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Dance Signals 2011For the eigth consecutive year!Wednesday 16 March to Sunday 20 March 2011 ‘Mrs Johann Strauss’ There is hardly another family of musicians in which women have played such an important role as they played in the Strauss family. As early as in the 1830s Johann Strauss I had, together with his publishers and arrangers, developed a commercial music business in which even the female members of the Strauss family had their part to play. The family apartment in the ‘Hirschenhaus’ was the headquarters of ‘Strauss & Co’. It was here that they planned, rehearsed, arranged, composed and organised. Alongside all this the sons, Johann, Josef and Eduard, grew up and could watch the development of an enterprise which they would eventually inherit. After Johann Strauss I left the family soon after the birth of Eduard as a result of his relationship with Emilie Trampusch, mother Anna had to fight to survive. When Joseph Lanner died in 1843 she was able to motivate her eldest son, Johann, to try to become Lanner’s successor in the musical life of Vienna. When there was resistance from his father she countered by applying for a divorce. Subsequently she became the manager for her son Johann and for the entire family business. She kept a firm grip on the reins right up to her death in 1870. Johann Strauss II had thus been accustomed to having a ‘managing woman’ at his side from the beginning of his career. Hence it is no surprise that he also went in search of such a woman as his wife. Jetty, his first wife, took on this role perfectly. She accompanied him on journeys, dealt with the correspondence, negotiated with concert impresarios, librettists and theatre managers. After her death in 1878 Johann’s second wife, Angelika – known as Lili, could not live up to these demands and instead sought to further her own career. After his divorce from Lili Johann found in Adele once again the support he needed. Adele became his manager, and she kept up the role even after his death. Were the Strauss women also the muses of their men as composers? Is the dedication of Johann’s Adele Waltz only a matter of the title, or is their a connection to the woman it was dedicated to in the music itself? Do the titles of many of Josef’s compositions, for instance Die Schwätzerin (The Chatterbox) or Die Kokette (The Coquette), reflect a fashion, or does the music express certain characters? In a way comparable with that of the many named and unnamed helpers in the composition of the music of the Strausses, the women of the family also made a considerable contribution to the success of ‘Strauss & Co’. But so far they have received no recognition for this. Norbert Rubey English translation: Leigh Bailey
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