Del.icio.usOscar Straus
Oscar Straus was a Viennese composer of operettas.
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 operetta, becoming a serious rival to Franz Lehár. In 1939 he moved to Paris and went on to Hollywood to write film music. After the war he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl, where he died.
Straus's 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.