Thank you for sending me the plagiarised information from the programme. completely irrelevent !. The WORLD thinks Lehar’s music is schmalzy ? Please let me know your evidence. Schmalzy is certainly not a crime, I agree, but it is a derogatory description of Music.

Thanks Herbert for your question.Leon and Stein actually wanted famous critic Richard Heuberger to write the score. but when they heard his first act score, he lost the commission. Wilhelm Karczag, who was going to direct the Operetta was not impressed by the music of Lehar and rejected his name. But Theatre Secretary Emil Steininger pushed for Lehar. And when Stein heard the first piece Lehar had written, hegot the job. But why “Schmaltzy’? Herbert, that’s what the world thinks of this music, and why iyt’s been a hit everywhere for well over a hundred years.
No crime in being Schmaltzy.
Puccini’s melodies I always describe as divine.