Oscar Straus query

[Michael Tarabulski <tarabuls@xxxxxxxxxx>]

For a personal project I am looking for recordings of music by the Viennese composer Oscar Straus (1870-1954), and for information about his life. I have a CD of his Chocolate Soldier, English version, on order and a copy of the Bernard Grum biography Prince of Vienna. The web tells me that some of his works have been issued on CD in Germany and, of course, I can get those (with a little help from someone who reads German).  I may, though, want--for scoring a documentary--some recordings from early last century, say up until  1930.

As to the personal information, the subject of my documentary, an archaeologist of few scruples, was (I have it from the arachaeologist's daughter) the illegitimate son (b. 1895) of Oscar Straus.  The dates are right, I know there was something odd about his parentage, and photos show a strong resemblance. The Grun biography says nothing about this, but it's of an age, and style, where one wouldn't expect it to. The daughter I mentioned, estranged from her father at an early age, has nothing but her mother's word on her father's paternity. I'm trying to verify this connection.  Is there an Oscar Straus fan out there who can point me to some Straus authority or the place holding the Straus papers? 

Michael T.






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Michael Tarabulski
International Jazz Collections
Lionel Hampton Center
University of Idaho
Moscow, ID 83844-4247
208-885-6355
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