Any words from this great lady are to be honored, and these, a mixture of advice and anecdote, are a delight. Lotte Lehmann recalls many connections with the operas and their composer, then reviews the roles she made famous. She sang in the premier of Ariadne auf Naxos as the Composer under Strauss. The role of the Dyer's Wife in Die Frau Ohne Schatten was written for her and she learned it visiting Strauss at Carmisch; she sang the role of Christine in Intermezzo in the 1924 premier at Dresden, and that of Arabella on Oct. 21, 1933 in Vienna just after hermother's death. With her unique capacity for imaginative empathy, she invests these roles with their significance as she runs through the opera librettos and interprets them. The most searching exploration is given to her greatest role, the Marschallin. With asides about Strauss, his wife Pauline--""a jewel in a very rough setting""-- and such colleagues and competitors as Richard Mayr and Maria Jeritza, this has the appeal of the great world of opera while revealing much for those who would be a part of it.