About the work
Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg; Hungarian Luxemburg grófja) is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The libretto is by Robert Bodanzky and Alfred Maria Willner. The frequently repeated claims that Leo Stein also contributed to the libretto, and that it derives from Willner and Bernhard Buchbinder's text for Johann Strauss's 1897 operetta Die Göttin der Vernunft, rest on long-perpetuated errors. The premiere took place on 12 November 1909 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with Lehár himself conducting.
Plot
The operetta is set in Paris, in the bohemian milieu of the composer's own day around the turn of the century. Prince Basil Basilowitsch has fallen hopelessly in love with the singer Angèle Didier, whom he has long secretly supported and observed. He now searches desperately for a way to marry her, for he is forbidden to lead a commoner bride to the altar. The impoverished man-about-town Count René of Luxembourg comes at just the right moment. Basil proposes a bargain: for half a million, the Count is to make the singer his wife pro forma and, after three months — during which he is to keep out of sight in Paris — divorce her again. The woman would then hold noble rank, which would allow Basil himself to marry her.
Cultural significance
"This time Lehár has scattered his gifts with full hands. And they are utterly delicious gifts: languishing waltzes, dashing marches, cosy songs, sparkling chansons, artful duets and trios and resounding choruses. It is a reveling in melodies and — as ever with Lehár — in the most opulent tone colours. The principal waltz 'Bist Du's, lachendes Glück…' is the most enchanting thing Lehár has ever written. This is once again that kind of infinitely erotic music that seizes the nerves, stirs the senses and sends the audience into veritable ecstasy. […] Lehár sat at the conductor's desk and fired up orchestra and singers. The audience gave his work an enthusiastic reception. After every act there were countless curtain calls." — Review of the premiere in Die Zeit, 13 November 1909