, Neville Cardus writes: 'In this book Lehmann bestows on us her harvestings - enriching, I think, not only to students of Lieder, but to the oldest of music lovers. It is wise, wiser maybe than she knows. It teaches to the purist, insists on the individuality of the learner. But, more rewarding still, it is a book which reflects and sustains our impressions, our devotion to and admiration of, Lotte Lehmann.'"
https://www.amazon.com/Eighteen-song-cycles-Studies-interpretation/dp/0304938424?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0304938424
Lotte Lehmann was born in Perleberg, Germany, the daughter of Carl Lehmann, a minor official of a benevolent society, and Marie Schuster. Her full christened name was Charlotte Sophie Pauline Lehmann.
After elementary education in Perleberg and studies at the Ulrich Lyceum in Berlin, she enrolled for private vocal training at the Royal High School of Music in Berlin. She and the distinguished teacher Etelka Gerster were incompatible, and it was not until she began to study with Mathilde Mallinger, a star of Bayreuth and Berlin who had created Eva in Die Meistersinger, that her voice was properly placed.
Lehmann was offered an engagement with the Hamburg Opera, where she made her professional debut as the Second Boy in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on September 2, 1910. Stage experience in a multitude of small parts, and singing under such eminent conductors as Arthur Nikisch and Otto Klemperer, developed her as an artist. A real breakthrough came in 1912 with her success in her first major role, Elsa, in Lohengrin. After this came other leading parts: Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Eva in Die Meistersinger, Micaela in Carmen, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and many others.
In 1916, Lehmann moved to the Court Opera in Vienna. After a successful debut in August as Agathe in Der Freischütz, in October she became a star when she created the role of the Composer in the premiere of the revised version of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. This began her long association with Strauss, who had requested her for the role and whose guidance and coaching became a major influence on her career. In addition to Ariadne, she sang in the Vienna premieres of Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), Intermezzo (1924), and Arabella (1933). In 1914, Lehmann had begun her international career by singing Sophie in Strauss's then-new Der Rosenkavalier in London under Thomas Beecham; that fall in Hamburg she added the trouser role of Octavian, and in 1924 in London she sang what became her greatest part, the Marschallin. It was her role in this opera for the rest of her career, and the role in which she sang her farewell to opera in 1946. Lehmann's years in Vienna saw a succession of triumphs. She sang an immense number of roles--the variety and range of which her later American career gave little indication: Puccini and Massenet, Mozart and Tchaikovsky, as well as Beethoven, Wagner, and Strauss.
She and the Moravian soprano Maria Jeritza divided the loyalties of the knowledgeable Viennese public. Lehmann had an appeal that went beyond the glowing beauty of her voice. She even managed to convert her vocal defects--and she was the first to admit that there were defects--into strengths. For example, her breathing was flawed, but she managed to turn the necessity of snatching a breath into a dramatic asset, creating an illumination of character from a moment of physical frailty. And she was able to do this on the recital platform as well as on the operatic stage, touching her audiences with the sense that they were hearing an aspiring, though imperfect, human being, like themselves.
Lehmann moved beyond central Europe in the 1920's with a season in South America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio, Säo Paulo) in 1922, London in 1924 and annually thereafter through the 1930's, Paris in 1928, and Brussels and Stockholm in 1929. In 1926 she began the series of appearances at the Salzburg Festival that continued until the Nazis took over Austria in 1938.
In October 1930 she made her American debut, not at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where her rival Maria Jeritza reigned, but at the Chicago Civic Opera, whose company was then the equal, in artistry and opulence, of the Metropolitan. As Sieglinde, Elsa, and Elisabeth she convinced the American critics that she was a first-rank German lyric soprano, and it was in these seasons (1930 - 1932) that she began the song recitals in which she continued to enchant audiences after her operatic days were over.
With the rise of Hitler, Lehmann's German career effectively ended, for while she was not Jewish, and indeed had been invited by Hermann Göring to sing in Berlin, she preferred not to perform where Nazis ruled. After 1938, Austria heard her no more. She became an American citizen in 1945, eleven years after she made her Metropolitan debut following the departure of Jeritza from the company. She sang there for twelve seasons, until a final Rosenkavalier in February 1945. Her last operatic appearances were in the same work with the San Francisco Opera in 1945 and 1946. A reduced operatic schedule was balanced by an increased number of lieder recitals, where the purely vocal demands were not as great, and where her deepening interpretative insights increasingly illuminated the rich world of song for an ever more affectionate public. No singer did more than Lehmann to bring a knowledge of German song to American audiences.
On February 16, 1951, just a few days before her sixty-third birthday, Lehmann sang her farewell concert at Town Hall in New York City. Though there were later a few recitals elsewhere, it was in effect the end of her singing career. After Lehmann retired to Santa Barbara, California, she became a distinguished teacher of such renowned pupils as Marilyn Horne, Grace Bumbry, Carol Neblett, Jeannine Altmeyer, Maralin Niska, and Janet Baker.
When she returned to Austria in 1955 for the reopening of the State Opera, where she had sung so brilliantly for so many years, the outpouring of affection of the Viennese public proved that their most beloved singer had not been forgotten. In 1962 Lehmann helped stage the Metropolitan revival of Der Rosenkavalier with Régine Crespin in the role of the Marschallin. She painted, sculpted, wrote, and recorded recitals of poetry, exhibiting tireless creative energy. With advancing years, declining strength necessarily limited her activities. Lehmann died in Santa Barbara.
(This CD is not just a ''must'' for all true Wagner devote...)
(Dust jacket notes: "Lotte Lehmann is the last - and argua...)
(NAX 8110191; NAXOS - Germania; Classica Lirica)
(A marvelous collection of 'rarities'. Selected by produce...)
(Disc one tracks 1. - 8., performed 10 February, 1946 (Sch...)
On April 28, 1926, Lehmann married Otto Krause. They had no children.