MICHAEL WALSH Music Correspondent. Franz Lehár (1870 passed on October 24, 1948) was the son of the marching band chief of the 50th infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian army Franz Lehár (1838-1898) and Christine Neubrand (1849-1906). His mother tongue is Hungarian. German being the language of the army, Franz became bilingual very early, but he always practised Hungarian, his mother tongue until his death.

According to his military booklet, we learn that he was 1,65 meters tall. He had blue eyes, and blond hair, spoke and wrote in German, Hungarian and Bohemian (a variant of Czech), and lived in Schönwald, in Moravia.

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Lehár began his musical career as an orchestral musician in Wuppertal. He became the youngest Kapellmeister (conductor) Austro-Hungarian army soldier. Whilst in Vienna, he played in his father’s orchestra and, gradually climbed the ladder to become his father’s successor.

This career led him to Pula, Trieste, Budapest and, de 1899 à 1902, Vienna. Vienna became his adopted homeland and thanks to great successes, he could soon live exclusively from his compositions, almost entirely devoted to the operetta.

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From his first two games, Wiener Frauen and Der Rastelbinder, he is considered the future master of the operetta. With the worldwide success of The Merry Widow (1905), his fame only increases, reinforced by new successes: The Count of Luxembourg, Gypsy love and Eva.

Franz Lehár was friends with Giacomo Puccini. They influence each other: for example, Puccini was inspired by Lehár for his opera La Rondine. Over the years, Lehár acquired an extraordinary fortune. He bought the Schikaneder-Schlössl in Vienna-Nußdorf in 1931.

Hitler, however, enjoyed Lehár’s music, and this hostility diminished throughout Germany after an intervention by Goebbels. In 1938, Frau Lehár received Ehrenarierin status (Aryan of honor through marriage).
The people of the German Reich adored his music. His music was heard in the theatres and salons of Occupied France.

France. Lehár was not averse to the National Socialists and offered a gift to the Fuhrer for his birthday in 1938. His wife died on 3 August 1947 in Zurich. Very tearful, the composer decides to end a two-year stay in Switzerland. In August 1948, he returned to Bad Ischl which welcomed him triumphantly. He was immediately appointed honorary citizen. He died there on 24 October 1948 and rests there in the family vault, alongside his wife and mother, opposite Richard Tauber’s tomb, his favorite tenor, and a few meters from that of Oscar Straus, the composer of Rêve de valses.
A few days before his death, Lehár has made. PLEASE SHARE STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA