Oscar Straus (composer)

Oscar Straus in 1907

Oscar Nathan 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. His original name was actually Strauss,^[1] 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.

The son of a Jewish^[2] family 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, where he received the honour of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, 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. Among his most famous songs is the theme song from the 1950 film La Ronde.

Works

Operettas

Sheet of music of a Straus’ composition for the cabaret "Überbrettl"

Die lustigen Nibelungen (The Merry Nibelungs) – 1904
Zur indischen Witwe – 1905
Hugdietrichs Brautfahrt (Hugdietrich's Honeymoon) – 1906
Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream) – 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
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
Marietta – [1927 in French, 1928 in German]
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

Ballets

Colombine – 1904
Die Prinzessin von Tragant – 1912

Film Scores

A Lady's Morals – 1930
Danube Love Song – 1931 (never released due to backlash against musicals)
The Smiling Lieutenant – 1931
The Southerner – 1932
One Hour with You – 1932
Die Herren von Maxim – 1933
Frühlingsstimmen – 1934
Land Without Music – 1935
Make a Wish – 1935
Sarajevo – 1940
La Ronde – 1950

References

↑ "Catalogue entry at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek" (in German). German National Library. Retrieved 26 June 2008.
↑ Oscar Straus, Noted Composer, Dead; Fled Nazis in Vienna, Paris. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 13 January 1954

External links

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