{"id":7234,"date":"2026-10-09T13:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T17:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/performingartsnews\/?p=7234"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T17:18:28","slug":"searching-for-robert-stolz-a-conversation-with-daniel-neer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/performingartsnews\/2026\/10\/09\/searching-for-robert-stolz-a-conversation-with-daniel-neer\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Robert Stolz: A Conversation with Daniel Neer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Beyond<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the Notes presents<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Searching for Robert Stolz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 12:00 PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Library Event Space<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light refreshments served. Boyer recital credit given.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All programs are free and open to all, and registration<\/a> is encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Split<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Singer, writer, and educator Daniel Neer has spent about fifteen years developing The Barbed Wire Waltz<\/em>, a new operetta<\/a> inspired by Viennese theater in 1938. His interest began with a gift of a book about composer Robert Stolz<\/a> and grew through correspondence with the family, archival research, and a trip to Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, October 14, Neer will share music and stories from that journey at Charles Library in Beyond the Notes: Searching for Robert Stolz<\/strong>, accompanied by pianist Kim Barroso. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In advance of the performance, Neer spoke with Boyer grad student Christopher Vu about his journey, literally and figuratively, in developing this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Christopher Vu:<\/strong> For people encountering him for the first time, who was he, and why does his music still deserve to be heard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Neer:<\/strong> Robert Stolz was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was in his fifties when the Anschluss<\/a>, the German annexation of Austria, occurred. He was well into a very successful career as a composer of operetta and popular song, but also as a conductor. He was sort of the standard-bearer conductor of the Silver Age of operetta: Franz Leh\u00e1r<\/a>, Emmerich K\u00e1lm\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vienna in the beginning of the 1900s was, in many ways, the capital of Europe, right? Music, literature, theater, opera, symphony We\u2019re talking about Mahler<\/a> and Klimt<\/a>, the birthplace of modern psychoanalysis with Freud. It was a bubbling melting pot of thought and art, all of these things clashing together in the most wonderful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolz was on the more popular entertainment side of that, but he and his colleagues took themselves very seriously. Operetta was big business. We\u2019re talking Broadway levels. There were many theaters in Vienna playing operettas in succession, in competition with one another. Many of the theaters were owned by the same people who produced the operettas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Auditorium of the Theater an der Wien. Stolz conducted and presented work here. \u00a9 C.Stadler\/Bwag<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was also a sort of Austrian national identity. It\u2019s like America with Hollywood, jazz in New Orleans, or Broadway. Austria wasn\u2019t the only country that had operetta. Germany and Hungary had a lot of operetta composers, too, but a lot of them ended up in Vienna, increasing this melting-pot feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He really was a celebrity in his day. The closest we maybe have to him would be an Aaron Copland<\/a> or a Stephen Foster<\/a>. Leonard Bernstein<\/a> is maybe going a little too big, but\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> I was thinking Bernstein for a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> Definitely someone like Gershwin<\/a> or Duke Ellington<\/a>. Somebody who had a nationalistic feel to their name and what they were creating. He loved Austria. He loved being Viennese. He loved the style of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viennese operetta is a very specific musical style. Conductors who are very good at it understand, for instance, the second and third beat of a waltz<\/a> rhythm. There are lots of traditions in how the music is performed, and he was at the pinnacle of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anschluss really destroyed the art form, because so many of the composers, librettists<\/a>, performers, and theater owners were Jewish. With the Anschluss came the Nuremberg Laws<\/a>, which had already been in force in Berlin. Those people were excluded; many were sent to concentration camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black<\/a>
The Anschluss, March 1938: Crowds on Mariahilfer Stra\u00dfe, Vienna, facing inbound toward the city center between Zieglergasse and Andreasgasse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert Stolz, even though he was not Jewish, was very much at the forefront of helping his friends. He went to great and dangerous lengths to do that. He was also courted heavily by the Third Reich<\/a> to compose for them, and he refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually he made his way to New York, and later returned to Vienna. The last chapter of his life was really about doing everything he could to keep the art form alive. Because of him, we still have a lot of these pieces, which are gaining a resurgence all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> In the moment, while all of this was happening, that was incredibly brave. Looking back, he was on the right side of history, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> German artists were fleeing to Vienna because, in the early thirties, Vienna was considered safe. Then the same rules and changes that had taken place over a decade in Berlin were enforced in a matter of a month in Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a little bit of, \u201cOh, it\u2019ll never happen. It\u2019ll go away. That can\u2019t possibly happen here.