Lotte Lehmann

Soprano, born in Perleberg, NEC Germany (no relation to Lilli Lehmann). She studied in Berlin, made her debut in Hamburg in 1910, and sang at the Vienna Staatsoper (1914–38). She also appeared frequently at Covent Garden and at the New York Metropolitan, and was noted particularly for her performances in operas by Richard Strauss, including two premieres. She took US nationality, and in 1951 retired to Santa Barbara.

The German soprano Lotte Lehmann (February 27, 1888 – August 26, 1976) was an opera and Lieder singer who was especially associated with German repertory.

Lehmann was born in Perleberg. In 1914, she sang for the first time and in 1916 joined the Vienna State Opera, where she sang in the premieres of a number of Strauss's operas, Ariadne auf Naxos (1916), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), Intermezzo, (1924), and Arabella (1933) as well as Vienna premiers of several operas of Puccini. Lehmann made her debut in London in 1914, and from 1924 to 1935 she performed regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In 1930, Lehmann made her US debut in Chicago as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre. Just before Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, Lehmann emigrated to the United States, where she sang at the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera until 1945.

In addition to her operatic work, Lehmann was a renowned singer of lieder, giving frequent recitals up until her retirement.

After her retirement from the recital stage in 1951, Lehmann taught master classes in Santa Barbara, California, at the Music Academy of the West, which she helped found.

She was a prolific writer, publishing a book of poems Verse in Prosa in the early 1920s, a novel, Orplid, mein Land (1937), translated as Eternal Flight (1937) and a book of memoirs, Anfang und Aufstieg (1937), translated as On Wings of Song (UK 1938) and as Midway in My Song (US 1938);

Biographies of Lehmann include: Lotte Lehmann...mehr als eine Sängerin by Wessling (1969); Lotte Lehmann: A Life in Opera and Song by Glass (1988); Lotte Lehmann: 1888-1976 A Centenary Biography by Jefferson (1988), translated into German as Lotte Lehmann: Eine Biographie (1991).

Lehmann died in 1976 age 88 in Santa Barbara, California.

The Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara was named in her honor.

The Lotte Lehmann Foundation was begun in 1995 with the dual missions to preserve and perpetuate Lotte Lehmann's legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song into the lives of as many people as possible.