ACTIVE LEHMANN LEGACY

• The first volume of Lehmann’s master classes filmed for television in 1961 has been released on video by VAI and can be purchased through <orders@vaimusic.com>. Visually, the quality is probably as good as it originally looked on TV, and Lehmann’s spoken introductions and “demonstrations” are clear; although the sound of the young singers is a bit distorted, this video is still a valuable tool for singers, teachers and certainly, Lehmann fans. Hilde Randolph, who saw Lehmann in Vienna, comments: “How extraordinary to have preserved Lehmann’s interpretation of the ‘Marschallin Monologue’ - it was so vivid I felt I was in the Vienna opera seeing her sitting in front of the mirror...”

• A two-CD set of most of Lehmann’s Columbia recordings is now available on Romophone: 81032-2. There are songs here that were never released on 78 rpm discs and one that was not even published on Lp (Schubert’s Liebesbotschaft). These CDs have been beautifully remastered, and if Lehmann’s vocal flexibility isn’t all that it should be for Die schöne Müllerin, her interpretation is gripping. If this CD isn’t available at your local store, enquire through <norpete@aol.com>.

• Several television programs were recently broadcast in Germany in honor of the 25th anniversary of Lehmann’s death (26 August 1976). One of them included a filmed Lehmann interview from 1969, in which she is lively, candid and charming. We will be placing excerpts from this interview on the Lehmann Website.

• In November 2001 the Lehmann Archives at the University of California Santa Barbara presented an exhibit of photos of Lehmann as well as some of her own artwork from the collection. The Santa Barbara Independent reported the exhibit demonstrated “...her grand life, in photographs that show some greatness gone from our contemporary air.”

• Research by Michele Smith of the New York Philharmonic Archives revealed that Lehmann performed with the Philharmonic six times from 1933 to 1937; some performances were in Carnegie Hall and with such famous conductors as Bruno Walter, Artur Rodzinski, and Otto Klemperer. The performances of 30 December 1934 and
8 December 1935 were broadcast, but so far no recording has been discovered. Copies of the printed programs are available on this Website.

LEHMANN “FACTS” CLARIFIED

Alan Jefferson’s biography of Lotte Lehmann contains many errors, some of which have recently been brought to our attention.

• You may know that Lehmann’s husband, Otto Krause, was married when Lehmann was presented (by his wife) as a surprise birthday guest. Krause was already a great fan, but after this they fell in love and eventually married. Writer/researcher Marie-Theres Arnbom informed us that Jefferson inaccurately wrote that Krause’s wife was a Baroness and widow with four children when Krause married her. In fact, she wasn’t a Baroness and Krause fathered the children. We recently spoke with the youngest, Peter, who related how he and his siblings benefitted from Lehmann’s help when they escaped Vienna after the Anschluss. Now in his 80s, Peter recalled his youthful ambition to be a conductor and how he enjoyed his visits to the Vienna Opera and Salzburg to hear his famous stepmother sing.

• Bernhard von Barsewisch, who had many lengthy talks with Lehmann, wrote us the following: “When Lotte was singing at the opera house in Hamburg, her earliest triumph was ‘Elsa.’ My grandfather Baron Konrad zu Putlitz had sponsored lessons with Mme. Mallinger which enabled Lotte to start her splendid career. My grandfather, travelling through Hamburg, saw Lotte on the stage and fell intensely in love with her. Lotte desperately tried to convince him that he was infatuated with ‘Elsa’ and not with the human being Lotte Lehmann, but all in vain. When they sat down to dine he gave her a piece of paper with a poem he had written for her and asked her to read it to him. She was so excited that she had to lean her arms against the table to hide how much she was shivering. For her it was as if a god-like figure had descended from heaven and acted like a very mortal elderly gentleman. The only words she could think were ‘The Baron and his Protégé’…and Mr. Jefferson made this the title of the poem! No, Lotte found it terrifying that the situation resembled the typical cliché of a wealthy man supporting a young girl. Lotte remained firm, my grandfather returned extremely thoughtful to his home in Groß Pankow, not without sending some love letters to Hamburg. These and the poem had to be burned by demand of my austere grandmother. So the poem is lost, the title remains a mystery forever, but certainly it was nothing so clumsy as Mr. Jefferson had misunderstood.”

