Word: strauss
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Nazi rage was mollified somewhat when, later the same year, Strauss humbly announced that he had found a new 100% Aryan librettist and was planning an opera on a German historical subject. The librettist: Dr. Joseph Gregor, 50-year-old director of the Theatrical Collection in Vienna's famed National Library. Arrangements were soon made to have Strauss's forthcoming opus premiered at the opening of Munich's world-famed summer opera season. But last week, as the rehearsals were well under way, and the score of the opera was released to the public, war-loving Nazis...
...this particular time, an opera extolling peace by any other contemporary composer would probably have been quickly verboten by zealous Nazi censors. But Herr Doktor Richard Strauss is not only Germany's No. 1 composer. As one of the two most eminent composers in the world today (the other is Finland's Jean Sibelius), he is Naziland's No. 1 cultural exhibit. Even though he is a bad boy the Third Reich is loath to spank...
What bothers politicians most about Strauss is the fact that the old man consistently refuses to take politics seriously. Questioned recently about his political opinions, he replied with an expressive shrug, "Ich bin künstler" ("I am an artist"). For an artist, genial, beer-drinking Strauss is an unusually shrewd business man. Famed as a hard bargainer, he is one of the few men in history to make the art of highbrow musical composition a sound and dividend-paying proposition...
When he is not guest-conducting at one of Germany's numerous opera-houses and concert-halls (he is also one of Germany's top-notch orchestra leaders), Strauss lives quietly and well with his wife and seven servants at his home in the little Bavarian mountain resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Originally the Villa Strauss at Zöppritzstrasse No. 46, was a simple, comfortable country establishment. But Garmisch-Partenkirchen, scene of the 1936 winter Olympics, has recently become a tourist and winter sport centre, and the white-haired composer has had to fortify himself against snoopers...
...genial, hospitable host, Strauss looks more like a conservative country squire than a world-renowned composer and conductor. Ruddy-complexioned, with clear, pale-blue childlike eyes, he carries his full six foot three with an easy natural dignity. Bent slightly with the weight of his 74 years, his tall figure is still spare and vigorous. There is no trace of pose or affectation about...