The Strauss Family was ATV’s enchanting twelve-part drama about the private lives of the father and son composers of 19th-century Vienna.
The family’s history was certainly the stuff of good soap opera. Johann Sr. (Stuart Wilson) was a famous composer and the toast of Vienna. Still, he was gradually being overshadowed by his ambitious son (Eric Woofe), who wrote such immortal melodies as the Blue Danube Waltz and Tales from the Vienna Woods.
Father and son clashed over musical prestige, politics, women, and just about everything else, and Johann Sr’s wife, Anna (Anne Stallybrass), was torn between the two.
Eventually, she left Johann Sr. to his mistress, Emilie (Barbara Ferris), and devoted her full attention to aiding Johann Jr’s growing career.
Romance, deaths, unfaithful lovers, and great political struggles swept through this epic, along with dozens of cast members. Members of the London Symphony Orchestra provided the music.
The series aired in the US as a seven-part mini-series
Johann Strauss Jr
Stuart Wilson Anna Strauss
Anne Stallybrass Emilie Trampusch
Barbara Ferris Domnayer
Christopher Benjamin Amon
Jeffrey Segal Johann Strauss
Eric Woofe Eduard
Tony Anholt Karoline
Jane Seymour Annele
Deborah Linton Therese
Carolyn Keston Reichmann
Max Latimer Annele
Hilary Hardiman Adele Deutsch
Lynn Farleigh Hetti
Margaret Whiting Therese
Amanda Walker Hirsch
David de Keyser Brahms
Laurence Carter Liebrock
Tim Wylton Edi
Garry Miller Josef Strauss
Louis Selwyn Josef Lanner
Derek Jacobi Lili Dietrich
Georgina Hale Schlumberger
Geoffrey Bayldon