• A fascinating anecdote was provided by Marie-Theres Arnbom, currently writing a book on four famous Viennese families, one of which is Krause’s first wife’s family, the Gutmanns. Ms. Arnbom, who had a hunch about a Lehmann connection with a beautiful resort town not far from Salzburg, did some research and provided us with the following story: “On August 9, 1936 there was a peasant wedding in St. Gilgen (Austria), presided over by Chancelor Schuschnigg, naturally for propaganda reasons, to demonstrate his connection to the ‘folk.’ There was a giant program with folk ensembles from all over Austria, a party and a huge ceremonial mass...and during this mass LL sang!” Ms. Arnbom sent newspaper clippings, (including a photo of LL with Toscanini at the celebration) and a charming photo of Lehmann with her dog Mausi, which she dedicated to the couple. These photos are may be seen on this Website.

WEBSITE POPULARITY AND CONTENT GROWING

The Lehmann Website continues to draw enormous numbers of visitors. From April to November 2001 over 400,000 pages were successfully downloaded. In their review of music websites, the French magazine Répertoire awarded our website the highest rating for design and ease of use.

Many new photos of Lehmann have been posted. The “Song!” portion of the site now features CyberSing vocal competition information in several languages. Great Songs radio program archives on the “Song!” site are extensive, allowing visitors to hear a wide sampling of programs and interviews with people active in the song world.

SIXTH ANNUAL SONG CONTEST TRAVELLING TO THE NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

With the support of a grant from the Orvis Foundation, this spring we will be able to record classical song contestants on every major Hawaiian island. This grant allows a producer, a recording engineer, and where necessary, a pianist, to fly to each venue from Honolulu. We already have dates and sites on the Big Island for Kona and Hilo; Hilo singers are proud of (and motivated by!) the success of “their” tenor, Kaweo Kanoho, who was one of the four winners in 2001. A fine recording studio with a grand piano has been located on Maui and singers are being contacted there. We will continue to offer free use of the recording facilities at Hawaii Public Radio’s Atherton Performing Arts Studio on Oahu. We look forward to hearing entries from ALL talented singers of Hawaii.

One may see and hear our Art Song Contest Winners on our Website.

WORLD OF SONG AWARD

The Lotte Lehmann Foundation presented its first “World of Song Award” to Dalton Baldwin, in honor of his 70th Birthday, 19 December 2001. The inscription reads: “For your selfless and generous support of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation as Advisor and Friend, and for your lifetime of distinguished performance as a collaborative pianist, and for the education of generations of singers and pianists.” The elaborate document was designed by New York calligrapher Denis Lund, and may be viewed on the Lehmann Website.

SUPRA TITLES: A VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

Past newsletters have described our work to develop and demonstrate digitally-projected translations for the song recitalist. The popularity of supra titles is growing - the Marilyn Horne Foundation used projected translations in “The Song Continues” recital performances at Alice Tully Hall in January 2002, and the Vancouver Recital Society is investigating projected titles for their visiting singers.

We are happy to announce that we have produced a video demonstrating this simple technique, which shows the logistics of the screen, projector and laptop displaying titles for former Art Song Contest Winner, soprano Phyllis Haines. The 5 minute video can be ordered by contacting us at the email or regular mail address at the bottom of the newsletter’s front page. You can also view the video on the Song! Website.

FOUNDATION ADVISOR NEWS

We welcome two new Lehmann Foundation Advisors. Internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade has a special interest in digitally-projected supra titles. Soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, contemporary song specialist and a member of the voice faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, is enthusiastic about CyberSing and will help us promote it in Asia.

Many thanks to Advisor Benita Valente for writing our Winter newsletter’s fundraising appeal, and to Grace Bumbry for writing our last fundraising letter. Ms. Bumbry continues to sing a series of recitals in homage to Lotte Lehmann. Here’s a review of such a recital from the Munich Abendzeitung: “...At the end of her career, beyond its radiant zenith, Grace Bumbry paid tribute to her mentor and teacher, Lotte Lehmann. Honoring her memory, she immersed herself in the subtle and sensitive world of German romantic song. Nobody in the hall expected that Grace Bumbry was capable of revealing the ultimate secrets in Schubert’s ‘Liebesbotschaft’ or ‘Der Taubenpost,’ or singing with such an emotional incandescence in ‘Von ewiger Liebe’ (Brahms) or bringing the delicate vibration to Schumann’s ‘Nussbaum,’ then finding the exact center of the frenzied luxurious sound of ‘Cäcilie of Richard Strauss...” --Rüdiger Schwarz.

