Lehmann Lilli, actually Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, lived in Kalisch, *24 November 1848 Würzburg, †17 May 1929 Berlin, German singer (soprano). She studied singing with her mother, the singer Marie Loew (1807–1883). She made her debut in Prague in 1865 in The Magic Flute (the role of the first boy, later in the role of Pamina). The 1868/69 season brought her an engagement in Gdańsk, the next one in Leipzig, and in 1870 she was permanently engaged at the Hofoper in Berlin. She took part in the first complete performance of The Ring of the Nibelung in Bayreuth (1876), singing, among others: the part of Woglinda and the forest bird. In 1878 and 1879, she performed in Stockholm, and in 1880 and 1884 in Covent Garden in London, among others, in the roles of Isolde and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She sang in Vienna for the first time in 1882. Having broken her contract with the Hofoper in Berlin (1885), she went to New York, where she made her debut as Carmen on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. During her four-year stay overseas, she took part in many American premieres of European operas, especially Wagner’s dramas. Although in 1891 Lehmann returned to Berlin, in the 1891/92 season she sang again at the Metropolitan Opera. The following years saw numerous performances by the singer on opera stages and concert halls in Germany and Austria – she sang the part of Brünnhilde in Bayreuth. She last visited the Metropolitan Opera in the 1898/99 season, then she performed mainly in concert halls, among others, in Paris. In 1901–10, she was involved in artistic and organisational cooperation with the Mozart Festival in Salzburg. Her public performances ended in 1920. Lehmann also conducted teaching activities, among her students were O. Fremstad and G. Farrar. She published Meine Gesangskunst (Berlin 1902, 6th ed. 1961) and Mein Weg (Leipzig 1913, 2nd ed. 1920).
Literature: J.H. Wagenmann Lilli Lehmanns Geheimnis der Stimmbänder, in: Der moderne Gesanglehrer, vol. 1, Berlin 1905, 2nd ed. 1926.
