Leo Fall
Leo Fall was born in Olmuetz, Austria, on February 2, 1873. The son of a military bandmaster, he early received music instruction from his father. Then, after attending the Vienna Conservatory, he conducted theater orchestras in Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne. An opera, Paroli, was unsuccessfully produced in Berlin before Fall settled permanently in Vienna to devote himself to the writing of those charming operettas in an abundantly lyric vein and graceful, sophisticated manner which the Austrian capital favored. His greatest successes were The Dollar Princess in 1907, The Rose of Stamboul (Die Rose von Stambul) in 1916, and Madame Pompadour in 1923. He died in Vienna on September 15, 1925.
Fall’s most famous operetta is The Dollar Princess (Die Dollarprinzessin), selections from which are often given on salon programs. The Dollar Princess—book by A. M. Willner and F. Gruenbaum based upon a comedy by Gatti-Trotha—was introduced in Vienna on November 2, 1907. Its first American performance took place on September 6, 1909 at the Knickerbocker Theater in an adaptation by George Grossmith, Jr. Some songs by Jerome Kern were interpolated into the New York production. The “dollar princess” is the heroine of the operetta: Alice Couder, pampered daughter of a New York coal magnate who goes in pursuit of Freddy. When at a lavish party at the Couder mansion she brazenly announces her intention of marrying Freddy without previously consulting him, he leaves her in disgust, and goes off to Canada where he becomes a successful business man. He cannot forget Alice, however. He brings the Couders to Canada on a pretext of discussing with the father a business deal, when he confesses his love to Alice, who no longer is brazen or arrogant.
A Viennese operetta must by necessity have a major waltz number, and The Dollar Princess is no exception; “Will sie dann lieben treu und heiss” from Act 1, is the most important melody of the operetta. When other selections from this operetta are given they invariably include also the lilting title song from Act 2, and the seductive little duet “Wir tanzen Ringelreih’n hin einmal und her.”