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_.”