Emmerich Kálmán - 1882-1953

Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán was born on October 24th 1882 in Siófok, hungary where the young Kálmán developed an early interest in music through evenings of family entertainment. When he was 14 his father's business collapsed and the family were forced to move into lowly accommodation in Budapest where they endured a harsh life. It was probably this hard life that turned Kálmán into the gloomy, frugal man he bacame in later life. Emmerich and his elder brother supplemented the family income by giving lessons in Latin and Greek and by taking odd jobs.
Nevertheless, he still managed to save enough to start composition lessons at the Budapest Academy of Music while still at school (his parents wanted him to become a lawyer) and he even managed to buy himself a piano to realise his dream of being virtuoso pianist. Unfortunately, rheumatism in the hands prevented this dream from becoming a reality.
His colleagues at the Academy included Bartók, Kodály and Weiner and in 1903 his music was performed with theirs at a student concert. In 1906 he won the robert Volkmann prize for composition but still had no published work. This was followed in 1907 by the Franz Josef prize for a lieder cycle. His frustration at his lack of commercial success led him to approach Karl von Bakonyi, a successful librettist with the idea for an operetta, Tátárjás (which uncomfortably translates into English as "Autumn Manoeuvres") appeared in 1908 in Budapest. The directors of the Theater an der Wein in Vienna came to see the show after hearing good reports, liked it and signed up the rights. It was produced in Vienna in 1909 closely followed by performances in London and New York.
A string of Viennese successes for Kálmán followed, the most popular and enduring being Die Czardasfürstin (The Gypsy Princess) of 1915.
Being Jewish, the rise of Nazism in Germany caused Kálmán considerable anguish and he left Vienna for Paris in 1938 after his work was banned, first in Germany in 1933 and then finally in Austria. In 1940 the Kálmán family left Europe for the USA where they remained until after the war (sources variously quote 1949 and 1951) when they returned to Paris where Kálmán died on October 30th 1953.
His final operetta Arizona Lady was not staged until after his death (Berne 1954).