In 2025, Vienna will be dedicated to the composer Johann Strauss, who would have celebrated his 200th birthday: Festival director Roland Geyer talks about the pop star image of the operetta king, the myths surrounding him, how he would face climate change - and what artistic discoveries can be made during the Strauss Year.
SIMsKultur: Johann Strauss was a pop star who attracted the masses. What was so fascinating about his music?
Roland Geyer: He managed to square a circle that many composers still dream of today: his music reaches people's hearts directly and at the same time is of such high technical quality that his "serious" colleagues such as Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Johannes Brahms had the utmost respect for Strauss' compositional skills.
And what was he like as a person?
He used his attractive and elegant appearance to great effect - just like today's stars. It must have been an electrifying sight to see him conducting his orchestra from the violin in an almost dance-like manner. He was romantically described as a "demonic devil violinist". For the moments of his performance, this magician transported his audience to an earthly heaven of happiness. Body and soul became one in the intoxication of the dance, in which time and reality were briefly forgotten.
He was originally destined for a career as a civil servant. Why did he end up in music anyway?
People often forget that his father, also named Johann Strauss, had already made a great career with his outstanding dance compositions. As a young man, Strauss (his father) had initially learned bookbinding, but his urge for music was greater and he had to work his way up with discipline regardless of losses. However, he paid for his fame with ruined health and early death. He wanted to spare his children this strenuous life, he wanted them to learn middle-class professions and sent his three boys to grammar school.
Why didn't that work?
He had not reckoned with his own impact and the power of his inherited talent. The sons, initially the two eldest Johann and Josef, adored their father and were fascinated by his music. Johann in particular sensed the same talent in himself. For him, there was no other path in life than to emulate his father. Johann secretly took violin lessons. When his father caught him practicing once, there was a terrible thunderstorm.
Roland Geyer © Herwig Prammer
He is said to have composed his first waltz at the age of six. What is myth, what is reality?
Little Johann experienced composing as an everyday, normal activity. He is said to have composed his first waltz at the summer house in Salmannsdorf. His mother Anna wrote down the melody. It is a small, enchanting fragment. There are actually very few myths about Johann Strauss. In fact, he never danced, even though he wrote such wonderful dance music and supposedly conducted with his whole body. But this oneness with the music was probably enough for him. He was an extremely attractive man and was considered a womanizer, but on closer inspection there are not many confirmed love affairs. It can be assumed that he mainly invested his energy in his work.
Did he have quirks?
He didn't like walking uphill, was shy of people, hated traveling and couldn't stand train journeys without champagne. He found relaxation in playing tarot or billiards with trusted friends, where he liked to cheat. His creativity was legendary: waltz motifs flew at him without him having to force them out of himself. He scribbled his ideas everywhere. Napkins, cuffs, bed sheets - everything had to serve as the basis for a manuscript in the event of an unexpected idea. Like Mozart, he was all music.
He showed sympathy for the uprising movement at the time. Would he support climate stickers today?
During the 1848 revolution, he initially sided with the revolutionary students, his peers who were trying to realize the dreams of his generation. But he was not a courageous man and violence was deeply repugnant to him. You have to bear in mind that Johann was also the breadwinner of a large family at the time. He could not afford to be arrested for political activities. After the victory of the Conservative imperial troops, he adapted to the circumstances and remained a loyal subject of Emperor Franz Joseph throughout his life. Overall, he was far removed from any kind of extremism, except when it came to his art. I therefore assume that he would refrain from commenting on climate change, but would not use chemical fertilizers in his garden and would install a photovoltaic system on his roof - without making a big deal of it.
In the Johann Strauss Year, 60 productions can be seen at 30 venues in Vienna. What criteria were used for the selection?
It is important to us to reach and delight a wide range of audiences in a thematically, artistically and geographically city-spanning manner. With 40 large and smaller partner institutions, we offer a wealth of events that are divided into 10 different genres: operetta, drama, performance, classical and non-classical concerts, film, circus, dance, science, art installations and exhibitions. In addition to concerts with the major Viennese orchestras, we present contemporary experiments by living artists as well as a composition by an AI in collaboration with Ars Electronica Linz.
What is Bat Day?
We will be celebrating his most famous operetta for a whole day to mark its 151st anniversary. The bats will be taking over the Museumsquartier. During the day, there will be family programs where children can get to grips with Strauss' music and the animals. In the evening, you can experience a very special version of the operetta with the Janoska Ensemble and Daniela Fally. And we were able to get the well-known ecologist and DJ Dominik Eulberg to develop a biodiversity show about bats and then organize a dance event in his capacity as DJ.
How did the new version of the operetta "The Gypsy Baron" come about?
"Der Zigeunerbaron" is one of Johann Strauss' best scores, the music is magnificent. But in terms of content, it is difficult: not only is the title problematic, the piece unfortunately tends towards naïve glorification of war, the reinforcement of a backward-looking patriarchal social order that was already outdated in 1885, and unbroken kitsch moments in a conservative direction that is otherwise not so present in Strauss' works. In a contemporary production, you have to take a critical look at these elements. In Roland Schimmelpfennig, we were able to recruit one of the best living playwrights for this. The content of the story remains the same, but Schimmelpfennig has updated it wonderfully and created what I think is a very intelligent opportunity for productive and entertaining discussion.
Was it a concern to also reinterpret unknown operettas?
Absolutely. An anniversary year is always an opportunity to explore a work in more detail and to put forgotten works to the test. To name just one example: The immersive theater ensemble Nesterval will deal with the completely forgotten Princess Ninetta in an unusual location. Raiffeisenbank is making the Dianabad available to us. But the swimming pool will not contain any water, Nesterval will artistically design the space.
Love letters to the Russian aristocrat Olga Smirnitskaya will also be presented as part of the festival. What was Strauss like as a writer of love letters?
Olga composed herself and was therefore an inspiring conversation partner for Strauss. He was able to talk to her about his work on an equal footing. She was also beautiful, elegant and had a sense of humor. As a letter writer, he actually cultivated a direct manner. In his letters to Olga, however, he showed his poetic and romantic side, presenting himself as a romantic lover. They both wanted to marry, but their families were against it. Olga's aristocratic parents did not consider the composer to be in keeping with their status. Strauss' mother, on the other hand, believed that the aristocratic little plant could not withstand the demands of a composer's wife and that she would not fit into the rather down-to-earth Strauss family.
Stefanie Sargnagel's reportage "Walzer, Wein und Wohlstandsbauch" can be seen at the Rabenhof.
We are enthusiastic about Stefanie Sargnagel's work and found that a cabaret-style view is almost mandatory. Johann Strauss had a significant influence on Viennese ball culture with his dance music, which is above all a social phenomenon. When someone like Sargnagel reflects on today's ball culture, something aptly brilliant is bound to emerge.
What new aspects of him have you discovered?
Johann Strauss tends to have a nostalgic image. But if you look at his biography, you realize his great importance as a mediator of the avant-garde music of the time: he presented music by Richard Wagner for the first time with his orchestra in Vienna. He was the first to publicly perform a composition by a young, unknown artist named Peter Tchaikovsky in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg. No sooner had an opera by a well-known composer appeared on the stage than the public could already hear the melodies at Strauss concerts. He worked to the point of exhaustion and suffered several breakdowns, which today would be called burn-out. He wanted to make people spontaneously happy with his music. We want to convey this joie de vivre, which always resonates in his works, and spread it as widely as possible.
Interview: Karin Cerny
January 1 to December 31, 2025
