Robert Stolz

Robert Stolz was one of the more successful composers of Viennese operetta and popular song in the early 20th century, ranking somewhere behind Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus. He was also among the relative handful of European composers of operetta to find a home in Hollywood, where he worked during the '40s. The son of Jacob Stolz, a music teacher, and Ida Bondy, a concert pianist, music came naturally to Stolz as a child -- he made his recital debut at age seven with Johannes Brahms, a family friend, in the audience. Stolz attended the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied u...