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Franz Lehar
By composing operettas such as The Merry Widow and The Land of Smiles, Franz
Lehár gave his letters of nobility to a genre considered light-hearted, but no
less lacking in musical richness. Born in Komárom (now Komárno, Slovakia) in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire on April 30, 1870, he was the son of a military
bandmaster who had to change garrisons frequently. The young Lehár grew up in
Presburg (Bratislava), Ödenburg, Karlsburg (Alba Iulia) and Cluj-Napoca,
learning Hungarian from his mother and German from his father, signing his name
Lehár Ferenc in the Hungarian style. He learne...
