Description of the attraction
In 1862, after an unsuccessful five-year romance with a Russian girl Olga Smirnitskaya, which began during Strauss's summer concerts in St. Petersburg, he finally married the singer Yetti Khalupetskaya (stage name Trefz). A year later, they moved to an apartment on Praterstrasse 54, where they lived for 7 years. The wife was seven years older than Johann Strauss. By that time she already had seven children. Despite this, their marriage was quite happy.
The beginning of the 1870s saw the heyday of Strauss's creativity. At this time he wrote the famous waltzes "Tales from the Vienna Woods" and "On the beautiful blue Danube". During this period, Strauss transferred court duties to his brother and took up operetta, writing only 15 works.
While touring the United Kingdom and the United States, Strauss set a world record for running an orchestra of more than a thousand people.
After the death of his first wife, Strauss was married twice more: for 4 years he was married to the singer Angelina Dietrich, and in 1882 Adele Deutsch became his wife. Despite three marriages, the composer did not have children of his own. In the last years of his life, Johann Strauss almost never left the house, making an exception only in honor of the 25th anniversary of the operetta "The Bat". During this exciting trip, he caught a bad cold. Strauss died of pneumonia at the age of 73.
Adele, the composer's widow, devoted herself to the creation of the Johann Strauss Museum, collecting all the interesting letters and notes. The museum, which is located in a former apartment on the Praterstrasse, contains the composer's musical instruments, paintings and furniture, waltz scores, and Strauss's personal belongings. In addition, things of Father Strauss and his brothers are exhibited here. The interiors of the museum recreate the atmosphere of the time where Johann Strauss once lived and worked, who gave the world 496 great works.
