Synopsis   |	Cast Bios   |	Fun Facts  |	Composer   |

Lehar was born in Komarno (then in Austria-Hungary, now Slovakia) as the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory but was advised by Antonin Dvorak to focus on composing music. After graduation in 1899 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera 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; but also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches, and a number of waltzes, (the most popular being Gold und Silber, composed for Princess 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.

Lehar was also associated with the operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who sang in many of his operettas, beginning with Frasquita (1922), in which Lehar once again found a suitable post-war style. Between 1925 and 1934 he wrote six operettas specifically for Tauber's voice.

By 1935 he decided to form his own publishing house to maximize his personal control over performance rights to his works.

He was elected an honorary citizen of Sopron in 1940.

Franz Lehar died in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg.

Biography provided by Wikipedia.org