orig. Ferencz Christian Lehár
born April 30, 1870, Komárom, Hung., Austria-Hungary
died Oct. 24, 1948, Bad Ischl, Austria
Hungarian composer.
He began studying the violin at age 12 in Prague. In the 1890s he was a military bandmaster like his father; by the end of the decade he had moved to Vienna, where he became a popular composer of marches and waltzes. After 1901 he concentrated on orchestra conducting and on composing, notably his 40 witty and melodic operettas that embody the prewar Viennese spirit, including the popular The Merry Widow (1905), The Countess of Luxembourg (1909), and The Land of Smiles (1929).