Singer
27 February 1888, Perleberg, Brandenburg, Germany - 26 August 1976, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Lotte Lehmann performed at the Salzburg Festival for twelve seasons, from 1926 to 1937, in roles that Richard Strauss shaped around her voice. When the Nazis arrived in 1938, she left and never returned. She carried Salzburg’s tradition to California, where she coached the next generation, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf among them, and built a new institution that kept the lineage alive.
Lotte Lehmann first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1926, taking over the title role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos after years as the Composer. The production, conducted by Clemens Krauss, became one of the legendary nights of the interwar Festival. Critics called it the Salzburg Ariadne, a nickname that stuck. Strauss had composed the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier with her voice in mind, and at Salzburg she sang the role in a way that defined it for a generation. She also performed Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio and gave Lieder recitals with Bruno Walter, their partnership one of the defining musical relationships of the era.
She lived in Salzburg. She knew the city not as a visiting performer but as a resident. She is said to have passed the von Trapp household on the outskirts of Salzburg, heard the children singing, and encouraged the family to enter the 1936 Salzburg song competition, which they won. The story is part of Salzburg’s cultural mythology, though its precise details are contested. What is well-documented is that her final Salzburg season was 1937. In 1938, when Austria was absorbed by Nazi Germany, she left and did not return.
She settled in Santa Barbara, California, and founded the Music Academy of the West, establishing a master class tradition that produced generations of singers over the following decades. Among the singers who studied her Marschallin was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who went on to become one of the Salzburg Festival’s defining voices after the war. Through Schwarzkopf, Lehmann’s tradition continued in the city she had loved and lost. She died in Santa Barbara in 1976.
On the map
The 2 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
Completed 1960
The Grosses Festspielhaus (Large Festival Hall) opened in 1960 as a major expansion of Salzburg's Festspielhaus complex, carved in large part from the Moenchsberg cliff face to achieve its 2,179-seat auditorium. Architect Clemens Holzmeister cut the main stage directly into the rock, creating one of the widest stages in the world at 100 meters.
Renamed 2006
Formerly the Kleines Festspielhaus, renamed "Haus für Mozart" in 2006 after major renovation. Primarily used for Mozart operas during the Salzburg Festival. Acoustically designed for the scale and intimacy of Mozart's operatic works.
Organizations
One of the world's most prestigious performing arts festivals. Held annually late July to end of August. Founded 1920 by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Franz Schalk, and Alfred Roller. Inaugural event: Jedermann on Domplatz. Herbert von Karajan defined the postwar era. Opera, drama, concerts.
