Graf von Luxemburg Overture

Overture: Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg)

First performed in 1909 at the Theater an der Wien, where The Merry Widow had enjoyed such a great success four years earlier, The Count of Luxembourg was clearly intended to appeal to the same audience - which it did in a big way. It too is set in Paris and features an idle young Count who has the luck, rather than guile, to end up with the woman he loves. The Overture, which is a characteristic product of Lehár’s ambition to elevate operetta to a higher artistic level - hence the harmonically sophisticated transitions, the quasi-symphonic developments and the subtle thematic allusions - is a heady mixture of Paris at cancan time and Vienna in sensuously slow waltz time.