Oscar Straus (composer)

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This article is about the music composer. For the United States ambassador and politician, see Oscar Straus (politician).

Oscar Straus (6 March 1870 – 11 January 1954) was a Viennese composer of operettas and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. An anecdote states that 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 of Vienna. However, he did follow the advice of Johann Strauss II in 1898 about abandoning the prospective lure of writing waltzes for the more lucrative business of writing for the theatre.

He studied music in Berlin under Max Bruch, 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. When Lehár's popular The Merry Widow premiered in 1905, Straus was said to have remarked "Das kann ich auch!" (I can also do that!). In 1939, following the Nazi Anschluss, he fled to Paris and then to Hollywood. After the war, he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl, where he died.

Straus' best-known works are Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream), and The Chocolate Soldier (Der tapfere Soldat). The waltz arrangement from the former is probably his most enduring orchestral work.

Contents

[edit] Works

[edit] Operettas

  • Die lustigen Nibelungen (The Merry Nibelungs) – 1904
  • Zur indischen Witwe – 1905
  • Hugdietrichs Brautfahrt (Hugdietrich's Honeymoon) – 1906
  • Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream) – 1907
  • Das Buch der Abenteuer – 1907
  • Der tapfere Soldat (The Gallant Soldier, The Chocolate Soldier) – 1908
  • Didi – 1908
  • Das Tal der Liebe – 1909
  • Mein junger Herr (My Son John) – 1910
  • Der tapfere Cassian (The Brave Cassian) – 1912
  • The Dancing Viennese – 1912
  • Love and Laughter – 1913
  • Rund um die Liebe – 1914
  • Liebeszauber – 1916
  • Der Favorit – 1916
  • Der letzte Walzer – 1920
  • 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

[edit] Ballets

  • Colombine – 1904
  • Die Prinzessin von Tragant – 1912

[edit] Film Scores

  • Jenny Lind – 1930
  • The Smiling Lieutenant – 1932
  • The Southerner – 1932
  • One hour with You – 1932
  • Die Herren von Maxim – 1933
  • Frühlingsstimmen – 1934
  • Land Without Music – 1935
  • Make a Wish – 1935
  • La ronde – 1950

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Grun, Bernard: Prince of Vienna: the Life, Times and Melodies of Oscar Straus (London, 1955).
  • Ganzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983.

[edit] External links

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