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May 21st, 2016 
Awake Goy A surprising discovery for me was to learn that Franz Lehár (1870-1948), whose operas and waltzes evoke the enchantment of the Strauss family, was still alive in my own lifetime. Much as I love the melodies and waltzes from The Merry Widow and Wiener Frauen (Viennese Women) I was ignorant of the fact that he was a contemporary of The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Lehár’s music was primarily associated with the period of peace that reigned throughout Europe before the cataclysmic outbreak of war in 1914, which was to change everything.
Best known as a composer of operettas Franz Lehár’s output was prodigious. During his 35 years career as a composer and conductor he wrote nearly 40 operettas.
Hungarian born but of German ethnicity, Lehár’s most enduring success was The Merry Widow. It was first played at Theater-an-der-Wien in 1905. The Merry Widow went on for a further 5,000 performances. Such was its popularity that at one time it was playing simultaneously in five different languages in five different theatres in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
The music of Franz Lehár was thoroughly enjoyed by Adolf Hitler. Europe’s most popular democratic-socialist awarded the composer the distinguished Goethe Medal despite the fact that the composer was married to a Jew. It was impossible not to admire and enjoy Lehár’s operettas, marches, dances, and even symphonic poems.
Of Franz Lehár’s many waltzes most of us find his Gold and Silver Waltz irresistible. Many a fond mum (and dad) spun their child around the kitchen table to its lilting melody. At least my mum did to me, much to my embarrassment.
I am sure I was her heart’s delight. This happened to be the best remembered passage in one of Lehár’s most famous operetta songs. Wherever and whenever, You Are My Heart’s Delight is played; it brings audiences to their feet.
In July 2004 the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra held its end of the season concert at the Berlin Waldbuhne Stadium, one of the parks situated just outside Berlin.
Rolando Villazon, the world famous Mexican tenor was joined by our own Madrid-born Placido Domingo and beautiful Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko. Together they sang Lehár’s You Are My Heart’s Delight (Dein ist mein ganzes Herz). The effect on the 20,000 theatre-goers was electrifying.
Will songs written today bring rapturous applause from vast audiences in 90-years’ time? I doubt it. There is a saying: ‘To live in the hearts of those you leave behind, is not to die.’ The music of this former military musician will live on in our hearts – and our feet, for centuries to come.
Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/musical-notes-franz-lehar/
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