Lotte Lehmann
Toronto Daily Star, October 21 1935
It seems odd to me that this Massey Hall ad only featured the last name of the performer. I suppose that, if you were really cultured, you would have known who this was. Fortunately, an ad for Heintzman pianos that appeared earlier in the same edition gave her full name:
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) was a German soprano who had her first leading role at the Vienna State Opera in 1914. She performed regularly at Covent Garden in London between 1924 and 1935.
She emigrated to the United States in 1938, just before Germany annexed Austria. She continued performing until 1951, and taught master classes after that. When not singing or teaching people to sing, she was a prolific writer and painter.
Some interesting trivia about her:
- She discovered the Trapp family singers in Salzburg in 1936. They became famous in The Sound Of Music.
- She portrayed Danny Thomas's mother in Big City (1948).
- She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but they misspelled her name ("Lottie").
There are a lot of Lotte Lehmann performances on YouTube; here's one of them.
Created August 8, 2025.