Search results
Franz Lehár (1870-1948) is famous for his operetta The Merry Widow. He stayed in Austria during WWII, refusing to involve himself with politics but benefiting financially from Hitler’s promotion of his operetta.
Franz Lehár (/ ˈ l eɪ h ɑːr / LAY-har; Hungarian: Lehár Ferenc [ˈlɛhaːr ˈfɛrɛnt͡s]; 30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas , of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow ( Die lustige Witwe ).
Lehár was a celebrated superstar and a Roman Catholic, who basically kept a low profile during the war. However, he represented a major headache for the Nazi regime as he habitually used Jewish librettists for his operas, including Viktor Léon and Leo Rosenstein for The Merry Widow. Franz Lehár: The Merry Widow, “Vilja song”
Because of Hitler’s great admiration for Lehár’s works, particularly Die lustige Witwe, Sophie Lehár was spared deportation to a concentration camp. Despite such official intervention, however, Lehár’s wife was hardly out of danger.
The theatre's staff next suggested that Franz Lehár might compose the piece. Lehár had worked with Léon and Stein on Der Göttergatte the previous year. Although Léon doubted that Lehár could invoke an authentic Parisian atmosphere, he was soon enchanted by Lehar's first number for the piece, a bubbly galop melody for "Dummer, dummer ...
Lehár’s last years were made difficult by his marriage to a Jewish woman, which made him suspect to the Nazis. Ironically, Die lustige Witwe was one of Hitler’s favorite stage works. After World War II, Lehár went to Zürich (1946); thenreturned to Bad Ischi shortly before his death.
People also ask
Why did Lehár stay in Austria during WW2?
How did Lehár influence the Nazi regime?
Why was Lehár's operetta so important during WW2?
How did Franz Lehár become a musician?
Was Lehár's wife Jewish?
What works did Lehár write?
Jul 10, 2014 · This article focuses on one of the institution’s many operetta commissions, Viennese satirist Rudolf Weys’s unfinished 1944 version of Franz Lehár’s Der Rastelbinder (1902), a box office success that featured an itinerant Jewish peddler as the central character.