\u201d Then your worst realities start to happen. Some people saw the warning signs and fled, but a lot thought it was political stuff that would blow over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was incredibly swift. Theaters closed mid-production. The bankrolling of shows and theaters collapsed. People went bankrupt. It was over very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That period of time, especially with someone like him, really intrigued me. It\u2019s been a gnawing mosquito in my ear for a long, long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Tell me more about how Stolz came into your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I should explain: I\u2019m an actor-singer, a librettist, a lyricist, a playwright, and a music educator. I teach voice. So I have this hyphenate career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I left grad school and started performing, one of the first places I performed was a little company in Ohio, of all places, that specialized in bringing back Viennese operettas from the twenties and thirties. I totally got bitten by the bug. I was incredibly in love with the beautiful music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of this operetta company told me about Robert Stolz, and he gave me this book called The Barbed Wire Waltz<\/em>. I didn\u2019t read it for years, because books accumulate, right? Then I eventually read about this incredible life he had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found the writer of the book in D.C., visited him, and interviewed him. He had been on a Fulbright to Austria, also a fan of operetta. He waited by a stage door to meet Robert Stolz in the sixties. Stolz said, \u201cOh, you\u2019re a writer,\u201d and that began a relationship that resulted in this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That started cementing the love affair I had with operetta and this person who, outside Austria, isn\u2019t very well known. In North America, mostly music scholars or people deep into musical theatre history will have heard of him. It\u2019s a shame, because it\u2019s not just his music that\u2019s incredible. It\u2019s his conducting and the way he kept the art form moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> In my quick research, I found myself struggling to label him. On one hand, I\u2019m reading about his waltzes and these iconic songs. Then he\u2019s a conductor, too. On top of that, I hear tangos<\/a> and things that sound like jazz. Could that contribute to why he\u2019s less known here? Is it hard to label him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> Maybe. I think you might be right. But to understand him, you really have to understand what was happening with Viennese operetta in the thirties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Die Fledermaus<\/a><\/em>, before 1900, was one form of operetta. But like all art forms, it progressed and changed. In the twenties and thirties, whatever the new fad was, it was going in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember Broadway before Rent<\/a><\/em>. I remember when Rent<\/em> premiered and how much it changed the landscape. Then how much Hamilton<\/a><\/em> changed the landscape. We\u2019re now in a period of Broadway musicals that\u2019s kind of the Wild West, with so many forms of singing and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With operetta, American jazz was a very big influence. People knew about Glenn Miller<\/a> and Fred Astaire<\/a>. Movies were big competition with theaters. Those early Hollywood movie musicals were all the rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolz wrote a lot of foxtrots<\/a>, Boston waltzes<\/a>, and tangos, as did Oscar Straus<\/a>, Leh\u00e1r, and K\u00e1lm\u00e1n. K\u00e1lm\u00e1n\u2019s operettas are full of tangos, which are amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> I\u2019m curious about the book and what happened next. What led to your research trip to Vienna, and what did it reveal to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I should backtrack a little. The mentor who gave me that book died. After he died, I decided to read all these things he\u2019d given me, because he was really generous and gave me books about things he thought I\u2019d be interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the front cover was a signature and an address label from Robert Stolz\u2019s wife. I didn\u2019t know whether they\u2019d ever met, or whether she\u2019d heard about this person with an opera company doing Viennese operettas and reached out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote to the address on the sticker. A couple of months went by, and I got a letter back from Clarissa Henry, Stolz\u2019s daughter. It turned out that his wife had died the same week as the man who gave me the book. I missed communicating with Einzi [Stolz’s wife], but now I had a relationship with Clarissa, who was very kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few years, I said to her in an email, \u201cThere\u2019s a story to be made about your father\u2019s life. I don\u2019t really know what that is, but I feel like it could be a really cool stage story. Why not write something with his music, his songs, and come up with a fictional story inspired by his life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of a jukebox operetta, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> She was excited by this idea and connected me to her cousin Hans Stolz, who lives in Graz<\/a>, Robert Stolz\u2019s birthplace. Clarissa and Hans collectively run the estate and family archives. The three of us got our heads together, and they agreed to give me carte blanche with anything in the estate: orchestral parts, diaries, things to help me construct a fictional piece inspired by this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story I\u2019m writing is about a theater troupe during the weeks of the Anschluss in March 1938. It\u2019s not an exact retelling of his life, but it\u2019s heavily influenced by that period, which I find fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I teach at the New School in New York, and I applied for a faculty research grant. I was given a grant to go to Austria to do research to finish this first draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> When was your trip?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> This past June. It just happened. The first draft of the libretto is complete, as are nine out of, I think, thirteen song translations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Austria, these songs are what they call \u201cevergreens<\/a>.\u201d They\u2019re tried-and-true Austrian tunes that everybody knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Now I have questions about the English translations. I\u2019m a composer, and I\u2019m thinking about syllables and diction. Did you have trouble going from German to English?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> Big time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Can you talk about that a little?