WEALTH OF GREAT SONGS ON WEBSITE

The 2001 season of Hawaii Public Radio’s Great Songs was rich with interviews. Host Gary Hickling taped programs with Lehmann Foundation Advisors including Hugues Cuénod, tenor, (in his 99th year), composers Ned Rorem and Dan Welcher, and soprano Judith Kellock. Dana Hanchard, soprano, best known as baroque specialist, brought recordings of her own songs, as well as Duke Ellington songs and South American songs with guitar from her recent CD "Once Canciones" by Diego Lazuriaga. All guests infused the programs with their unique experiences in the world of classical song.

Further 2001 program highlights include excerpts from the Art Song Contest Winners Recital, “Lehmann Lite,” “Battle of the Baritones” (Fischer-Dieskau and Prey) and “April Fools Fun.” All of these programs, and others of special interest, may be downloaded from the “Song!” portion of the Foundation Website or ordered from us on CD for a $10 fee.

CyberSing: FROM AUSTRALIA TO ZIMBABWE

The Lotte Lehmann Foundation officially announced CyberSing 2002, our global, internet-based art song competition, in October 2001 by sending press releases and announcements to thousands of newspapers, magazines, schools, teachers, and agents. The unusual nature of the contest has piqued the interest of media editors: magazines such as England’s Singer and Germany's Das OpernGlas recently printed articles on CyberSing, and many classical music websites around the world are displaying CyberSing announcements. Awareness of the contest has been further enhanced by features on the BBC World Service and New York City’s major public radio station, WNYC.

Instructions are now available in English, French, German and Japanese, and Foundation board member Marina Smous-Bradford is translating a Russian version as well. True to the goals of its international design, interested singers from Scandinavia, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Kazakstan, Indonesia, China and Russia have either contacted us or downloaded information from the Website; by the deadline, 31 July 2002, we expect many fine entries from around the world.

Ned Rorem wrote the competition’s “required” song to poetry of Lotte Lehmann, translated into English by Judy Sutcliffe. Lehmann Foundation Advisor Frederica von Stade calls the Rorem song “wonderful” and plans to sing its world premiere. The song, “I Never Knew,” is available (only) from the Boosey & Hawkes website: www.boosey.com.

CyberSing winners’ prize money is being graciously provided by various Foundation Advisors: Marni Nixon and Paul Sperry are funding the “American Song Prize” (named for Jan de Gaetani); Dalton Baldwin is sponsoring the “Best Pianist” prize; Natalie Limonick and board member Nancy Bannick will donate for “Best Combination of Singer and Pianist;” and board member Dennis Moore will underwrite the award for best performance of the Rorem song.

CyberSing provides the opportunity for singers in remote areas, with little money or artistic outlet, to be heard. This was illustrated recently by the following message we received from Zimbabwe teacher/singer Lorna Begbie: “I heard about CyberSing through the BBC and then quickly logged on to the given website. I am so excited about it! I teach singing (as well as being a performer) and have interested four of my pupils who are going to try to enter. Our problem in this country is the foreign exchange - there is none!! We are in Pauper Status (you may have read of our troubles here under a now ruthless dictator who will hurt anything and anyone that stands in his way of maintaining power.) So what we need to do is SING!! I have been a lieder singer all my singing life - it’s my first love of all the aspects of singing and am so thrilled to hear about the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. How I would LOVE to be involved in some way with an organization like this - but alas I am on the other end of the globe! So the best way to be involved is to interest as many people as possible - which is what I am working on!”

From the desk of Benita Valente:

Dear Friends,

You may know that I studied for several years with Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West. It was invaluable to my development as an artist. Mme. Lehmann’s love of Lieder, and her great ability to communicate this beautiful world of poetry and music, were inspirational to those of us who had the privilege to work with her.

It is my wish that the Lied repertoire could gain the recognition and support that opera and symphonic music enjoy. The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is doing much to promote this goal. Its internet art song contest, CyberSing, has captured the imagination of singers around the world. It is developing forums where experts in classical song can share their ideas and resources and be more effective in building the art song audience. It is creating classical song programs for a nation-wide public radio audience, and is integrating poetry used in Lieder, mélodie and art song into high school and college language courses.

These initiatives will help to provide art song with much needed visibility. Yet they require support from those of us who know how important and enriching this art form is.

I hope you will take a moment to join me in making a tax-deductible gift to the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. You can be sure that the Foundation will work diligently -- as it has for so many years -- toward fulfilling its special mission.

With my thanks and best wishes,

Benita Valente

P.S. You may wish to support the Lehmann Foundation by credit card online.

GRANT SUPPORT

It is with great pride that we report grant support from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Such national recognition helps support our ongoing projects as well as attract grants for growth. Locally, a prestigious grant from the Cades Foundation is much appreciated.

You can find the list of Lehmann Foundation supporters for 2001 on this Website.