Franz Lehár

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: April 30

 

Brief biography of Franz Lehár, Hungarian-born Austrian composer, leading composer of light operettas, famous for Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow"). His waltz "Gold and Silver" is often included in  recordings for short musical pieces.

   

 

Austrian composer and conductor Franz Lehár (April 30, 1870 – October 24, 1948), was a leading operetta composer of the 20th-century. He was famous worldwide for his sensational light operetta Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow"), his music tuned into the traditional Viennese spirit of charm and elegance, of love and romance like Johann Strauss. Lehár was Hungarian born but Viennese in every respect.

Lehár's Early Years

Born in Komáron, he was the son of a Hungarian military bandmaster and composer. The continual move of his father compelled him to study and do his best as much as he could. At 12 years old, Lehár won a scholarship to the Music Academy in Prague, studied with Josef Bohuslav Foerster (theory), Zdenek Fibich and Antonin Bennewitz (violin), stayed there for six years, becoming a proficient theatre violinist. 

 

Career in the Army

Despite his musical training and education, he still followed his father in an army career. In 1889 he joined the Austrian army becoming the youngest ever military bandmaster. He was just 20. He resigned in 1902 to work in Vienna as a conductor and composer, and made Vienna his adopted home. 

 

Musical Career and Influence

It was Antonin Dvorak who advised him to concentrate on composition.

After unsuccessful attempts at dances and marches, including songs and an opera Kukuschka, his Gold und Silver (Gold and Silver) waltz was well-received in Vienna. Lehár began a career in operetta with Wiener Frauen. He achieved international success overnight from his light operetta Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow). He composed some other operas but were not as successful, for one thing, those were the years of World War I, which restricted normalcy of activities.   

 

Franz Lehár's Operettas

Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), 1905

Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg), 1909

Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love), 1910

Friderike (Frederica), 1928

Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles), 1929

Lehár also wrote the full-scale opera and his last major work, Giuditta (1934), was first performed in Vienna State Opera. His other works include: Sonatas, Symphonic poems, Violin concerto, Marches, Songs, Waltzes, and Dances, including the popular concert-waltz Gold und Silver ("Gold and Silver"), 1902

 

TRIVIA:

The Merry Widow was not only successful at its Vienna premiere in 1903, but extremely popular all over the world ever since.

In 1924 he married Sophie Meth. He was 54 years old.

His villa in Bad Ischl, where he died, is now a museum where an annual Lehar Festival is held in the spa.

Lehár was associated with the operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who sang in many of his operettas.

 

Photo Credit:

Franz Lehar. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.  Lehár, likely sometime between 1915 and 1920

 

Resources:

• Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern (2002)
  
• Latham, Alison, Ed. (2002) The Oxford companion to Music. Oxford OUP.
• Sadie, Stanley, Ed. (1994). The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. London: Macmillan Publishers.
  

 

(c) April 2008. Updated April 30, 2024. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: April 23

 

Ruggero Leoncavallo's brief biography – his life and contribution to Italian opera, in particular, Italian verismo (realism) movement or style. Famous for opera Pagliacci. Contemporary of Puccini.

 

Leoncavallo's Early Years

Italian composer Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo was born in Naples on April 23, 1857 (note: other biographies say it's March 8, 1857). A son of a judge, Leoncavallo took the plot from one of his father's real cases and made it to a libretto of his famous opera Pagliacci.

Leoncavallo's: Adult Training and Early Career

He studied at the Naples Conservatory, completing with a diploma of maestro (master) at the age of 18. Some years later, he enrolled at bologna  University, and studied literature. While striving to be recognized as a composer, Leoncavallo lived and made ends meet by teaching piano and singing, and working in cafés and cabarets as pianist.

Leoncavallo's Masterpiece, Opera Pagliacci

On May 21, 1892, Pagliacci was first performed in Milan. It brought Leoncavallo overnight success and recognition.  The title Pagliacci ('Clowns') refers to a small group of traveling stage players or actors. The opera of Leoncavallo tells the audience about their lives – their relationships, loves, jealousies, which spills over into their stage roles and performance, which climaxes in murder. 

Below, performance of opera PAGLIACCI (Leoncavallo) | Roberto Alagna - Inva Mula - Seng-Hyoun Ko - Orange 2009 (Full - Complete).  YouTube, uploaded by RobertoAlagna_Official. Accessed April 23, 2023.

