Robert Elisabeth Stolz (25 August 1880 – 27 June 1975) was an Austriansongwriter andconductor as well as acomposer ofoperettas andfilm music.[1]
Stolz was born of musical parents inGraz.[2] His father was conductor and composerJakob Stolz, his mother was concert pianistIda Bondy, and he was the great-nephew of the sopranoTeresa Stolz. At the age of seven, he toured Europe as a pianist, playing Mozart.[3] He studied at theVienna Conservatory withRobert Fuchs andEngelbert Humperdinck.[1] From 1899 he held successive conducting posts atMaribor (then called Marburg),Salzburg andBrno before succeedingArtur Bodanzky at theTheater an der Wien in 1907.[1] There he conducted, among other pieces, the first performance ofOscar Straus'sDer tapfere Soldat (The Chocolate Soldier) in 1908, before leaving in 1910 to become a freelance composer and conductor. Meanwhile, he had begun to compose operettas and individual songs and had a number of successes in these fields.
After serving in theAustrian Army inWorld War I, Stolz devoted himself mainly tocabaret, and moved toBerlin in 1925. Around 1930, he started to compose music forfilms, such as the first German sound filmZwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt (Two Hearts in Waltz Time), of which the title-waltz rapidly became a popular favourite. Some earlier Stolz compositions, such as "Adieu, mein kleiner Gardeoffizier" from his operettaDie lustigen Weiber von Wien, became known to wider audiences through the medium of film, after it was interpolated intoIm weißen Rößl (The White Horse Inn).
The rise ofNazi Germany led Stolz to return to Vienna, where his title-song for the filmUngeküsst soll man nicht schlafen gehn was a hit. He remained active in Berlin as well. He used to travel by car between the two cities, so he smuggled Jews and political refugees across the German–Austrian border in the trunk of his limousine. He managed to do so 21 times. Then came theAnschluss, and he moved again, first toZürich and then toParis, where in 1939 he wasinterned as anenemy alien. With the help of friends he was released and in 1940 made his way toNew York.[2]
In America, Stolz achieved fame with his concerts of Viennese music,[1] starting with "A Night in Vienna" atCarnegie Hall. As a result, he received many invitations to compose music for shows and films,[1] and he received twoAcademy Awards nominations: "Waltzing in the Clouds" forSpring Parade was nominated forBest Original Song in 1941, and his score forIt Happened Tomorrow was nominated forBest Dramatic or Comedy Picture Score in 1945.
In 1946 Stolz returned to Vienna,[1] where he lived for the rest of his life. In the 1960s and 1970s he made numerousrecordings of operettas by composers such asJohann Strauss,Franz Lehár,Emmerich Kálmán, andLeo Fall, whom he had known previously.
In 1952, he began to compose for theVienna Ice Revue. He dedicated his first of 19 ice operettas ("Eternal Eve") to European ChampionEva Pawlik. In 1970, to mark his 90th birthday, he was made anHonorary Citizen of Vienna.[1] He was also awarded Vienna's Grand Medal of Honour, being only the second musician ever to be so honoured (afterRichard Strauss).
In later years he used a baton inherited fromFranz Lehár, which had been originally owned byJohann Strauss and contained Strauss's initials engraved in silver.
After his death in Berlin in 1975, Robert Stolz received the honour of a lying-in-state in the foyer of theVienna State Opera House.[citation needed] He was buried nearJohannes Brahms andJohann Strauss II in Vienna'sZentralfriedhof, and statues to him were erected in theWiener Stadtpark, thePrater,Berlin-Grunewald, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, and other places across Germany and Austria. A place is named after him -Robert-Stolz Platz, where he lived until his death - just off the Opernring in Vienna, close to the State Opera. There are further streets named after him throughout Germany (Düsseldorf, Ulm, Wiesbaden, Aalen, Bremen) and Austria (Linz, Graz, Villach). He also appeared on a series of commemorativepostage stamps inAustria andGermany, as well as inHungary,Uruguay,Paraguay,North Korea andSan Marino.
Robert Stolz was married five times. His first and second wives (Grete Holm and Franzi Ressel), were singers. His third wife was Josephine Zernitz and the fourth was named Lilli. His fifth wife Yvonne Louise Ulrich (1912-2004), called "Einzi" or "die Einzige" for her role assisting German and Austrian artists in exile in Paris during the Second World War, was his manager until his death. She had one daughter from her first marriage, whom Robert Stolz adopted: Clarissa. Robert Stolz's grandchildren are French writerNatacha Henry and entrepreneur and financier Nick Henry-Stolz.[4]
 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (April 2010)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
