Franz Lehár (/ˈleɪhɑːr/LAY-har;Hungarian:Lehár Ferenc[ˈlɛhaːrˈfɛrɛnt͡s]; 30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was anAustro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for hisoperettas, of which the most successful and best known isThe Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe).

Lehár was born in the northern part ofKomárom,Kingdom of Hungary (now Komárno, Slovakia),^{[nb 1]} the eldest son of Franz Lehar Sr. (1838–1898),^[1] an Austrianbandmaster in the Infantry Regiment No. 50 of theAustro-Hungarian Army and Christine Neubrandt (1849–1906), a Hungarian woman from a family of German descent. He grew up speaking only Hungarian until the age of 12. He later put anacute accent above thea of his father's surnameLehar to indicate the pronunciation of the vowel as/aː/, in accordance withHungarian orthography.

While his younger brotherAnton entered cadet school in Vienna to become a professional officer, Franz studiedviolin at thePrague Conservatory, where his violin teacher wasAntonín Bennewitz, but was advised byAntonín Dvořák to focus oncomposition. However, the Conservatory's rules at that time did not allow students to study both performance and composition, and Bennewitz and Lehár senior exerted pressure on Lehár to take his degree in violin as a practical matter, arguing that he could study composition on his own later. Lehár followed their wishes, against his will, and aside from a few clandestine lessons withZdeněk Fibich he was self-taught as a composer. After graduation in 1888 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. Two years later he became bandmaster at Losonc (todayLučenec,Slovakia), making him the youngest bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian Army at that time, but he left the army and joined the navy. With thenavy he was firstKapellmeister at Pola (Pula) from 1894 to 1896, resigning in the later year when his first opera,Kukuschka (reworked asTatjana in 1906), premiered in Leipzig.^[2] It was only a middling success and Lehár eventually rejoined the army, with service in the garrisons atTrieste, Budapest (1898) and finally Vienna from 1899 to 1902. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic ViennaTheater an der Wien, where his operettaWiener Frauen was performed in November of that year.

He is most famous for hisoperettas – the most successful of which isThe Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) – but he also wrotesonatas,symphonic poems andmarches. He also composed a number of waltzes (the most popular beingGold und Silber, composed for PrincessPauline von 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" fromThe Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") fromThe Land of Smiles (Das Land des Lächelns). His most ambitious work,Giuditta in 1934 is closer to opera than to operetta. It contains the ever popular "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß" ("My lips, they kiss so hot").^[3]

Lehár was also associated with the operatic tenorRichard Tauber, who sang in many of his operettas, beginning with a revival of his 1910 operettaZigeunerliebe in 1920 and thenFrasquita [de] in 1922, in which Lehár once again found a suitable post-war style. Lehár made a brief appearance in the 1930 film adaptationThe Land of Smiles starring Tauber. 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.

Lehár's relationship with theNazi regime was an uneasy one. He had always used Jewish librettists for his operas and had been part of the cultural milieu in Vienna which included a significant Jewish contingent.^[4] Further, although Lehár wasRoman Catholic, his wife, Sophie (née Paschkis) had been Jewish before her conversion to Catholicism upon marriage, and this was sufficient to generate hostility towards them personally and towards his work. Hitler enjoyed Lehár's music, and hostility diminished across Germany afterJoseph Goebbels' intervention on Lehár's part.^[5] In 1938 Mrs. Lehár was given the status of "Ehrenarierin" (honorary Aryan by marriage).^[6] Nonetheless, attempts were made at least once to have her deported. The Nazi regime was aware of the uses of Lehár's music for propaganda purposes: concerts of his music were given in occupied Paris in 1941. Even so, Lehár's influence was limited. It is alleged that he tried personally to secure Hitler's guarantee of the safety of one of his librettists,Fritz Löhner-Beda, but he was not able to prevent the murder of Beda inAuschwitz-III.^[7] He also tried to prevent the arrest ofLouis Treumann, the first Danilo inThe Merry Widow, but the 70-year old Treumann and his wife Stefanie were sent toTheresienstadt concentration camp on 28 July 1942, where Stefanie died in September of that year and Louis died on 5 March 1943.^{[citation needed]}

On 12 January 1939 and 30 April 1940, Lehár personally received awards from Hitler in Berlin and Vienna, including theGoethe Medal.^[8] On Hitler's birthday in 1938, Lehár had given him as a special gift a redMorocco leather volume in commemoration of the 50th performance ofThe Merry Widow.^[9]

He died aged 78 in 1948 inBad Ischl, nearSalzburg, and was buried there. His younger brotherAnton became the administrator of his estate, promoting the popularity of Franz Lehár's music.

