Essential Lehár
Heir to Johann Strauss, and undisputed king of Viennese operetta in the twentieth century, Franz Lehár (1870–1948) never topped the success of his 1905 smash hit The Merry Widow. But then, nor did anyone else – and over a career that stretched from the sunset of the Austro-Hungarian empire to the darkest days of the Second World War, Lehár wrote a series of operettas that concealed surprising emotional depth beneath their sweet, sumptuous and gloriously tuneful surface.
Read more…If you’d found yourself in Vienna in 1906 – in that art nouveau “silver age” before the Great War – every bandstand and café orchestra would have been playing melodies from The Merry Widow. Its unexpected success made a millionaire out of its composer, a former bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army who’d dabbled with grand opera and lieder before hitting the jackpot with this one irresistible show. Franz Lehár was a true son of the empire, and he’d blended Hungarian spice and Italianate lyricism into something unmistakably Viennese. But he’d captured a new spirit, too: a combination of sensuality and sparkle that transformed operetta from rough-and-ready music hall entertainment into a luxurious and sophisticated treat. The war ended that world, and Lehár responded with operettas for a sadder, more anxious age – bittersweet and impassioned, telling tales of exile and longing. But even in semi-retirement his inspiration never flagged, and from his villa in the Alpine resort of Bad Ischl came a steady flow of some of the 20th century’s most indelible melodies.
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