Opera Scotland

Franz Lehár Suggest updates

Franz Christian Lehár.

Born Komárom, 30 April 1870.

Died Bad Ischl, 24 October 1948.

Hungarian composer.

Franz Lehár was the most successful of twentieth century composers of what is broadly termed 'Viennese operetta'. His first great success, The Merry Widow, swept Europe from its launch in 1905. While half a dozen of his later works have maintained a place in the repertoire, at least in the German-speaking world, none has challenged its pre-eminence. Indeed its popularity is only eclipsed by the earlier masterpiece of Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus, and many people would claim The Merry Widow to be the better work. While none of his later operettas have rivalled it in lasting popularity, some of them were quite successful, especially The Count of Luxembourg, Gypsy Love, and The Land of Smiles.

Works performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   Der Kürassier (1891-92 unfin) (Ruther)

02   Rodrigo (1893 unperf) (Mlcoch)

03   Kukuska (Leipzig 1896) (Falzari)

04   Arabella, die Kubanerin (1901 unfin) (Schmidt)

05   Das Club-Baby (1901 unfin) (Léon)

06   Der Klavierstimmer (Vienna 1902) (Tann-Bergler & Nerini)

07   Der Göttergatte (Vienna 1904) (Léon & Stein)

08   Die Juxheirat (Vienna 1904) (Bauer)

09   Die lustige Witwe (Vienna 1905) (Léon & Stein)

10   Peter und Paul reisen ins Schlaraffenland (Vienna 1906) (Grünbaum & Bodanzky)

11   Mitislaw der Moderne (Vienna 1907) (Grünbaum & Bodanzky)

12   Der Mann mit den drei Frauen (Vienna 1908) (Bauer)

13   Das Fürstenkind (Vienna 1909, rev as ‘Der Furst der Berge’ Berlin 1932) (Léon)

14   Der Graf von Luxemburg (Vienna 1909, rev Berlin 1937) (Willner & Bodanzky)

15   Zigeunerliebe (Vienna 1910) (Willner & Bodanzky)

16   Eva, das Fabriksmädel (Vienna 1911) (Willner & Bodanzky)

17   Rosenstock und Edelweiss (Vienna 1912) (Bauer)

18   Endlich allein (Vienna 1914, rev as “Schon ist die Welt” Berlin 1930) (Willner & Bodanzky)

19   Der Sterngucker (Vienna 1916) (Löhner)

20   A pacsirta - The Lark (Budapest 1918, rev as “Wo die Lerche singt”) (Martosi)

21   Wo die Lerche singt (rev of "A pacsirta", Vienna 1918) (Willner & Reichert)

22   Die blaue Mazur (Vienna 1920) (Stein & Jenbach)

23   Frühling (Vienna 1922, rev as ‘Frühlingsmadel’ Berlin 1928) (Eger)

24   Frasquita (Vienna 1922) (Willner & Reichert)

25   Die gelbe Jacke (Vienna 1923, rev as ‘Das Land des Lachelns’ Berlin 1928) (Léon)

26   Cloclo (Vienna 1924) (Jenbach)

27   Paganini (Vienna 1925) (Knepler & Jenbach)

28   Der Zarewitsch (Berlin 1927) (Jenbach & Reichert)

29   Friederike (Berlin 1928) (Herzer & Löhner)

30   Das Land des Lachelns (revision of ‘Die gelbe Jacke’) (Berlin 1929) (Herzer & Löhner)

31   Schön ist die Welt! (revision of “Endlich allein”) (Berlin 1930) (Herzer & Lohner)

32   Giuditta (Vienna 1934) (Knepler & Löhner)