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I\u2019m going to toot my own horn a little, which is embarrassing, but there are a few things in the world I do really well. There are lots of things I\u2019m no good at. One thing I\u2019m very good at is performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve performed a lot of really bad translations. Over the years, I\u2019ve been able to pinpoint the annoyances, so I made myself a few rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first was that I wasn\u2019t going to change a single rhythm he wrote. Translators and lyricists will take a quarter note and make two eighth notes out of it to squeeze in another syllable, which is cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second rule was that whenever he incorporated a rhyme, I would keep it. Even an internal rhyme<\/a>, which he or his librettists did a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third was to stick as closely to the translation as possible. That\u2019s tricky because there are tongue-in-cheek, colloquial German and Austrian things going on. It\u2019s like Gershwin\u2019s \u201c\u2019S Wonderful<\/a>,\u201d with its playful way of shortening words. To somebody who doesn\u2019t speak English, that must drive them insane. I can\u2019t imagine translating that song into another language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to stay within an idiom where I could explain the joke, or go along with it and reveal it later in the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example. In one song, a waltz, there\u2019s a reference to wine, and a place-name I couldn\u2019t translate with the right syllables. But there\u2019s a neighboring place equally famous for wine, Grinzing<\/a>, which is two syllables. So I used that instead. The family loved that I\u2019d paid special attention: if I couldn\u2019t use that word, I\u2019d find another name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great example is the name for Vienna: Wien<\/em>, one syllable. Just about every song is about Vienna, which is three syllables, with the stress in the middle. That\u2019s really hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I absorbed those challenges with my writing ability and by imagining singing it: what\u2019s comfortable to sing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem becomes, can I still make it sound like it\u2019s 1938, and how people talked? I\u2019m from Ohio, and I\u2019ve never changed my accent. We have colloquialisms, but translating into those wouldn\u2019t be comfortable for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With actors, we have this thing called the Mid-<\/a>Atlantic<\/a> accent<\/a>, which is a starting point for diction and approach to language. It\u2019s somewhere between European and American<\/a>. I tried very hard to stick with that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Got it. Okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> Being a musician helps. You can always tell when you\u2019re reading a translation by somebody who isn\u2019t a musician, because they\u2019ll change the rhythms, and you\u2019re like, \u201cWait, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> I\u2019m thinking about this from what I know. I\u2019m Vietnamese, and I grew up listening to Vietnamese songs. Later, I realized a lot of the popular songs were translations or reworkings of songs from elsewhere. Suddenly I\u2019m like, \u201cWait, that\u2019s \u2018B\u00e9same Mucho<\/a>\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are Stolz\u2019s songs that iconic to Austrians? And even though you\u2019re translating them into English, are you trying to preserve as much of the melody as possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> Yes, I know what you mean. A lot of his songs were used in American movies. One was Spring Parade<\/a><\/em>, where they took a Stolz tune and changed the language to fit the plot. That happened in Hollywood all the time. You\u2019d pay a fee for a tune, but have no idea what it would turn out to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve tried to go back to as much of the original as possible, including how songs were used in the operettas they came from. He was very prolific. Some operettas were very good, and in others the book was terrible, and in the competition of the time they didn\u2019t run long. Very much like Broadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Do you feel alone in this endeavor of celebrating Stolz, or are other people working with and performing these songs? What has your research community looked like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I am totally alone here in America, especially after my mentor passed away. He would have been my one touchstone. I know there are people here who know who Stolz is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ll tell you something: in Austria, I don\u2019t feel alone at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Robert Stolz monument in the City Park in Vienna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I was in Graz, Hans Stolz took me to a Schubert<\/a> lieder<\/a> evening. He\u2019s quite a bon vivant, kind of the unofficial mayor of the city. Everybody knows him. Everybody loves him. After the concert, he said, \u201cI want to take you to this place that has the most fantastic sausages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m down. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s driving along, and he pulls off at what looked like a carnival bus, with a flap on the side. It was a food stand on the side of the road, with a picnic table and the saddest little string of lights above it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were these construction workers sitting around smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sit down, and he introduces me as being from America. Then he says in German that I\u2019m performing a concert of songs by Robert Stolz next week. And all of them start singing their favorite songs. I\u2019m talking guys with dirt on their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was like, \u201cWow.\u201d It\u2019s really hard to describe how deep it is. It\u2019s like the Beatles in Liverpool. It\u2019s that big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are Stolz fan groups, concert venues doing his operettas, a jazz band touring with Stolz songs. You see his name all the time. Conservatory students doing a song recital will have sets by Schubert, Wolf<\/a>, Brahms<\/a>, and Stolz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Is there an Austrian songbook where he\u2019s half the songs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> For sure. Absolutely. What\u2019s funny is that I think most people wouldn\u2019t even know who wrote them. They just can sing them. He\u2019s on stamps. He has streets named after him. There are sculptures of him in city parks. It\u2019s very odd how he isn\u2019t better known here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> You mentioned that a draft is completed. What are we going to see at Charles Library? And what are your plans after that? Are you looking toward a whole production?