Lilli Lehmann

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Lilli Lehmann
Dramatic coloratura soprano
Spouse
​
(m. 1888)​
Signature

Lilli Lehmann (born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch; 24 November 1848 – 17 May 1929) was a German

dramatic coloratura soprano. She was also a voice teacher and animal welfare
advocate.

Biography

The future opera star's father, Karl-August Lehmann, was a singer (

Imperial Chamber Singer
for life in 1876.

Portrait with signature, 1903

Lehmann sang in the first

Emperor
, the ban was lifted.

She appeared at London's

Lieder
singer. She continued to give recitals until her retirement from the concert stage in the 1920s.

Her mature voice, of splendid quality and large volume, gained for her the reputation of being not only one of the greatest Wagnerian singers of her day but also an ideal interpreter of Bellini's Norma and the operatic music of Mozart. She was considered unsurpassed in the roles of Brünnhilde and Isolde but sang an astonishingly wide array of other parts. Indeed, across the span of her career, she performed 170 different parts in a total of 119 German, Italian and French operas. She was noted not only for her rendering of the musical score, but also as a tragic actress.[2]

She was also a noted voice teacher. Among her pupils were the famous sopranos Geraldine Farrar, Viorica Ursuleac, Edytha Fleischer, Olive Fremstad; the mezzo-sopranos Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and Marion Telva; tenor Walter Kirchhoff; and the contralto and composer Florence Wickham. Longtime Juilliard School professor of voice Lucia Dunham, who trained many other famous singers, was also one of her pupils.[3][4]

Lehmann founded the International Summer Academy at the

Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1916. The academy's curriculum concentrated on voice lessons at first but it was extended later to include a wide variety of musical instruction.[5]

The Lilli Lehmann Medal is awarded by the Mozarteum in her honour. Her voice can be heard on CD reissues of the recordings which she made prior to World War I. Although past her peak as an operatic singer when she made these records, they still impress.

Personal life

Lehmann and Paul Kalisch

She married the tenor

anti-vivisectionist, and nothing pleased her more in New York than the fact that the whipping of horses was forbidden."[9] She also campaigned against the use of feathers from exotic birds in women's hats and costume, and after her operatic performances, she would offer her autograph to women who promised not to wear feathers in their hats. [10]

Publications

Citations

  1. OCLC 268087
    .
  2. ^ a b Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Lehmann, Lilli" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  3. ^ "Mrs. Lucia Dunham, Juilliard Teacher". The New York Times. 3 April 1959. p. 27.
  4. ^ "Obituary: Lucia Dunham". The Juilliard Review. 6 (2): 16. Spring 1959.
  5. ^ "International Summer Academy". Archived from the original on 2 July 2008.
  6. ^ "In and Around New York". Chicago Tribune. New York (published 26 February 1888). 25 February 1888. p. 8. Retrieved 9 August 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: Ideal Publishing Union. p. 132
  8. ^ "Why A Vegetarian" The Philipsburg Mail (May 5, 1899).
  9. ISBN 9780140083781
    . Retrieved 9 August 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ "Keeping Feathers off Hats–and on Birds".

References

  • wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
    New International Encyclopedia
    . Vol. 13 (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. pp. 740–741.
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