• He was elected an honorary citizen ofSopron in 1940.
• In 1940 Hitler awarded him theGoethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft.
• There is a street in Vienna named after him. Additionally, several towns in the Netherlands have named streets after him (e.g. inThe Hague,Leidsche Rijn,Utrecht,Eindhoven andTilburg). Also, there are streets inSarajevo and Pula named after him, and inPrague as well.
• Asteroid85317 Lehár, discovered by German astronomerFreimut Börngen in 1995, was named in his memory.^[10] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 23 May 2005 (M.P.C. 54177).^[11]

In 1908,Deutsche Grammophon, the German branch of TheGramophone Company Ltd (His Master's Voice) issued twelve extracts (mostly ensembles) from Lehár's latest operetta,Der Mann mit den drei Frauen, with the composer conducting. The singers includedMizzi Günther,Louise Kartousch and Ludwig Herold.^[12]

In 1929 and 1934, Lehár had conducted forOdeon RecordsThe Land of Smiles andGiuditta, starringRichard Tauber,Vera Schwarz andJarmila Novotná. A 1942 Vienna broadcast of his operettaPaganini conducted by the composer has survived, starring soprano,Esther Réthy and tenor,Karl Friedrich. A 1942 Berlin radio production ofZigeunerliebe withHerbert Ernst Groh, conducted by Lehár, also survives.

In 1947, Lehár conducted theTonhalle-Orchester Zürich in a series of78-rpm recordings for EnglishDecca (released in the U.S. byLondon Records) of overtures and waltzes from his operettas. The recordings had remarkable sound for their time because they were made using Decca'sFull Frequency Range Recording process, one of the first commercialhigh fidelity techniques. These recordings were later issued on LP (in 1969 on Decca eclipse ECM 2012 and reprocessed stereo on ECS 2012) and CD. A compilation of his recordings has been released byNaxos Records.

Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a set of discs recording the 1939 Saarbrücken concert of Lehár's works by German State Transmitter Saarbrücken conducted by Franz Lehár himself was discovered in East German state archives. This was released on CDs byClassic Produktion Osnabrück in 2000.

Gustav Mahler and his young wifeAlma went to see Lehár'sThe Merry Widow in Vienna and loved it so much that they danced to its tunes as soon as they were home. From memory they played the waltz on the piano, but could not remember the exact run of one passage. The next day they went to Vienna's main music shopDoblinger [de], but hesitated to admit that they were looking for the score of what would be considered a "popular" operetta. While Mahler distracted the staff by questioning them about the sales of his own compositions, Alma browsed through the music score ofThe Merry Widow. As soon as they were out on the street, Alma sang the complete waltz to Mahler.^[13]

Informational notes

Citations

Sources

• ‹See TfM›Frey, Stefan [de].Was sagt ihr zu diesem Erfolg. Franz Lehár und die Unterhaltungsmusik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt/M./Leipzig 1999,ISBN 3-458-16960-1

• Bordman, Gerald.American Operetta. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Gänzl, Kurt.The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 volumes). New York:Schirmer Books, 2001.
• Grun, Bernard.Gold and Silver: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár. New York:David McKay Co., 1970.
• Melchior, Paul.Franz Lehár musical, Pascal Maurice éditeur, Paris, 2012,ISBN 978-2-908681-27-7 (in French, German and English), second edition :Franz Lehár's musical, etc., 2015.
• Traubner, Richard.Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, New York:Doubleday & Company, 1983

• Works by or about Franz Lehár at theInternet Archive
• RecordingAlfie Boe'sFranz Lehár: Love was a Dream
• Free scores by Franz Lehár at theInternational Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Musical Theatre Guide page
• Franz Lehár atIMDb
• Vocal score toAlone at Last (1915)
• Vocal score toGypsy Love (1911)
• Newspaper clippings about Franz Lehár in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW