Figaro-Polka

Description Dedicated to Auguste Delaunay de Villemessant, who was the editor-in-chief of the Paris newspaper 'Le Figaro'. Strauss was persuaded to travel to Paris after the 1867 Fasching by Comte Charles Xavier Eustache d'Osmond, a friend of Strauss who had earlier came for the 1866 Fasching in Vienna and had advised the composer cum conductor to give concerts in the French capital. Strauss, with his astute business capabilities coupled with his wife, Henrietta Treffz's equally shrewd financial management sought to secure contracts to perform and organise concerts at the Paris World Exhibition in spring 1867. Strauss could not travel with his Strauss Orchestra and he had to conclude an agreement with the King of Prussia's Director of Music Benjamin Bilse to attempt that venture, sharing the conducting of Bilse's orchestra.