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Oscar Straus (composer)
Encyclopedia
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
composer of operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. His original name was actually Strauss, but for professional purposes he deliberately omitted the final 's', since he wished not to be associated with the musical Strauss family
Johann Strauss I
Johann Strauss I , born in Vienna, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty...
of Vienna. However, he did follow the advice of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
in 1898 about abandoning the prospective lure of writing waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es for the more lucrative business of writing for the theatre.
He studied music in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
under Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
, and became an orchestral conductor, working at the Überbrettl cabaret. He went back to Vienna and began writing operettas, becoming a serious rival to Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
. When Lehár's popular The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
premiered in 1905, Straus was said to have remarked "Das kann ich auch!" (I can also do that!). In 1939, following the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, he fled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he received the honour of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, and then to Hollywood. After the war, he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl
Bad Ischl
Bad Ischl is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden Ahorn, Bad Ischl, Haiden, Jainzen, Kaltenbach, Lauffen, Lindau, Pfandl, Perneck, Reiterndorf and Rettenbach...
, where he died.
Straus' best-known works are Ein Walzertraum
Ein Walzertraum
Ein Walzertraum is an operetta by Oscar Straus with a German libretto by Leopold Jacobson and Felix Dörmann, based on the novella Nur der Prinzgemahl by Hans Müller-Einigen from his 1905 book Buch der Abenteuer .The young Jacobson presented Straus with a libretto for Ein Walzertraum at a...
(A Waltz Dream), and The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man...
(Der tapfere Soldat). The waltz arrangement from the former is probably his most enduring orchestral work. Among his most famous songs is the theme song from the 1950 film La Ronde
La Ronde (1950 film)
La Ronde is a 1950 film directed by Max Ophüls and based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play of the same name. The title means "the round-dance".The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Writing and Best Art Direction...
.
Operettas
- Die lustigen Nibelungen (The Merry Nibelungs) – 1904
- Zur indischen Witwe – 1905
- Hugdietrichs Brautfahrt (Hugdietrich's Honeymoon) – 1906
- Ein WalzertraumEin WalzertraumEin Walzertraum is an operetta by Oscar Straus with a German libretto by Leopold Jacobson and Felix Dörmann, based on the novella Nur der Prinzgemahl by Hans Müller-Einigen from his 1905 book Buch der Abenteuer .The young Jacobson presented Straus with a libretto for Ein Walzertraum at a...
(A Waltz Dream) – 1907 - Der tapfere Soldat (The Gallant Soldier, The Chocolate SoldierThe Chocolate SoldierThe Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man...
) – 1908 - Didi – 1908
- Das Tal der Liebe – 1909
- Mein junger Herr (My Son John) – 1910
- Die kleine Freundin (My Little Friend) – 1911
- Der tapfere Cassian (The Brave Cassian) – 1912
- The Dancing Viennese – 1912
- Love and Laughter – 1913
- Rund um die Liebe – 1914
- Liebeszauber – 1916
- Der letzte Walzer – 1920
- Die Perlen der Cleopatra – 1923
- Die Teresina – 1925
- Die Musik kommt – 1928
- Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will – 1932
- Drei Walzer – 1935
- Ihr erster Walzer (revised version, Die Musik kommt) – 1950
- Bozena – 1952
Film Scores
- A Lady's MoralsA Lady's MoralsA Lady's Morals is a 1930 film offering a highly fictionalized account of singer Jenny Lind. The movie features Grace Moore as Lind, Reginald Denny as a lover, and Wallace Beery as P. T. Barnum; Beery would play Barnum again four years later in The Mighty Barnum...
– 1930 - Danube Love Song – 1931 (never released due to backlash against musicals)
- The Smiling LieutenantThe Smiling LieutenantThe Smiling Lieutenant is an American film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert, and released by Paramount Pictures.-Production background:...
– 1932 - The Southerner – 1932
- One Hour with YouOne Hour with YouOne Hour with You is a 1932 American film. It was produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and written by Samson Raphaelson, from the Lothar Schmidt play Only a Dream....
– 1932 - Die Herren von Maxim – 1933
- Frühlingsstimmen – 1934
- Land Without Music – 1935
- Make a Wish – 1935
- La RondeLa Ronde (1950 film)La Ronde is a 1950 film directed by Max Ophüls and based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play of the same name. The title means "the round-dance".The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Writing and Best Art Direction...
– 1950
Further reading
- Grun, Bernard: Prince of Vienna: the Life, Times and Melodies of Oscar Straus (London, 1955).
- Gänzl, KurtKurt GänzlKurt Gänzl is an award-winning writer, musicologist, casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre....
. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer BooksG. SchirmerG. Schirmer Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. It publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-known European music publishers in North America, such as the Italian Ricordi, Music Sales Affiliates ChesterNovello,...
, 2001. - Traubner, RichardRichard TraubnerRichard Traubner is an American journalist, author, operetta scholar and historian, and lecturer on theatre and film. His book on the history of operetta was first published in 1983 and won the 17th annual ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Traubner is a frequent contributor to Opera News, The New York...
. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983.