Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch (24 November 1848 - 17 May 1929) was a German operatic soprano. She was also a voice teacher. The future opera star’s father, Karl-August Lehmann, was a singer (Heldentenor) while her mother, Maria Theresia Loew (1809-1885), was a soprano. Her younger sister, Marie, also went on to become an operatic soprano. Her first lessons were from her mother, who had been a prima donna under Spohr at the Cassel opera. After singing small parts on the stage, for example in Mozart’s Magic Flute at Prague in 1866, and studies under Heinrich Laube in Leipzig, Lehmann made her proper debut in 1870 in Berlin as a light soprano in Meyerbeer’s Das Feldlager in Schlesien.