Leo Fall was, alongside Franz Lehár, one of the very great operetta composers at the beginning of the 20th century. His melodies are unforgettable to this day: "The Rose of Stambul", "The Merry Peasant" and "The Dollar Princess".

Only two years after Franz Lehár had catapulted himself to the top of operetta composers with his "Merry Widow", the only three years younger Leo Fall, born in Moravian Olomouc, started a career in 1907 with two celebrated operettas that at its peak was in no way inferior to that of his competitor. His first two successful pieces – "The Merry Peasant" and "The Dollar Princess" – already gave that range between sentimental folk play and satirical salon comedy that would remain formative for Fall's further work. Above all with the former direction, he set his own, unmistakable alternative against the cosmopolitan, metropolitan operettas of Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán or Paul Abraham. And instead of reveling in broad orchestral sound like his colleagues or swinging in brisk rhythms from the New World, Fall relied entirely on a chiseled, transparent orchestral sound, with whose help the fine ironic wit – quite in the spirit of the inventor of the operetta, Jacques Offenbach – seeps from the text into the music: There the clarinet laughs, the violins snap, the piccolo giggles. And although Fall's operettas take us to very different settings – from Thessaly ("The Dear Augustin") via Paris ("Madame Pompadour") to Istanbul ("The Rose of Stambul") – the composer remains musically closely connected to his chosen home of Vienna. Thanks to his inventiveness and compositional mastery, he gave the Viennese waltz one last great flowering. That's why it's also said on the Bosphorus: "It must be a waltz"!

ORF III
Sunday, February 27, 2022
10:30 p.m.