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Franz Lehár (30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was an Austrian composer of
Hungarian descent, mainly known for his operettas.
Lehár was born in Komárno (Hungarian: Komárom then in Austria-Hungary, now
Slovakia) as the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He
studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory but was advised by
Antonín Dvořák to focus on composing music. After graduation in 1899 he joined his
father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. In 1902 he became conductor at
the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera Wiener Frauen was
performed in November of that year.
He is most famous for his operettas - the most successful of which is The Merry
Widow (die lustige Witwe), but he also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches, and
a number of waltzes, (the most popular being Gold und Silber, composed for Princess
Metternich's "Gold and Silver' Ball, January 1902) some of which were drawn from
his famous operettas. Individual songs from some of the operettas have become
standards, notably "Vilja" from The Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight"
("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from The Land of Smiles.
Lehár was also associated with the operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who sang in many
of his operettas, beginning with Frasquita (1922), in which Lehár once again found
a suitable post-war style. Between 1925 and 1934 he wrote six operettas
specifically for Tauber's voice.
By 1935 he decided to form his own publishing house, Glocken-Verlag (“Publishing
House of the Bells”), to maximize his personal control over performance rights to
his works.
He died in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg where he was also buried.
 Honours
He was elected an honorary citizen of Sopron in 1940.
Despite his work being in contrast with the erudition of Wagner, associated with
the Nazis, Lehár's work was enjoyed by Hitler, who awarded him the Goethe Medal.
Lehár himself had a Jewish wife and his friend and sometime-librettist Fritz Löhner
was killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
A street in Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, The Netherlands was named after him.
Operettas
A complete list of his musical works may be found here
Wiener Frauen, 21 November 1902, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Der Rastelbinder, 20 December 1902, Carl Theater Vienna
Der Göttergatte, 20 January 1904, Carl Theater Vienna
Die Juxheirat, 21 December 1904, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
The Merry Widow, 30 December 1905, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Das Fürstenkind, 7 October 1909, Johann Strauß Theater, Vienna
Der Graf von Luxemburg, 12 November 1909, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Zigeunerliebe, 8 January 1910, Carl Theater Vienna
Eva, 24 November 1911, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Endlich allein, 30 January 1914, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Wo die Lerche singt, 1 February 1918, Royal Opera Budapest
Die blaue Mazur, 28 May 1920, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Frasquita, 12 May 1922, Theater an der Wien, Vienna
Paganini, 30 October 1925, Johann Strauß Theater Vienna
Der Zarewitsch, 26 February 1926, Metropol Theater Berlin
Friederike, 4 October 1928, Metropol Theater Berlin
The Land of Smiles, 10 October 1929, Metropol Theater Berlin
Schön ist die Welt, 3 December 1930, Metropol Theater Berlin
Giuditta, 20 January 1934, Vienna State Opera
Recordings
In 1947, Lehár conducted the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra in a series of 78-rpm
recordings for English Decca (released in the U.S. by London Records) of overtures
and waltzes from his operettas. The recordings had remarkable sound for their time
because they were made using Decca's "full frequency range recording" process, one
of the first commercial high fidelity techniques. These recordings were later
issued on LP and CD. A compilation of his recordings has been released by Naxos
Records.
Films
The Merry Widow has also been made into a movie, most notably in 1925 by Erich von
Stroheim with John Gilbert playing Danilo; and in 1934 a completely new version,
with new music, appeared starring Maurice Chevalier. In 1952, Lana Turner starred
in yet another movie version.
Source : Some of the
information on this page came from a Wikipedia article and is
licensed under the GNU Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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