Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26
NJ y S | c.
IL11 LEHMANN one of the once impressed with two +
BY HELEN FETTER.

Y ILL LEHMANN, one OF thu
greatest singers that thu
world has ever known, dice
- at her home in Berlin, Ger.
many, May II. She was 81 years
old, yet she never dropped hel
active part in a musical career
When she retired from the oper-
attic stage as leading star she
continued in the role of teacher
and many of the preSent-day
leading concert and opera stages
are proud to have gotten then
traditions in singing the ''lieder'
and in coaching opera roles with
this distinguished woman, who
not only was an artistic perform
er, but a thorough authority on
her art. Perhaps her most famous
pupil is Geraldine Farrar.
It is somewhat tragic that just
at this time many famous musi-
clans in the United States and Eu-
ropean countries had completed a
remarkable testimonial to have
been presented to Nine. Lehman
within the new few weeks by a
prominent Student-Edith Nichols,
founder and president of the Lilli
Lehman League. 1t was to have
been presented to the great artist
at her studio in Salzburg, Austria,
where she had long made it her
custom to teach during the Sum-
mer months. The portfolio of let
tiers included epistleS written by
Walter Damrosch, Mary Garden,
Albert Coates, Serge Koussevitsky,
Artur Bodansky, Alfred Hertz,
Nikolai Sokoloff, Alberto Bimboni,
Karl Kruger, Alexander Gretch-
aninoff, Serge Rachmaninoff, Ru-
dolph CAM, Olga Samaroff, An
tonic Scott. Edward Johnson,
Margaret Matzenauer, Ern e S t
Hutchinson and numerous others.
Edith Nichols explains how the
league was formed:
THE league is a spontaneous demonstra-
ton Of love and affection for one of the
most aazns in the hstery tS 2.
ideals of beautiful singing as reflected in
ths on ss' Of q the fs' most q
I'm world of noise and dissonance IN
music Me Iehmann remains SIS gtssdfast to
s ss Bms
Works She se has eKempiifed durns all these
years. In her shrine at salzburg: visited
e ssd &c only nSS the small still voice Of Beatty
an ns pursuit insult Of Beauty in her animation
Of beauty and simplicity in music and life
hearty. vigorous and enthusiastic as of old,
and still possesses vocal freshness and agil-
Chosen he p az me Lii SPEAKS ana wrte
English fluently, OF course and she Is al.
her s?' colleagues and young singers in this
country"
What shame that this beauti-
full testimonial, weighted with the
measurable words of the musical
mighty, should be an epitaph
rather than fulfill its original pur-
pose!
TN Washington there is a former
Lilli Lehman pupil, who has
given highly interesting reminis-
cences of the great mistress of song
as a teacher. Miss Mary Alsop Cry
der, a distinguished leader in many
Washington musical activities and
a teacher of voice, went to take a
Six-week course of training in the
singing of the German "lieder,"
for, which Nine. Lehman was
particularly noted, about 10 years
after that great singer had turned
pedagog, but while she still was
making appearances at Covent
Garden and touring the United
States and, during the Summers,
appearing in Mozart roles in fes-
rivals at SalZburg, where she also
directed the performances and
chose the other singers for roles
in the operas.
Miss Cryder does not designate
herself as a pupil" of lehman,
although she took an our-and-a-
half lesson every day, including
Sundays, for those six weeks with
Nine lehman. Surely, consider
ing present-day master class"
standards with three to five week
courses; Miss Cryder would be
fully entitled to consider herself
a lehman pupil. She found
Nine. lehman remarkably in
spring and energetic teacher. At
the time Nine. Lehman was liv-
ing in Gruenwald, suburb of
Berlin, where she had restful, sub
urban atmosphere.
During the period Of Miss Cry
der's study with Nine. Lehman
another Washington singer, Miss
Wilma Willenbrucher, was a STU
dent for even longer period un-
der Nine. lehman. Since her
studies there, however, Miss Will
1enbrucher apparently never re-
turned to the United States ex-
cept on short visits to her rela-
tives in Washington, but contin-
ued her career abroad.
A famous painter, Herr Stock
meyer, was painting Nine. Leh-
mann's portrait that Summer and
Miss Cryder tells an amusing
anecdote of how she had the
tenerity to offer a suggestion,
when asked for one, regarding the
painting. 1t was nearly the final
sitting and Nine. lehman still
wore her beautiful costume in
which she was being painted.
when Miss Cryder came one day
for lesson. She asked Miss Cry
der to go in the room where the
painter was working on the por-
trait and look at the color in the
picture. BY this Miss Cryder knew
that something particular was ex-
pected OF her in regard to this
"color." So, after looking at the
portrait carefully, as the painter
asked her opinion she said she
liked it all but the flesh color of
the hands, which she thought
seemed rather yellow, whereas
Nine. Lehmann's hands were I'M
usually white. The painter was