Biography
Franz Lehár (1870-1948), born in Komárom in the Kingdom of Hungary (now divided between Slovakia and Hungary), was the most internationally successful operetta composer of the early twentieth century and the leading figure of the so-called Silver Age of Viennese operetta. Lehár trained as a violinist and spent years as a military bandmaster before devoting himself to operetta composition. His global breakthrough came with Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow, 1905), which became one of the most performed operettas in history and sparked an international merchandising craze. Subsequent operettas including Der Graf von Luxemburg (1909), Zigeunerliebe (1910), and his late masterpiece Das Land des Lächelns (1929, composed for the tenor Richard Tauber) kept him commercially dominant through changing times. Lehár's Jewish wife was protected from the Nazi regime by Hitler's personal admiration for Die Lustige Witwe. Lehár died in Bad Ischl in 1948.
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