In 1840s Vienna, Johann Strauss I (Nigel Patrick) is conducting an orchestra in a ballroom full of dancers, when he is interrupted by his furious estranged wife, who confronts him about the fact that his notorious mistress is planning to name her new baby son by him with the name Johann, the same as Strauss's legitimate son, Johann Strauss II (Horst Buchholz).
After the elder Strauss, as well as the mistress, refuse the wife's demand to change the baby's name, Strauss's wife retaliates by informing the elder Strauss that his son has embarked on a career as a violinist, in direct contradiction to the elder Strauss's wishes, as such a career would consign his son to a life equivalent to a servant.
With the initial help of his mother, and through his talent and cleverness, the younger Strauss is able to find a position in an orchestra. At his debut as a conductor, he is roundly booed by a hostile audience, led by friends of his father. He persists on stage, however, playing one of his own compositions on violin, while leading the orchestra.
His determination wins over the audience with great acclaim. Upon hearing the news of his son's success, the elder Strauss listens in on one of his performances, and hearing his son's words of tribute to him, he is moved to tears, and is won over to his son's career and ambition. Shortly afterwards, the elder Strauss dies of scarlet fever, and the younger Strauss is given the position of leading his father's orchestra.
By the time he reaches age 37, Strauss has achieved enormous success, and along the way has had numerous frivolous affairs with women, all while remaining single, leading his friends and his mother to be concerned for his well-being.
At one of his performances, his catches the eye of Jetty Treffz (Mary Costa), who is the mistress of a baron, and seven years older than him. At a subsequent dinner, he is invited to dine with Jetty and the baron. The two of them dance together to Strauss's orchestra, and begin to fall in love.
Strauss invites Jetty and the baron to a concert, at which Jetty is to sing. The baron, sensing Jetty's interest in Strauss, attempts to scuttle the plans with a sudden business trip, but Jetty insists on delaying her own departure, in order to fulfill her promise to sing. After the concert, Strauss expresses his feelings of love to Jetty, and invites to perform with him for the Emperor. Jetty at first flees from him, but then cancels her plans to join the baron on his trip, and instead joins Strauss at his performance, singing for Franz Joseph, while Strauss accompanies her on the violin.
Despite the warnings of the insistent Baron concerning her age, and Strauss's reputation with women, Jetty leaves the heartbroken Baron and marries Strauss. Strauss's mother is unwelcoming of the idea, but after a visit by the Baron, who seeks to aid Jetty's happiness in her marriage, the mother's heart melts, and she rushes to the church in time to congratulate her son and his new bride.
With Jetty by his side, Strauss achieves the pinnacle of fame, playing in the finest concert halls. He also embarks on the most productive time of his career, composing some of his most well-known pieces, including The Blue Danube, which he presents to a disastrous debut by his insistence on using inferior and sarcastic lyrics, against the tearful protestations of Jetty.
Strauss is then invited to perform at the Paris Exposition of 1867, which he considers an incredible opportunity. Strauss's mother is overjoyed until Jetty confides to her a secret that she has a grown son who lives in Paris, and who will probably blackmail her.
Johann Baptist Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.
Johann Baptist Strauss I, also known as Johann Strauss Sr., the Elder or the Father, was an Austrian composer of the Romantic Period. He was famous for his light music, namely waltzes, polkas, and galops, which he popularized alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons—Johann, Josef and Eduard—to carry on his musical dynasty. He is best known for his composition of the Radetzky March.
Horst Werner Buchholz was a German actor who appeared in more than 60 feature films from 1951 to 2002. During his youth, he was sometimes called "the German James Dean". He is perhaps best known in English-speaking countries for his roles as Chico in The Magnificent Seven (1960), as a communist in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961), and as Dr. Lessing in Life Is Beautiful (1997).
Josef Strauss was an Austrian composer.
Eduard "Edi" Strauss was an Austrian composer who, together with his brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. He was the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim. The family dominated the Viennese light music world for decades, creating many waltzes and polkas for many Austrian nobility as well as dance-music enthusiasts around Europe. He was affectionately known in his family as 'Edi'.
