Moises / Moritz / Maurice Strakosch

Birth record is visible in Czech Jewish Registers online, Bučovice Births, Image #30 of 82; Haus #12. Witness was J. Königsgarten.

This Moritz (Maurice) Strakosch was the opera impresario,1824-1887 (Paris and NY) [MT Arnbom p. 120, top.]. Said to have been born at Seelowitz near Brno (in Czech -- Židlochovice, 11 mi S of Brno), he was actually born in Bučovice, the son of Salomon Strakosch, Jünger's cousin Löbl Strakosh the Younger and his wife Julia Schwarz.

Moritz was "a musical prodigy who made a sensation in Brno at the age of 11 with his execution on the piano of a concerto by Hummel, the Liszt of the time." (New York Times obituary, see link below).

His parents [Arnbom does not name them] opposed an artistic career; Moritz/Maurice fled to Vienna at age 12 with about $2 in his pocket. He sailed for New York in 1848. An entry on Moritz/Maurice Strakosch in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography states he died in Paris 9 Oct. 1887. An obituary appeared in the New York Times on October 11, 1887.

Moritz Strakosch is the subject of an 1887 book entitled Souvenirs d'un impresario.

Maurice had a brother Max (born Marcus Strakosch in Brno, Moravia, 27 Sept 1834, not '35 as is often written; see in Czech Jewish Records, Bučovice Births, Image #54 of 82 -- the birth was recorded both in Brno and in Bučovice). Marcus/Max Strakosch, also an impresario and agent, died New York, 17 March 1892.

Maurice and Max Strakosch had a younger brother Ferdinand, born Oct 10, 1837 in Brno, also recorded in 'Czech Jewish Records, Bučovice Births, Image #54 of 82. He is mentioned in Marie-Theres Arnbom's book Friedmann, Gutmann, Lieben, Mandl und Strakosch: Fünf Familienporträts aus Wien vor 1938.

NYT item says Phoebe Strakosch, born in Sweden to Ferdinand Strakosch, sang opera in Europe and New York, making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on October 1, 1900.

In 1843, Maurice met tenor Salvatore Patti (1800–1869) at a music festival in Vicenza. Five years latter, he was tour manager of Patti group in New York. These performances started his successful career as a manager in the United States and his long-standing friendship with the Patti family. In 1852, Strakosch married Salvatore Patti's daughter Amalia Patti. He was also the first manager of the youngest and most successful daughters of Patti, Adelina Patti, from her first debut in 1859 until their marriage in 1868. It is believed that Strakosch was her most important teacher.

Read about Impresario Maurice Strakosch in Berühmte israelitische Männer und Frauen by Adolph Kohut.

From The Australasian (Melbourne), Saturday, 4 October 1919, page 36.

Article on ADELINA PATTI. by F.G.S.

In the late "eighties" I had the distinction of meeting Adelina Patti at her sister's home in Paris. Before then I had, through relatives, become intimately acquainted with other members of the family. Adelina, or La Patti, as she was popularly called, was then about 45, but she looked a girl. Bright, sparkling, vivacious, and even then perhaps the prettiest woman in Europe, she was the life and soul of the Sunday night gatherings at the flat of her sister, Madame Strakosch, and never required pressing to sit at the piano and sing simple airs to her own accompaniment. Madame Strakosch (Amalia Patti) and the other sister, Carlotta, also often sang. Evenings such as those live in one's memory. Maurice Strakosch, one of the three brothers then celebrated as impresarios throughout the whole musical world, often told me of Patti's early days. Strakosch was then director of the New York Opera House. The father of Adelina played in the orchestra, and Amalia was one of the leading singers. Strakosch always maintained that .Amalia had the best voice of the family. After marrying Strakosch she retired from the stage. A marvellous teacher of singing, Strakosch devoted himself to teaching Adelina the "be! canto" and under his care she developed the gift which kept the world at her feet for so many years. There was no question of payment. The Patti family had no money. The arrangement was that for a certain number of years he was to receive a certain portion (and a large one) of her earnings. This resulted in Strakosch receiving about. £100,000, and he established Italian opera in Paris in a theatre in the Passage des Panoramas. At that time Gye and Mapleson were competing against each other in London, paying enormous sums for the services of their artists, and Strakosch, without either Government or private financial support, had to carry such a heay burden that most of his capital was lost. His theatre was also burned down.

Strakosch had another celebrated pupil, Christine Nilsson, whose fame was nearly as great as that of Patti. Another who became famous --.Anna de Belocca -- was also a pupil of his, as also was an American soprano, Emma Thursby, who, however, sang only in concert and oratorio. With never more than one pupil at a time, Strakosch was closely associated with the success of the most celebrated artists of His day. His method was described as wonderful. He was a martinet, and the condition of his pupil was almost that of slavery. Without Strakosch's permission she could hardly stir from her apartment. '"Work, work all the time," said Miss Thursby one day in describing her experiences. "Strakosch kept me busy every minute of the time I spent under his tuition." He possessed a charming personality, was a wonderful musician, and a thorough man of the world.

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New York Times obituary begins: "Maurice Strakosch, whose death in Paris was announced yesterday, was born at Seelowitz, a little town near Brunn, in Moravia, 63 years ago. He was a little prodigy, having made a sensation at Brunn at the age of 11 with his execution on the piano of a concerto by Hummel, the Liszt of the time."