Oscar Straus (composer)

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Oscar Straus (1918)
photograph by Edith Barakovich

Oscar Straus , actually Oscar Nathan Strauss (born March 6, 1870 in Vienna , † January 11, 1954 in Bad Ischl ), was an Austrian operetta composer . Along with Franz Lehár , Leo Fall and Emmerich Kálmán, he is one of the most important composers of the so-called silver operetta era .

Life

Oscar Strauss, son of the Jewish banker Leopold Strauss, later changed his last name to Straus to avoid confusion with the Strauss waltz dynasty . At the turn of the century he wrote several successful operettas , the best known of which is A Waltz Dream from 1907, and later composed on Broadway and Hollywood .

He learned from Max Bruch and had his first minor successes as Kapellmeister in Brüx and Teplitz-Schönau . In Berlin he took part in the first German music cabaret, the Überbrettl , where the young Arnold Schönberg also worked for some time after him . After the “ Anschluss of Austria ” he had to emigrate to Paris in 1939 , and later to New York and Hollywood. He only returned to Europe after the Second World War .

Katharina (1898), Louis (1895) and Leo Straus (1897–1944), who worked as a dramaturge and librettist, came from his first marriage to the violinist and concertmaster Nelly Irmen . In 1908 Straus entered into a second marriage with the singer Clara Singer (1886-1967); There were two sons from this marriage, the composer Erwin Straus (1910–1966) and the writer and director Walter Straus (1913–1945).

Straus' grave is in the Bad Ischl cemetery .

Sheet music title page for Straus' compositions for the Überbrettl

Works

Operettas

Film music

Awards

literature

  • Franz Mailer : world citizen of music. An Oscar Straus biography . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-215-05645-3 .
  • Dorothea Renckhoff: Shine and Darkening. Fresh flowers for bouquet. Play. Felix Bloch Erben Theaterverlag, Berlin 1999
  • Dorothea Renckhoff: From Ischl to Ischl, what a life in major and minor. About Oscar Straus. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 8/9. May 1993, supplement p. 4/5
  • Dorothea Renckhoff: No rose without thorns , The life of Oscar Straus and From the hero to the sweet tooth. The adventurous story of the Brave Soldier. in: WDR program booklet for the concert performance of Oscar Straus “The brave soldier” on November 27, 1992 in Cologne, broadcasting hall. Pp. 5-21
  • Dorothea Renckhoff: I don't compose with my fingers . The Life of Oscar Straus, and: Taming the Blond Beast? On the history of the Lustige Nibelungen . in: Oscar Straus, The Funny Nibelungs . Cologne Operetta Concerts 3, February 17, 1995, published by Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, pp. 7–22
  • Dorothea Renckhoff: Oscar Straus and his Lustige Nibelungen . Booklet for the CD Die Lustigen Nibelungen , Capriccio 1996, Delta Music GmbH Königsdorf
  • Oscar Straus ( memento of March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), online at Exil-Archiv. , Else Lasker-Schüler-Stiftung: Burned and exiled poets / artists - for a center for the persecuted arts , Wuppertal
  • Fedora Wesseler, Stefan Schmidl (eds.), Oscar Straus. Contributions to approaching someone wrongly forgotten, Operetta Research Center Amsterdam 2017.

Web links

Commons : Oscar Straus  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Straus, Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strauss, Oscar Nathan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian operetta composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1954
Place of death Bad Ischl