(03.02.1842, Jelgava County, Latvia – 20.04.1919, Riga, Latvia)
/../ Johans Strauss – the wonderworker and the magician. A man of extraordinary abilities, gifts, work and wanderlust, an artist – an artist, as it is sometimes modestly written in the show’s application: a professor of natural magic and physics, a ventriloquist.
/../ In 1866, Johans Strauss began a lifetime of relentless travels and magical performances. His first major performances for the general public and a test of his abilities take place in the imperial capital of St Petersburg. In December, a year after his wedding, Johans Strauss is in London, inspired by recognition, success and profit opportunities, where his magical performances thrill audiences at the Exchange Hall. As the posters for the following years’ performances show, in which Strauss describes the geography and success of his performances, he has arrived abroad a ready and skilled magician. In London, the Kurlander demonstrated his rope-walking skills for the first time to a wider audience, and did it so deftly that he was nicknamed “the man-man”.
From London, Strauss arrived in Paris. Here he surprised everyone by crossing the Seine blindfolded on a rope stretched high in the air. On 15 June 1867, during the Universal Exhibition, he entertained Emperor Napoleon III with various magic performances at the Palais Tillery. The Emperor is delighted and presents the artist with a diamond-encrusted broach. In 1868 Johans Strauss performs magic in Madrid, Vienna and Berlin. In the great cities of Europe, the prodigy continually refined and improved his skills and performances, attending performances by similar masters wherever possible, and studying with them individually. For a living, the performances provided sufficient Strauss continued to travel and pursue his chosen occupation.
/../In 1869 he returns to Russia. In the chronological list of his performances at that time, the magician notes only two months of performances in St Petersburg at the Berg Theatre. Knowing his habits in the following years, it must be assumed that he settled in a large town and travelled near and far, renting rooms to live and perform in. And performed miracles. In the list of performances, due to the limited size of the poster, the artist has noted only the biggest, crowd-pleasing the cities that were not heard of much.
/…/ Strauss believed that the cradle of the great art of magic lay in the lands of the East and, driven by a thirst for knowledge, he embarked on a precarious, dangerous journey into the fabled world where people from Europe are still a rarity. In the early winter of 1871, he arrives in Karabakh and a performance takes place in the palace of Prince Behmet-Mirza, the Shah of Persia’s uncle. The Prince likes the performance and presents the magician with five Karabakh carpets and a diamond ring. In the spring of 1872 the magician is in Tiflis [Tbilisi]. In the Grand Theatre, many people are present for the spells. In the summer he travels to Tehran, where he rents a room in the English Theatre for magic performances from 18 July to 14 August. Shah Nas-Redin heard about the extraordinary and flawless performances and invited Strauss to the palace to show the programme to a smaller circle of highborn persons. Besides the usual reward of money, the Shah rewarded the master with the sign of the Order of the Lion and the Sun and an expensive Persian scarf.
/../ In the summer of 1873, Johann Strauss entertained the people of the Zoo in Moscow for a whole season Stage and the People’s Theatre. The maestro wrote down the main episode. On 17 June, a performance for Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich and His Highness family at the Borjom Palace and I had the honour to receive a gold watch as a gift without the usual payment.” Mikhail Nikolayevich is the fourth son of Tsar Nicholas I, Field Marshal General, Viceroy of the Caucasus and Commander of the Caucasian Army.
In 1876 Johans Strauss immigrates to Siberia. The summer is marked by performances at the Winter Theatre in Irkutsk and performances in Russian troops’ units. From Siberia to Japan, China, India. During the long and then difficult Asian journeys, railways were still a rarity, even impossible to imagine the difficulties and adventures of travelling then. He was still learning. He improved his juggling skills. He learnt the art of swallowing knives and swords with Indian fakirs. It was always a sensation in the public that he was able to lift a rifle horizontally in the air with his teeth alone, as if he was swallowing the bayonet of a rifle. Strauss writes: “During my tour of India, through Afghanistan and Bukhara to Tashkent, I gave several performances for the Emir of Afghanistan, Yakub Khan, in Kabul in 1879, from 1 to 15 October. For this I received 500 gold thillas [money] and a pair of Afghan mountain horses. In 1884, during the Saila [Spring Festival] in Bukhara, I performed for the Emir Hazret. I received 6,000 tangas in algae, awards, the title of Kat Nairanboz, one Bukharian Thoroughbred trotter and 16 beka robes.” After staying in Samarkand and Tashkent, the magician returned to Europe.
