Franz Lehar ranks among the world's top composers of operettas. An operetta, unlike opera, is a lighthearted, comic or romantic opera that includes song and dance. Franz Lehar was a naturally talented operetta composer with many successful pieces to his repertoire.
Franz Lehar - His Early History
Perhaps, the fact of his birth in the small town of Komarom in Slovakia on April 30, 1870 gave impetus to his natural musical aptitudes. Being the son of a military bandmaster would inspire him from earliest childhood days.
By 1882, Franz Lehar received a scholarship to attend Prague Conservatory. There, under the tutelage of violinist, Antonin Bennewitz, Antonin Dvorak with whom Lehar studied composition and Josef Bohuslave Forster with whom he studied harmony, Franz Lehar blossomed into an educated student of music.
The Accomplished Orchestra Leader
After he completed his studies at Prague Conservatory, he spent a brief period of his musical career as an orchestra leader in Barmen-Elberfeld. Next, Lehar offered his musical services in the Austro-Hungarian military where he became the favored bandmaster. This position lasted for ten years. During this period of time he was inspired to create his first compositions.
His initially published pieces were basically violin, marches, waltzes, songs and his first opera, Kukuschka, published in 1896 in Leipzig. The famous Gold and Silver Waltz was also published in 1899.
Opportunity Knocks
When the famed Victor Leon, Vienna's most recognized librettist chose Franz Lehar to compose music for his operetta The Tinker, opportunity knocked at Lehar's door.
This operetta, produced in 1902, gave Lehar the recognition he needed as a composer of musical operettas. Three years later in 1905,he would claim world recognition for his Merry Widow opening the door to a whole new era for Viennese operetta.
The Merry Widow
Franz Lehar and Merry Widow are inseparable as composer and operetta. The music was the clearest example of a well orchestrated musical score, combining a refreshing storyline and a highly imaginative score.
This intricate musical score proved extraordinary to Viennese music and popularized the Viennese waltz for avid lovers of dance. So successful was Merry Widow that during the early 1900's it was performed 60,000 times globally in its first half century since it was composed.
Nineteen Operettas Later
For 30 years, Franz Lehar spent his time composing 19 operettas from the years 1909 to 1934. These operettas were Gypsy Love, Frasquita, Land of Smiles, Fair Is The World, Giuditta, Zarewitsch, Friederike, Where The Lark Sings, The Count of Luxemburg and Paganini.
Frasquitta contains the extraordinarily beautiful Serenade which is attributable for its fame to Fritz Kreisler, one of the tenors for whom Franz Lehar's compositions earn them fame. He built a partnership with noted tenor, Richard Tauber.
Musical Craftsmanship
Although Franz Lehar was clearly influenced by his own cultural background, he possessed an immense treasure trove of ability to compose and invent highly melodic musical pieces with an easy superiority. He is one among four masters of Viennese operetta.
Leo Fall, Emerich Kalman and Oskar Straus are included in this recognition. Franz Lehar never limited his musical repertoire to his own background in Hungarian or Viennese musical composition styles. He ventured into Spanish, Italian, Polish, Parisia and Russian as well as those with an Oriental flair.
Neither Strauss Nor Offenbach Would Lehar Be
The world of operetta loved Johann Strauss and the dreamy style of Jacques Offenbach in Franz Lehar's day. There was no mistaking that Franz Lehar had broken into an area of operetta that ruffled the feathers of his own musical community.
His pieces seemed to inject a kind of pseudo-drama rather than the comedic elements of his musical cohorts. However, if Franz Lehar can be credited with a single element, it would be the elevation of the importance of operetta internationally.
A Quiet Man With A Superior Musical Ability
Franz Lehar was the typical quiet man with a powerful, yet superior musical ability. He lived in Europe amid the tumult of World War I. He chose retirement in Austria throughout the years of World War II. In 1946, he left Austria for Switzerland, where he resided quietly amid the beauty of the countryside of Bad Ischl.
Franz Lehar, composer extraordinaire, died at home in Bad Ischl on October 24, 1948.
Reference: Bernard Grun writer for Colliers Encyclopedia, Publishing Date - 1966
Eleanore Whitaker - Staff writer for RITRO.com, former newsletter contributor to League of Women Voters, Editor of "Timepiece Magazine for Thomas Warne Museum ...
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