Oscar Straus

Oscar Nathan Straus (6 March 1870 – 11 January 1954) was a Viennese composer of operettas, 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'. 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 family, 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, after the Anschluss, he fled to Paris, where he received the honour of a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. In 1940 he fled via Portugal to the United States, where he settled in Hollywood. After the war he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl, where he died. His grave is in the Bad Ischl Friedhof.

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 works is the theme from the 1950 film La Ronde.

Works

Operettas

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 Eine Ballnacht – 1918 Der letzte Walzer (The Last Waltz) – 1920 Die Perlen der Cleopatra – 1923 Die Teresina – 1925 Die Königin – 1926 Marietta – [1927 in French, 1928 in German] Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will – 1932 Drei Walzer (Three Waltzes) – 1935 Die Musik kommt – 1948 Ihr erster Walzer (revised version, Die Musik kommt) – 1950 Bozena – 1952

Ballets Colombine – 1904 Die Prinzessin von Tragant – 1912

Orchestral music Piano Concerto in B Minor – 1893 Serenade for String Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 35 – 1905

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 The Gentleman from Maxim's – 1933 Frühlingsstimmen – 1934 Land Without Music – 1935 Make a Wish – 1935 Sarajevo – 1940 La Ronde – 1950