Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-16
BY GILBERT swan.
Sketches BY George Clark.


~ HE fash of dark eyes across softly
lighted room
The piquant flavor of the roman
tic the insinuating fascina-
ton of a lovely actress, or the elec-
trio stimulation of an exotic Hungarian
dancer the deeper emotional STRINGS
Out of such ingredients oscar Straus built
compositions which have gone hauntingly
through several generations, seeming never to
lose their flavor and appeal.
And this quality is there because
my work was always inspired by wom-
an" says the man who wrote THE Chocolate
Soldier" THE Waltz Dream" and other oper-
ettaS which placed him, with Franz Lehar
at the head of the Viennese school of music.
Now man in his SOS, growing bit bent,
and showing certain WEAKNESS born of great
activity and full life Straus, who has come
to America to write for the talking pictures
looks melowly back upon the episodes that
made for inspiration.
"First there was nmen-I married her. She
was my first wife, he began.
TRMEN was a violinist. Straus was quite
young when they met. She wanted him to
be a serious musician; to compose important
work.
And SO I was inspired by her. had not
VEINS" he went on "You know how tremend-
ousIy serious is youth. Oh, wrote and wrote
and wrote-an serious music
1t was during this period that he composed
his first operetta. 1.-THE Merry Nibelungs"
But life began to drift him toward a differ
ent world
Straus had been an orchestra conductor His
concerts took him to Berlin
A certain Baron Volzogen had been operat-
ing sort of literary cabaret" place highly
popular with writer's, artists, musicians and
theatrical folk. It was says Straus, a delight
fully atmospheric rendezvous with CONVERSE
ton bubbling like the champagne on the
tables.
This was before 1900
Suddenly one of those storms of marital
temperament crashed upon him. The details of
the arrangement that sent his marriage on
the rocks are not to be learned from the COM
poser. But it was not lightly accepted by the
young musician. Still in his early 2Os, it
seemed disaster From serious career which
he had been carefully patterning after that of
Beethoven, Straus plunged into lighter and
gayer life Ito forget"
1t was for all the world like the book of one
of the Viennese operettas, Lehars Merry
Widow" with its famous song wherein the lead
ing character announces that he's going to
Maxim's.'
&AI any TdCc, d COulplcCe CidHBc UeBdn 10 come
over the composer.
JUST then, into this new atmosphere Of tin
king glasses and infectious companionship,
suddenly came the fascinating Boyena Brodski
She was Bohemian opera singer.
And again-inspiration
But this time. it was entirely romantic The
young man did not allow the alluring Boyena
to occupy the deep place in his affections that
had been held by his wife. This was a gay
and glamorous romance.
So Straus found himself writing lifting and
enchanting waltz themes. First came 1.-THE
Last Waltz" and then THE Waltz Dream"
both Of them filled with music dipped in a
dreamy melancholy and fashioned for nght-toed
dancers.
The brittle little romance soon came to an end,
however, and now Straus decided that he would
marry a home girl, rear a family and enjoy a
solid home life. He met and married Clara
Singer, his present wife. While good mu-