[항가리]Franz Lehár[프란츠 레하르]

Franz Lehár

Franz Lehár

(Hungarian: Lehár Ferenc; 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).

〈유쾌한 과부 Die lustige Witwe〉로 전세계적인 성공을 거두었다. 프라하 음악원에서 공부한 뒤 안토닌 드보르자크의 권유로 활동을 시작했으며 1890년부터 악단의 지휘자로 오스트리아를 여행했다.

1896년 자신이 작곡한 오페레타 〈쿠쿠슈카 Kukuschka〉를 공연했다. 빅토르 레온과 레오 슈타인이 대본을 쓴 〈유쾌한 과부〉(1905)에서 왈츠 선율과 프랑스 캉캉 춤뿐만 아니라 풍자적인 요소까지 도입함으로써, 새로운 빈 양식을 만들어냈다. 이 작품은 큰 성공을 거두어, 2년 뒤에 부에노스아이레스의 5개 극장에서 동시에 공연될 정도였다. 그뒤 많은 오페레타를 계속 발표하였고, 이것들은 영국과 미국에서 영어로 번역되어 널리 알려지게 되었다.

그중에 〈3명의 아내가 있는 남자 The Man with Three Wives〉(1908)·〈룩셈부르크 백작 The Count of Luxembourg〉(1909)·〈집시의 사랑 Gypsy Love〉(1910)·〈미소짓는 나라 Das Land des Lähelns〉(1923) 등이 있으며, 〈유쾌한 과부〉와 〈미소짓는 나라〉를 포함한 여러 작품이 영화화되기도 했다. 그의 유일한 그랑 오페라 〈주디타 Giuditta〉(1934)는 그리 성공을 거두지 못했다.[다음백과]

Biography[edit]

Lehár in 1906

Lehár was born in the northern part of Komárom, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Komárno, Slovakia), the eldest son of Franz Lehár (senior) (1838–1898),^[1] an Austrian bandmaster in the Infantry Regiment No. 50 of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Christine Neubrandt (1849–1906), a Hungarian woman from a family of German descent. He grew up speaking only Hungarian until the age of 12. Later he put an acute accent above the "a" of his father's surname "Lehár" to indicate the vowel in the corresponding Hungarian orthography.

While his younger brother Anton entered cadet school in Vienna to become a professional officer, Franz studied violin at the Prague Conservatory, where his violin teacher was Antonín Bennewitz, but was advised by Antonín Dvořák to focus on composition. However, the Conservatory's rules at that time did not allow students to study both performance and composition, and Bennewitz and Lehár senior exerted pressure on Lehár to take his degree in violin as a practical matter, arguing that he could study composition on his own later. Lehár followed their wishes, against his will, and aside from a few clandestine lessons with Zdeněk Fibich he was self-taught as a composer. After graduation in 1888 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. Two years later he became bandmaster at Losoncz (Lučenec), East Slovakia, making him the youngest bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian Army at that time, but he left the army and joined the navy. With the navy he was first Kapellmeister at Pola (Pula) from 1894 to 1896, resigning in the later year when his first opera, Kukuschka (later reworked as Tatjana in 1906), premiered in Leipzig. It was only a middling success and Lehár eventually rejoined the army, with service in the garrisons at Trieste, Budapest (1898) and finally Vienna from 1899 to 1902. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his operetta Wiener Frauen was performed in November of that year.

He is most famous for his operettas – the most successful of which is The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) – but he also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems and marches. He also composed a number of waltzes (the most popular being Gold und Silber, composed for Princess Pauline von Metternich's "Gold and Silver" Ball, January 1902), some of which were drawn from his famous operettas. Individual songs from some of the operettas have become standards, notably "Vilja" from The Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from The Land of Smiles (Das Land des Lächelns).

Lehár was also associated with the operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who sang in many of his operettas, beginning with a revival of his 1910 operetta Zigeunerliebe (de) in 1920 and then Frasquita (de) in 1922, in which Lehár once again found a suitable post-war style. Lehár made a brief appearance in the 1930 film adaptation The Land of Smiles starring Tauber. Between 1925 and 1934 he wrote six operettas specifically for Tauber's voice. By 1935 he decided to form his own publishing house, Glocken-Verlag (Publishing House of the Bells), to maximize his personal control over performance rights to his works.

Lehár and the Third Reich

Lehár's relationship with the Nazi regime was an uneasy one. He had always used Jewish librettists for his operas and had been part of the cultural milieu in Vienna which included a significant Jewish contingent.^[2] Further, although Lehár was Roman Catholic, his wife, Sophie (née Paschkis) had been Jewish before her conversion to Catholicism upon marriage, and this was sufficient to generate

hostility towards them personally and towards his work.

Hitler enjoyed Lehár's music, and hostility diminished across Germany after Goebbels's intervention on Lehár's part.^[3] In 1938 Mrs. Lehár was given the status of "Ehrenarierin" (honorary Aryan by

marriage).^[4] Nonetheless, attempts were made at least once to have her deported. The Nazi regime was aware of the uses of Lehár's music for propaganda purposes: concerts of his music were given in occupied Paris in 1941. Even so, Lehár's influence was limited. It is said that he tried personally to secure Hitler's guarantee of the safety of one of his librettists, Fritz Löhner-Beda, but he was not able to prevent the murder of Beda in Auschwitz-III.^[5]

On 12 January 1939 and 30 April 1940 Lehár had personally received awards by Hitler in Berlin and Vienna, including the Goethe Medal.^[6] on Hitler's birthday in 1938 Lehár had given him as a special gift a red Morocco leather volume in commemoration of the 50th performance of The Merry Widow.^[7]

Later years

He died aged 78 in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg, and was buried there.

His younger brother Anton became the administrator of his estate, promoting the popularity of Franz Lehár's music.

Honours

• He was elected an honorary citizen of Sopron in 1940.
• In 1940 Hitler awarded him the Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft.
• There is a street in Vienna named after him. Additionally, several towns in the Netherlands have named streets after him (e.g. in The Hague, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Tilburg). Also, there is a street in Sarajevo named after him.