Signed Photograph from the First Summer of Opera at Salzburg

Original photograph of the important composer and conductor, boldly signed by Strauss on the mount and dated Salzburg, 1922. Also signed at the corner of the image by the photographer, Edith Barakovich, and with her embossed stamp at the lower right. Affixed to embossed cream matte, 6.25 x 7.25 inches; 10.5 x 13.5 overall. 

In summer 1922, Strauss conducted the first performance of an opera at the nascent Salzburg Festival. Together with Franz Schalk, Strauss programmed four operas by Mozart (Salzburg's favorite son) and quickly made the festival known for its operatic productions. In the founding years Strauss and Schalk brought the settings, the singers, the orchestra and the chorus from Vienna State Opera to Salzburg; in later years, the festival grew to attract conductors such as Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Karajan and others.

Edith Barakovich was active in 1920's Vienna as a fashion, society and portrait photographer. In the early 1930's she lived with her husband, the noted screenwriter Paul Frank, in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazi regime, they were forced as Jews to flee: first to France, where they were held with other foreigners in an internment camp; then, escaping the camp, to Casablanca, where they attempted with great difficulty to obtain US visas. Believing that they would never escape, Barakovich committed suicide by veronal in 1940; however, her husband obtained a visa three months later and managed to reach America.

The photograph comes to us from the collection of noted art lecturer Rosamond Bernier Russell (1916–2016). Known for her unusually engaging and sophisticated lectures on art, given at the Metropolitan Museum starting in the 1970's, Bernier Russell was also a friend to many artists and musicians of her era, including Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Copland, and Bernstein. Her husband, John Russell, was the art critic of the New York Times. (15221)

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Signed Photograph

Classical Music

Opera

• Sold