Franz Lehár's 1928 Berlin operetta Friederike boasts an unusual subject: a romantic incident in the early life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Weimar Berlin is usually considered as a haven for experimentation between high and low culture, a bifurcated view which has dominated German studies, but in this article I argue that Friederike is best considered as an example of the middlebrow. I examine the many sources which contributed to Friederike, from Goethe to Wagner to contemporary plays; analyse the score's stylistic allusions and the performance of star tenor Richard Tauber; and finally turn to Lehár's rhetorical positioning of his work on the Berlin theatrical scene. I argue that operetta scholarship itself has traditionally been ill-equipped to deal with Lehár's late works and operetta more generally, and that middlebrow studies’ nuanced consideration of questions of art, commerce and prestige can contribute more widely to operetta and Weimar historiography.

弗朗茨·莱哈尔 (Franz Lehár) 于 1928 年创作的柏林轻歌剧《弗里德里克》 (Friederike)拥有一个不寻常的主题：约翰·沃尔夫冈·冯·歌德 (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) 早年生活中的一段浪漫事件。魏玛柏林通常被认为是高雅文化和低俗文化之间实验的天堂，这种分歧的观点主导了德国研究，但在本文中，我认为弗里德里克最好被视为中产阶级的例子。我研究了对弗里德里克做出贡献的许多来源，从歌德到瓦格纳再到当代戏剧；分析乐谱的风格暗示和明星男高音理查德·陶伯的表演；最后转向莱哈尔对其作品在柏林戏剧界的修辞定位。我认为轻歌剧学术本身传统上不足以处理莱哈尔的晚期作品和更广泛的轻歌剧，而中庸研究对艺术、商业和声望问题的细致入微的考虑可以对轻歌剧和魏玛史学做出更广泛的贡献。