Lotte Lehmann
Madame Lotte Lehmann, the grande dame of opera, has been described as one of those rare artists who generate love from the stage.
Lehmann sang a broad repertory in her early years in German and Austrian opera houses, scenes of still unforgotten triumphs, but in America she was most celebrated as an interpreter of the operas of Ricard Wagner and Richard Strauss.
She was most closely identified with the complex role of the Marschallin in Stauss' "Der Rosenkavlier," in which she was said to have conveyed unique elegance without artificiality.
In 1916, Lehmann moved to Vienna. It was here she sang the role of the Composer in the newly revised version Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos." It was a role that launched her international career.
In 1938, the famed soprano moved to the United States. She settled in Santa Barbara in 1939 after the death of her husband, Otto Krause, an Austrian military officer she married in 1926.
Although her farewell performance was a recital at the New York Town Hall in 1951, she came out of retirement in 1962 to help the Metropolitan Opera prepare a revival production of "Rosenkavalier."
In October 1951, she began teaching at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and later headed the vocal department there for many years. She gave her last class there in 1969.
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