/../ The advertisement reads: “The arrival of Strauss. These days the well-known traveller of Persia, India, Japan, Afghanistan, Bukhara and lately Mongolia and China, the belly-speaker of the Persian Chess Court, Professor JOHAN STRAUS and his fantastic and mystical cabinet and will show performances of magic, physics, optics, sonambulism, spiritualism, music, aioscope, as well as ventriloquism divertissements, electric ballets, Indian fakirs in a magnificent setting with changes and transformations, plus Chinese games, Japanese equilibristics, Indian juggling, the 1000-year-old miracles of Mohammed, a sculpture gallery, the latest system fog pictures with mechanical movement, fata morgana, chromotrope and major anti-spiritualist performances. Johann Strauss is a master of the art of entertainment from many nations, whose repertoire is entertaining and educational for all ages.”
/../ How often did Johans Strauss travel and perform during his 25 years visited his homeland is not known. For a long time, his work and achievements was known only to his closest relatives. And then finally! In 1885 the newspaper Baltic Herald published a short news item: “An artist is living in Riga for a moment on familia business, which could awaken respect among Latvians. Mr Strauss, a magician and especially famous as a so-called ventriloquist, the art of speaking in more than ten different voices, one in the distance, one near, one in the air again, one in the bottom of the earth, etc. pr. – was born a Kurzeme native and a Latvian. More than 25 years ago Mr Strauss left his fatherland and went into distant foreign lands to study and take up his art, that he might then take his place with the ruler of Persia as after having stayed for several years especially in India, where the art of magic was most developed. Mr Strauss has already won several orders through his prowess and, most interestingly, he has not forgotten the Latvian language during these long years, since his relatives, with whom he has always been in contact, have sent Latvian newspapers after him everywhere.”
/../ Johans Strauss continued his endless tour. From time to time, as far as one can tell, he repeated the routes and places he had first explored. Surprisingly, mentions of Johans Strauss’s travels can also be found in the depths of the Internet. I. J. Schmidt. From distant antiquity. A journey with A. P. Chekhov through Siberia. The journey took place in the spring-summer of 1890. Chekhov was on his way to Sakhalin Island to see and describe the living conditions of the prisoners.
/…/ “We laughed heartily at the guy who was holding up Johans Strauss, the well-known magician and ventriloquist of the time, for the devil; he was in Irkutsk at the same time as us and was giving his performances. He left there before us and suddenly we were on his trail.” Chekhov did not forget Strauss and his art. The Wonderworker becomes Charlotte Ivanovna, a governess who performs magic tricks and masters ventriloquism.
/../ In the professional circles of the Russian cave art world, Strauss was known and respected. This is evidenced by an official letter to the artist from the Nikitin brothers’ Russian circus in 1893: “Dear Mr Johan Strauss. Together with this letter we have the honour to send you a silver token of good memory from us and our circus.In 1893 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first Russian circus with great elation. We always appreciate and remember your honest and unselfish service to our cause and consider it a pleasant duty to acknowledge our good relationship with a gift. Sir, please accept our sincere thanks and respect “Acknowledgments.” Signatures. Director of the Troupe P. A. Nikitin. Director of the Circus A. A. Nikitin.
/../ Johann Strauss liked to joke, even in front of a few spectators. At a market in a Russian town, the trickster approached a peasant woman who had brought a calf to sell. He asks how much. Why so much? – Well, the calf is well fed, watered with milk, says the farmer. A voice comes from the calf’s side: “What are you talking about, you only gave whey, not milk. The farmer is surprised and begins to think that the wicked calf has been eaten. Another time, Strauss is walking around the market. He approaches a farmer who sells eggs from the basket, but charges more than others. – Are they fresh? – Fresh, though, and big, so more expensive. And Strauss takes one egg and flips it. There’s a silver ruble in the egg. Take the other one, it also has a ruble. – Yes, you can pay the asking price for them, I’ll buy them all. But the seller refuses to sell. Strauss pays for two and leaves. The peasant woman takes it upon herself to beat the eggs, but to no avail – there is no ruble.
The biggest jokes, however, came with the ventriloquism. In Irkutsk, an enterprising Latvian had made a fortune selling fish and caviar. One evening several Latvians and Strauss were sitting at his place, drinking schnabe and eating black caviar. Soon the bowl was empty, but the father of the house said that they had not prepared any more. A voice from behind the wall says: “What’s the matter with Iker Juri, there’s enough in the cellar! Nothing to do, take it to the table. /../
Excerpts from Uģs Niedre’s article “Johans Jēkabs Jānis Štrauss, Professor of Natural Magic and Physics”