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I\u2019m still in exploratory mode. What you\u2019ll see at Charles Library is probably eight songs with new translations, and a story that accompanies them about what I call \u201csearching for Stolz\u201d: looking for his psyche, being in Vienna, visiting the places he visited, walking in his footsteps to try to get inside his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made visits to the Vienna City Archives, which has boxes and boxes of his personal effects, letters, and diaries. I found a happy-birthday letter from President Nixon. I found the actual document from the Third Reich saying his assets had been liquidated and he was no longer welcome in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found amazing things, but I also got more of a grasp of the person he was: this steely, business-minded, smart, savvy person who wrote his own ticket and knew his worth, alongside this very sentimental, gushy guy who would do anything for his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That helps me refine the protagonist in my story. I wanted as much depth of character as possible, to give him personal conflict as the story goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a real story about his older brother, who he wasn\u2019t particularly close with. After the Anschluss, when Stolz was still trying to find a way to remain in Vienna, his brother called to warn him he was going to be arrested. Years earlier, Stolz had smuggled Jewish people out of Germany in the back of his car. He\u2019d sign autographs for the border guards, and they didn\u2019t bother searching because he was so famous. He also wouldn\u2019t write music for the Reich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His brother called and said, \u201cThis is one last brotherly gesture in memory of our mother. I\u2019m giving you twelve hours to get out.\u201d Stolz and his wife packed one suitcase and left. That\u2019s in my story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t write that. It\u2019s amazing, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vu:<\/strong> Wow. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neer:<\/strong> I want this concert to be a benchmark of where I am right now: I have a really good first draft and some wonderful translations. There are interested producers in America tracking my progress, so I have promising leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A show like this is expensive, because opera is expensive, and so is musical theater. The next goal is a reading, with people at music stands, reading the work from beginning to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you don\u2019t know him, it\u2019s a great story and fantastic music, written in the style of an old operetta. It\u2019s a callback to a previous style. I\u2019m in a \u201clet\u2019s see\u201d phase, trying to figure out the best way to go about it and talking to lots of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe in it really strongly. I love it. It\u2019s taken up an enormous part of my life. I\u2019ve been working on and off on it for about fifteen years. With this draft, I feel like I\u2019m beginning to get it out of my system a little bit. That\u2019s part of what I\u2019m going to talk about at Charles Library: it\u2019s a self-discovery thing with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Join us for Beyond the Notes: Searching for Robert Stolz<\/strong> on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, from noon to 1 p.m.<\/strong> in the Charles Library Event Space, 1900 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia<\/strong>. Daniel Neer will perform with pianist Kim Barroso. The program is free and open to everyone. Learn more and register<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Neer<\/a> is a baritone, actor, writer, and educator whose work spans opera, musical theater, art song, and interdisciplinary performance. As a librettist, lyricist, playwright, and poet, he collaborates on contemporary operas, chamber music, choral works, and multimedia projects. His teaching emphasizes individualized vocal technique and creative expression across classical and contemporary styles. He has voice faculty appointments at Temple University and Mannes Prep at The New School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

by Christopher Vu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Vu<\/a> is a composer, pianist, and interdisciplinary artist whose work moves between concert music, theatre, dance, and collaborative performance. He is currently a PhD student in Composition at Temple University. Learn more at www.chrisvumusic.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggested Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baranello, Micaela. The Operetta Empire: Music Theater in Early Twentieth-Century Vienna<\/em>. University of California Press, 2021. https:\/\/librarysearch.temple.edu\/catalog\/991039016058703811<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belina, Anastasia, and Derek B. Scott, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Operetta<\/em>. Cambridge University Press, 2020. https:\/\/librarysearch.temple.edu\/catalog\/991037921852703811<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurowitz, Richard. In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews during the Holocaust<\/em>. First edition. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins publishers, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niccolai, Michela, and Clair Rowden, eds. Musical Theatre in Europe 1830-1945<\/em>. Speculum Musicae, volume XXX. Brepols, 2017. https:\/\/librarysearch.temple.edu\/catalog\/991036865108603811<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vergo, Peter. Art in Vienna 1898-1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and Their Contemporaries<\/em>. 3. ed. Phaidon, 1993. https:\/\/librarysearch.temple.edu\/catalog\/991032360109703811<\/a>.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beyond the Notes presents Searching for Robert Stolz Wednesday, October 14, 2026 12:00 PM Charles Library Event Space Light refreshments served. Boyer recital credit given. All programs are free and open to all, and registration is encouraged. 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