Opera Singer. A premier soprano of the first half of the 20th Century, she sang over 90 roles but is possibly best remembered for performing the works of Wagner and of Richard Strauss. Born Charlotte Sophie Pauline Lehmann, she was raised in the small city of Perleberg; her family wanted her to enter the civil service but she turned out to be a mediocre student in school, though she did show a talent for poetry writing and for music. Sent for training in Berlin, she did not do well in a structured environment, but found much better success under private instruction by Wagnerian soprano Mathilde Mallinger. Signed at Hamburg, Lotte made her professional bow on September 2, 1910 as the Second Boy in Mozart's "The Magic Flute", then gradually worked her way thru such fare as a Page in Wagner's "Lohengrin" and the Sandman from Englebert Humperdink's "Hansel und Gretel" to the secondary role of Micaela in Georges Bizet's "Carmen". Her 'big break' came on November 11, 1912 when she sang Elsa in "Lohengrin", having been chosen and coached by Maestro Otto Klemperer who, curiously, had not taken revenge for her rejection of his crude romantic advances. First heard at the Vienna State Opera (VSO) on October 30, 1914 as Eva from Wagner's "Die Meistersinger", a role her teacher had created, she made her London bow that same year at Drury Lane as Sophie from Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier". Lotte joined the VSO company in 1916 and made her 'official' debut there on August 18th as Agathe from Weber's "Der Freischutz". She sang the Composer at the October 4, 1916 Vienna premiere of Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and later the State Opera audiences were to see her in the world premiere of another Strauss creation, as the Dyer's Wife in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" on October 11, 1919, while in Dresden she was to create Christine for Strauss' "Intermezzo" on November 4, 1924. Giacomo Puccini became a fan of Lotte when she sang the lead of his short opera "Suor Angelica" in 1920 and was later to encourage her when she performed as the title characters of his "Tosca", "Madame Butterfly", and "Turandot", as well as the faithless Giorgetta of "Il Tabarro". She had steadily added new roles to her repertoire as time went by including Rachel from Halevy's "La Juive", the title leads of Jules Massenet's "Manon", Beethoven's "Fidelio", and Ambrose Thomas "Mignon", and La Contessa from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro"; she bowed at Covent Garden, London, on May 21, 1924 as the Marschallin of "Der Rosenkavalier", a role she had to learn on short notice, though she had previously sung both Sophie and Octavian from the same piece. In Berlin she earned praise as Marie/Marietta from Erich Korngold's "Die tote Stadt", while her appearances in the title role of the same composer's "Das Wunder der Heliane" were enjoyed as she had to perform essentially naked. In the mid 1920s her romance with and eventual marriage to Otto Krause (deceased 1939) caused considerable scandal in Vienna as it involved a messy divorce and child custody fight for Krause. Lotte was acclaimed at Salzburg (where on a 1936 trip home she discovered the von Trapp family and helped launch their career), Paris, Brussels, and other major venues, and was first heard by American audiences at Chicago on October 28, 1931 as Sieglinde from Wagner's "Die Walkure", the role which was also to be the vehicle for her January 11, 1934 Metropolitan Opera bow, which in turn landed her on the February 18, 1935 cover of "Time" magazine. According to legend, Lotte's Metropolitan debut was delayed by resistance from Maria Jeritza who had been her rival in Vienna; in 1962 some brave soul at the Metropolitan brought the two by then retired legends together for a radio intermission interview, an occasion which has been preserved on CD and which Lotte commemorated with a painting depicting them both as cats. Her career at the Metropolitan was to be hampered by the arrival of Kirsten Flagstad, an event which effectively blocked her from singing "Fidelio" and most of her Wagnerian heroines, though she was effectively forced to remain in America as her step-children had a Jewish mother and thus could not live in Nazi-occupied Europe. In fact, America only heard the two greats together twice, once each in San Francisco and Milwaukee, with Kirsten singing Brunnhilde and Lotte Sieglinde. Having long been a noted recitalist, Lotte concentrated on German lieder almost exclusively from about 1940 on; last heard at the Metropolitan on February 17, 1945 as the Marschallin, she gave her final operatic performance at Los Angeles on November 1, 1946 in the same role. She appeared as a mother figure in the 1948 Hollywood feature "Big City, gave her New York farewell concert on February 16, 1951 and last sang in public at Pasadena on November 11th of the same year. In retirement Lotte settled in Santa Barbara, California and was a respected teacher, interpretation coach, and master class instructor. She continued a successful writing career, having already published novels, poetry, and an autobiography which was never finished; she also took to painting and drawing, producing a body of work that includes scenes depicted in Franz Schubert's song cycle "Die Wintereisse". Lotte was designated Kammersangerin (KS), has been pictured on a German postage stamp, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which misspells her name "Lottie", and since 1995 has been honored by the Lotte Lehmann Foundation which aids young artists. She had no connection to Lilli Lehmann, great soprano of an earlier generation. Her archives are preserved at the Austrian Theatre Museum and much of her massive recorded legacy, dating from 1914 on, is available on CD.