Emmerich Kálmán

Emmerich Kálmán was born in Hungary on 24 October 1882 and became a composer who helped shape Viennese operetta as it moved into modernity. His style pulled from the csárdás and other Hungarian folk forms, the sweep of Johann Strauss II and Franz Lehár, and eventually the syncopation of jazz. Die Csárdásfürstin arrived in 1915, Gräfin Mariza in 1924 — both became fixtures of the repertoire. The Anschluss forced him and his family into exile, first to Paris, then to the United States. He returned to Europe in 1949 and died in Paris on 30 October 1953, six days after his seventy-first birthday.