Information about Richard Strauss

Strauss's hard work had its price. A protracted pneumonia led to the collapse of the artist in 1892. To recreate and to draw strength, he travelled to Egypt. Moreover, he gained new impressions and ideas. The journey was followed by the creation of his first opera Guntram.

Besides Dresden, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Munich and Bayreuth, Richard Strauss was also Honorary Citizen of the cities Vienna and Salzburg.

Strauss discovers the Viennese Hugo von Hofmannsthal as his writer. Out of the collaboration arises Strauss’s commitment as director of the Vienna Opera from 1919 to 1924.

Strauss's father, Franz Joseph Strauss was not shy of making negative comments about Wagner, speaking of "poison" when the composer came up in conversation. The first horn player even remained seated when the rest of the Munich Court Orchestra rose to its feet to mark Wagner’s passing. 

His son Richard nevertheless developed a keen taste for the "poison" his father so disliked, and this can be heard in his early work.

The young Strauss met Wagner at a performance of Parsifal in Bayreuth in 1882 — a treat begrudgingly given to him by his father in recognition of his good school grades.  It was on the advice of his friends and fellow Wagner enthusiasts Alexander Ritter and Hans von Bülow that Strauss took a position as musical assistant at the Wagner-founded Bayreuth Festival in 1889.

He went on to conduct Tannhaeuser there in 1894.