Franz Lehar

Franz Lehár , 1870-1948, Hungarian composer of operettas. After completing studies at the Prague Conservatory (1882-88), he began a career as a conductor of military bands and settled in Vienna. There, following the success of his first operetta, Wiener Frauen (1902), he devoted himself to composition. He endowed such works as Der Graf von Luxemburg (1909) and Zigeunerliebe (1910) with his engaging melodies, capturing the frivolous gaiety that pervaded Viennese life early in the century. Die lustige Witwe ( The Merry Widow, 1905), his outstanding work, had international success.

Lehar, Franz (1870–1948), composer. The Hungarian artist who was the most famous exponent of 20th‐century operetta is best known worldwide for his masterpiece, The Merry Widow (1907). Of his other works only two were successful in America, Gypsy Love (1911) and The Count of Luxembourg (1912), although their popularity by no means matched that of the earlier hit. Several of his operettas were produced later, only to fail, while a number of his greatest works have never been given major professional mountings in New York. As a composer Lehar moved away from the more florid, quasi operatic style of 19th‐century Viennese operetta.