Richard Tauber an incredibly versatile and accomplished and acclaimed Austrian tenor who was ousted first from Germany and then Austria (his father being Jewish), his Mercedes seized by the Nazis who ordered his recordings--of which there are hundreds--smashed!

He was a true "cross-over" artist who moved effortlessly from folk songs and show tunes to the most impossibly difficult roulades in Mozart arias, and is considered the greatest Mozart opera singer of all time. He was called the "German Caruso" --having even refused Tocanini's invitation to sing in Italy because he felt so wedded to his native language and loath to abandon it. (Although he was an accomplished singer in other languages and made numerous recordings in French, English, Italian. )

He married the English actress, Diana Napier, and became the darling of the English public, having sought refuge in Britain upon his ouster from his native land (to which he never returned).

His "signature" song was the popular aria from the operetta Das Land des Lachelns ("The Land of Smiles") by Hungarian composer Franz Lehar, "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz"--which he recorded in over a dozen different languages, Lehar having written it expressly for Tauber (who had found, on top of LEhar's piano, an abandoned song from an earlier work which he urged Lehar to revamp for the new operetta. The work starring Tauber opened in October 1929 to raves of the Berlin operetta fans, who demanded the repeat of "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" countless times in the opening production).