 

Highly suggested link:

Luciano Pavarotti - Vesti La Giubba - I Pagliacci ᴴᴰ.  YouTube, uploaded by congodfather. Accessed April 23, 2023.

Leoncavallo's Other Operas

His succeeding operas didn't achieve as much success as Pagliacci. For instance, the success of Zaza, also produced in Milan, was short-lived.

Leoncavallo's version of La Boheme did not par Puccini's own version which was tremendous success.

Like Pietro Mascagni's in Cavalleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo also used the verismo (realistic) style portraying ordinary everyday people on stage in a realistic manner. 

Leoncavallo Musical Legacy

Leoncavallo belonged to Puccini’s generation of Italian opera composers. His native Naples, with it's great opera houses, provided him an ideal atmosphere for musical inspiration in his growing years. He belongs to the Italian composers of late 19th-century who like Puccini and Mascagni contributed to Italian verismo (realism) movement, featuring stories of ordinary people rather than the traditional grand and noble themes. In a manner of a true Italian son, simple yet intense drama appealed to him. He died in Bagni di Montecatini, Tuscany, aged 62.

Leoncavallo was one of the first composers who took serious interest in gramophone recordings. Pagliacci was the first full-length opera to be recorded in Italy, himself conducting.

Ruggero Leoncavallo's popularity is due only to his opera Pagliacci, considered classic in the musical world. Any opera buff will recognize clown Canio's impassioned "Vesti la giubba." In this opera, Leoncavallo offers a brilliant, superb drama of gripping tension and powerful characters.

Operas by Ruggero Leoncavallo

Pagliacci (Clowns)  1892

I Medici (The Medici)  1893

La Bohème  1897

Zaza  1900

Der Roland van Berlin  1904

Maia  1910

Gli Zingari (Gypsies)  1912

Edipo Re (King Oedipus)  1920, was performed posthumously.

 

Image Credit:

Ruggero Leoncavallo. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

Resources:

Dictionary of composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)

Ruggero Leoncavallo. Wikipedia. 

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Macmillan, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)

(c) April 2008. Updated April 23, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.  

Giacomo Carissimi

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: April 18


Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer, was baptized April 18, 1605 in Marino. He contributed to the development of the sacred oratorio.

Achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, later introduced by Monteverdi, and of importance in the history of dramatic music; the further development of the chamber-cantata; and the development of the oratorio, of which he was the first significant composer.

As Cavalli is credited to the history of opera, so is Carissimi in the history of church music and vocal chamber music. Carissimi died in Rome in January 12, 1674.



(c) April 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Tiger Bay (1959 Film)

Brilliant and touching movie. Terrific watch. Awesome acting from the three main characters: Sir John Mills (Police Superintendent Graham), Horzt Bucholz (Bronislav Korchinsky, a professional Polish seaman), and Hayley Mills in her debut performance as a child actress (Gillie, a tomboyish, wayward young girl). 

An excellent crime thriller. Exactly why old films are unmatched and remain so. Those moments before the ending are great, showing the bond between Bronislav Korchinsky, (guilty of murder) and the girl Gillie.

Tiger Bay is a 1959 British crime drama film based on the short story "Rodolphe et le Revolver" by Noël Calef. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, produced by John Hawkesworth, and co-written by John Hawkesworth and Shelley Smith (pseudonym of Nancy Hermione Bodington). It stars John Mills as a police superintendent investigating a murder; his real-life daughter Hayley Mills, in her debut performance, her first major film role, as a girl who witnesses the murder; and Horst Buchholz as a young sailor who commits the murder in a moment of passion. Unusually the overall ambience is one of sympathy towards the killer, seeing him as a basically good person, and victim of circumstance.

The film was shot mostly on location in the Tiger Bay district of Cardiff, at Newport Transporter Bridge in Newport (12 miles/19 km from Cardiff) and at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol. It features many authentic scenes of the children's street culture and the black street culture of the time, along with many dockside shots and scenes in real pubs and the surrounding countryside. The name 'Tiger Bay' was used by sailors, as a slang term for docklands that were rough and infamous areas. The Bay was also home for many people including newcomers who married Welsh inhabitants, creating a melting-pot of foreign and Welsh culture.  

Video. Tiger Bay 1959 John Mills, Horst Buchholz & Hayley Mills. Youtube, uploaded by DK Classics. Accessed April 18, 2008.