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Lehár

Franz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer and conductor, son of a military bandmaster of the same name, who trained as a violinist at the Prague Conservatory before following his father into military music. The success of The Merry Widow in Vienna in 1905 transformed him overnight from a competent bandmaster into the most celebrated operetta composer of his generation, the work performed across Europe and America within months of its premiere. His later life was complicated by his close relationship with Hitler, whose admiration for his music Lehár used to secure protected status for his Jewish wife Sophie, a moral calculation that has divided commentators ever since.

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