Joseph Franz Karl Lanner was an Austrian dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor. He is best remembered as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to something that even the highest society could enjoy, either as an accompaniment to the dance, or for the music's own sake. He was just as famous as his friend and musical rival Johann Strauss I, who was better known outside of Austria in their day because of his concert tours abroad, in particular, to France and England.
Rosen aus dem Süden, Op. 388, is a waltz medley composed by Johann Strauss II in 1880 with its themes drawn from the operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin. Strauss dedicated the waltz to King Umberto I of Italy.
Henrietta "Jetty" Treffz was best known as the first wife of Johann Strauss II and a well-known mezzo-soprano appearing in England in 1849 to great acclaim.
Vergnügungszug, op. 281 is a polka composed by Johann Strauss II in 1864. It was written for the Association of Industrial Societies' Ball held in the Redoutensaal on 19 January 1864 and was inspired by the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway – the Südbahn – which operated many 'pleasure trains' offering trips from Vienna to the countryside.
"Wo die Zitronen blühen", Op. 364, is a waltz by Johann Strauss II written in 1874. The waltz was composed during a tour of the composer in Italy where he travelled with the Langenbach Orchestra of Germany and performed the work at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 9 May 1874.
The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet (Gravey), and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Vogelhuber. It was the only starring role for Korjus, who was a famous opera soprano and played one in the film.
Waltzes from Vienna is a 1934 British biographical film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, sometimes known as Strauss' Great Waltz. It was part of the cycle of operetta films made in Britain during the 1930s.
Simplicius is an operetta by Johann Strauss II. It was conceived from the work of HJC von Grimmelhausen titled Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus or simply Adventurous Simplicissimus, which was opined by many to be the 17th century's greatest German novel. The libretto for this work was furnished by Victor Léon who was one of Vienna's promising talents of that era.
Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted it until 1954.
The Eternal Waltz is a 1954 West German drama film dramatizing the life of Johann Strauss II. The initial story was written by Hanns Marschall and Ruth Charlotte Silbermann, and the film itself was written by Alexander Lix; the adaptation was by Paul Verhoeven who also directed the film.
Waltz War is a 1933 German musical comedy film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Renate Müller, Willy Fritsch and Paul Hörbiger. It is loosely based on the rivalry between waltz composers Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss I, as well as the life of the Austrian ballet dancer Katti Lanner who eventually settled in Victorian Britain. It is also known by the alternative title of The Battle of the Walzes.
My Love Came Back is a 1940 American comedy-drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Olivia de Havilland, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert, and Jane Wyman. Based on the 1935 Austrian film Episode written and directed by Walter Reisch, the film is about a gifted young violinist who considers leaving a prestigious music academy to play in a jazz band to earn money. The academy's new president—a distinguished wealthy patron of the arts—convinces her to stay after secretly arranging a scholarship for her out of his own pocket, and the two begin attending concerts together. Complications arise when he asks his young business manager to take his place at one of the concerts. The film is notable for Heinz Eric Roemheld's musical direction and Ray Heindorf's unique swing orchestral arrangements of classical pieces. My Love Came Back was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on July 13, 1940.
The Waltz King is a 1930 German historical musical drama film directed by Manfred Noa and starring Hans Stüwe, Claire Rommer and Fred Louis Lerch. It portrays the life of the nineteenth century composer Johann Strauss II. The film's sets were designed by the art director Max Heilbronner. It was distributed by the German branch of First National Pictures.
John Alexander Georgiadis was a British violinist and conductor. He was twice Concert Leader with the London Symphony Orchestra during the 1960s and 70s, a member of both the ensembles London Virtuosi and the Gabrieli String Quartet as well as conductor for both the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and as Director of Orchestral Studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
The Strauss Dynasty is an Austrian biographical film in six parts from 1991. It depicts the careers of Johann Strauss (father), the composer of the Radetzky March, and his son Johann Strauss (son) ("Schani"), the composer of the waltz The Blue Danube, who, despite his father's resistance, also became a musician and competed with his father as a waltz composer.
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