Paganini: ”Girls were meant to love and kiss”

Highly successful though he was up to the beginnng of the First World War – with operettas like Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg) and Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love) – Lehár’s career faltered at that point. It was revived in a big way by his association with the phenomenally popular tenor Richard Tauber, whose lyrical vocal qualities he was able to exploit with unfailing effect. Paganini, based on an entirely imaginary episode in the life of the legendary violinist and first performed in Vienna in 1925, includes a characteristic Tauber song known in English as “Girls were meant to love and kiss.” Rather less cloyingly titled in the original German, “Gern hab’ich die Frauen geküsst” is Paganini’s revelation of the secret of his brilliant technique – as a lover, that is, not a viiolinist.