Composer. One of the most popular creators of Viennese operetta in the early 20th Century. Unlike his contemporaries in the genre, Fall emphasized robust humor in both the music and texts of his stage works; his style is marked by light, fetching tunes and swirling rhythms. "Madame Pompadour" (1922) is considered the finest of his 37 operettas. Leopold Fall was born in Olmütz, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic). He was initially trained in music by his father, Moritz Fall (1844-1922), a military bandmaster and composer, and later studied at the Vienna Conservatory. Most of his early career was based in Germany, where he worked as a theatre and cabaret conductor in several cities. After a failed attempt at writing grand opera, he scaled down his ambitions and made his name with the operettas "The Dollar Princess" (1907) and "The Girl in the Train" (1908), both huge successes. In the United States his popularity rivalled that of Franz Lehar while the Hippodrome in London commissioned him to write a light opera in English, "The Eternal Waltz" (1911). His other important opuses include "The Merry Farmer" (1907), "Princess Caprice" (1912), "The Emperor" (1915), and the long-running "The Rose of Stambul" (1916). During World War I Fall's new music was not performed in England or the US, and it was not until the triumphant 1923 London production of "Madame Pompadour" that he re-established his international reputation. He died of cancer less than two years later. Demand for Fall's music was such that in 1929 Erich Wolfgang Korngold helped put together an operetta from his discards, "Roses of Florida"; it has since disappeared from the stage along with most of his works. Only "Madame Pompadour" and "The Rose of Stambul" are still in the standard repertory in Austria and Germany, while "The Dollar Princess" is occasionally revived. Fall's brothers Richard and Siegfried were also distinguished musicians. Both perished in the Holocaust.