Lehmann-related articles in Opera News: January 2002

This edition of Opera News was almost a "Lehmann-issue." It begins with a photo of Lehmann and Grace Bumbry on the contents page. The reference is to an article about Bumbry's February recital paying tribute to Lehmann. "Bumbry first encourtered Lehmann when she was a student at Northwestern University; Lehmann was so impressed with her protégée that she toook her along to Stanta Barbar's Music Academy of the West for further study.

Right away, Lehmann started her new pupil with the Aida/Amneris boudoir scen. "We work on it for such a ong time," recalls Bumbry. "She was a stickler for repeating repeating, until you could wake up in the middle of the night and sing it." Among the first song they worked on togetehr was "The Doppelgänger." "I remember so well what she said about that piece," say Bumbry. "She said that the Euopean public doesn't see it as a woman's song. It all depends on how you deliver it. I had a success with it. My dark timbre helped me a lot to get that devilish sound that she wanted."

What about a piece that vexed her, for one reason or another? "There are two that I remember, for different reasons. One was 'Um Mitternacht' of Mahler. She had me work on it, and I tried and tried, and I was just getting nothing out of it. I came back to class after two weeks or so, and I said, "Idon't like this song. I don't feel it." And she said, "Oh, but Grace, it's such a wonderful song." Since she was so determined, I went to the public library and found a recording of Kirsten Flagstad singing it with some orchestra. All of a sudden, it dawned on my why I was having such difficulty with it -- with a piano, you don't hear all the colors you hear in the orchestra. She said, "I understand. Drop it.' I thought it was very big of her, given how strongly she felt about the song. The other piece was 'O mio Fernando' [La Favorita]. She made me sing it so many times, and I just hated it. I never did sing it in public. It wasn't that I coudn't do it. It was just that I overdosed on it."

On page 14 of the same issue of Opera News there's a photo of Lehmann in an article on Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss in which Lehmann sang the premier as the Dyer's Wife. (Actually, though photos exist of Lehmann in that role, the photo in the magazine is of Lehmann in recital attire.) On page 16 there's a back stage phto of Lehmann in costume as the Dyer's Wife. On page 17 a photo appears of Jeritza and Lehmann together in a Met Interview Broadcast from 1963. Neither of the women is mentioned in the text.

Later, when discussing the background of Die Frau..., Lehmann is again mentioned on page 51 as the creator of the role of the Dyer's Wife.

Lehmann is mentioned again on page 66 in "What to Read and Hear." "For a beginner's introduction to the shadowy, symbolic piece, [Die Frau...] nobody can beat Lotte Lehmann, in her Five Operas and RichardStrauss (Macmillan; Da Capo Press reprint). Her affectionate, detailed narrative synopsis of the opera's tortuous plot, laced with amusing and insigtful reminiscences of the composer and of Lehmann's own performances, is dramitically enjoyable in and of itself..."