Her real name was Lisbeth Sättler. Displaying remarkable musical talent from a young age, she performed Schubert songs at the age of seven. She first studied piano (1912-1913), then singing at the Conservatory of Dresden, and later with the Dresden teacher Otto Watrin. She made her debut at the Dresdner Hofoper in 1915 as Arsena in Zigeunerbaron and achieved significant success there as Agathe in Der Freischütz. In 1919, she sang the role of the Empress in the Dresden premiere of R. Strauss’s Frau ohne Schatten. On December 11, 1917, she appeared in the premiere of Hans Pfitzner’s Christelflein in Dresden, and on February 23, 1920, in Hugo Kaun’s Der Fremde.

She then performed at the Hofoper in Vienna and also in Berlin. She was highly successful in Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts. She remained in Dresden until 1922, after which she joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she enjoyed brilliant successes from 1922 to 1942. Her debut role in New York was Aida, and in 1928, she sang in the premiere of Respighi’s Campana sommersa. Arturo Toscanini praised her voice as the most beautiful soprano he had ever heard.

During the 1928-1940 seasons, she performed frequently at the San Francisco Opera and, from 1934 to 1941, at the Chicago Opera. She also appeared at the Ravinia Festival near Chicago. She sang at the Havana Opera in 1923 and 1928, at Covent Garden Opera in London from 1925 and again from 1934 to 1939, at La Scala in Milan in 1929 (as Aida under Toscanini), and at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 1934. In 1936, she achieved great success with R. Strauss’s Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden.

In her native Germany, she sang the title role in the world premiere of R. Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena at the Staatsoper in Dresden on June 6, 1928. At the Salzburg Festival, she performed the role of Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1922), Leonore in Fidelio (1933), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (1937), and the soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem (1933). Her concert tours took her across North America, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Her first husband was the merchant Albert Doman. In 1957, she married the baritone George Cehanovsky (1892-1986). She retired from the stage in 1942 and gave a final concert at New York’s Town Hall in 1944. She continued to live in New York. Her repertoire included Aida, Donna Anna, Desdemona, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Butterfly, Tosca, Agathe in Der Freischütz, Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, Sieglinde, Elsa, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and Sieglinde in Die Walküre.