Travel tips for opera lovers – Vienna and Johann Strauss (Son)

Johann Strauss in Vienna

The series about historical places of opera art & culture. Get to know exciting excursion and travel ideas for opera lovers. This time: Johann Strauss in Vienna.

 

All Destinations on google maps with links to detailed Blogposts:

 

 

 

 

Strauss in Vienna

Johann Strauss’s father was Vienna’s first waltz king, battling his rival Lanner’s band for waltz supremacy. When Lanner suddenly died, Strauss’ wife urged her son to take Lanner’s place and compete with his father. The reason was vindictiveness, since Strauss’ father by now had as many children with his mistress as with his wife. The rest is history, Johann made his successful debut as a 19 year old at the Dommayer and over the next 30 years became the waltz king with his band. He was greatly assisted by his brothers Eduard and Joseph. Strauss’s life was marked by music making, composing, womanizing, Entrepreneurship, a lot of work and changing places of residence.

Strauss also became famous in the second part of his career for operettas, to which he initially turned only out of economic necessity.

 

To the travel guide VIENNA for classic and opera fans

 

 

Destination Café Dommayer

The Casino Dommayer in the Hietzing district played an eminently important role in Viennese cultural life in the 19th century. It was the place where Johann Strauss’ father and his arch rival Josef Lanner performed and where Strauss’ son first performed with his band in 1844. In 1884 he was given honorary citizenship of Vienna here. All of Vienna danced to ¾ time here and many a waltz was played here for the first time. In 1904 the building was demolished and a hotel was built, later parts of the original casino were rebuilt close to the original and the place often became a filming location. Today the café is an excellent traditional coffee house and destination for cake lovers and tourists from nearby Schönbrunn. The offer is very tasty and the cafe is always well attended.

Café Dommayer today:

 

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Destination Volksgarten (public garden) und Cortisches Kaffeehaus

An important performance venue became the Cortische Kaffeehaus in the Volksgarten. Johan Strauss’ father and Laner already performed there. It was here that Johann Strauss son conducted his Danube Waltz in its final, instrumental form for the first time in 1867. During the Second World War, the coffeehouse was badly damaged and was rebuilt as a music house where, among others, Ella Fitzgerald performed. Today the place is called Volksgarten Pavilion.

 Volksgarten Pavillon:

 

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Destination Theater an der Wien

Vienna and Paris were the two strongholds of operetta. In Vienna it was the “Theater an der Wien” where the premieres of the famous operettas of Strauss (golden era) Lehàr (silver era) were given.

The court opera always refused to perform operettas, at the request of the emperor there was only one exception: “Die Fledermaus”.

The Theater an der Wien is still a performance venue for opera and operetta today.

The Theater an der Wien:

The theater’s program is of high quality and a visit is worthwhile.

https://www.theater-wien.at/de/home/

 

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Destination Wohnung an der Pratergasse 54 (Strauss Museum)

Strauss lived here with his first wife for 12 years until her death. Among other things, he composed his most famous work here, the Danube Waltz, which he composed for the court balls and earned him the unofficial title of “King of the Waltzes”. The apartment later became a museum where numerous exhibits are displayed, such as a precious Amati violin and a Bösendorfer grand piano, both of which came from the waltz king’s estate.

Museum:

https://www.wienmuseum.at/de/standorte/johann-strauss-wohnung

 

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Destination Maxingstrasse 18 (former Hietzingerstrasse 18)

While Pratergasse 54 was the winter address, Strauss and his wife Henriette lived in this villa in the summer, where he wrote parts of the “Fledermaus”, among other things. The house cannot be visited.

 

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Destination Museum of the Strauss Dynasty

This museum was opened in 2015 and is dedicated to the Strauss dynasty. Its main representatives are Johann Strauss father and his sons Johann Strauss son, Josef and Eduard. The latter had a son Johann, who also became a musician (Johan Strauss grandson).

The museum:

https://www.strauss-museum.at/

 

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Destination Strauß Palais Johann-Strauss Gasse 4-6

“In 1875 Strauß bought two plots of land in what was then Igelgasse on Wieden and had a two-story palace with a Renaissance façade built for himself in 1876-1878. The billiard salon of the palace became particularly famous. Strauss’ third wife (Adele) gathered the artistic world of the time around her in the music salon (the “Johann Strauss Evenings” were a household name): Brahms, Goldmark and Rubinstein were frequent visitors, and Bruckner and Puccini were also guests at the Palais. Strauss died here on June 3, 1899. He bequeathed the house in his will to the Society of Friends of Music, which sold it in 1900. In the fall of 1944, the Palais was almost completely destroyed by bombs and had to be demolished. In its place was a new residential building (memorial plaque, unveiled on February 13, 1967)” (source Wien Wiki).

 

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Destination Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery)

Johann Strauss died of pneumonia at his home in Igelgasse in 1899. After the abdication service, the procession went through the city center and passed many places of activity such as the Theater an der Wien or the Court Opera. Tens of thousands paid their last respects to the musician and he was solemnly buried in the Central Cemetery.

His gravesite is very originally designed with many details, such as waltzing angels and a bat coming in for a landing.

https://www.wien.info/de/orte/zentralfriedhof

 

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Destination Johann Strauss Monument

Since 1921 there stands a beautiful monument in the Vienna City Park, which became one of the most photographed objects in Vienna. The statue shines in the highest splendor since it was gilded again in 1991.

Johann Strauss Monument:

 

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