Nine years before achieving an enduring worldwide success with the operetta A Waltz Dream, Oscar Straus scored a notable success in March 1898 in Mainz - where he was then earning his living as a conductor - with his symphonic poem based on Franz Grillparzer's play Der Traum, ein Leben. As the local press rightly observed at the time, the "very appealing composition, distinguished by its melodic flow and subtle harmonisation ... earned the composer, who was present, warm ovations and repeated curtain calls." Today, the work has, quite incomprehensibly, been omitted even from the most exhaustive encyclopedias. Only slightly better was the fate of The Princess of Tragant, a ballet-pantomime that in November 1912 even opened the doors of the Vienna Court Opera to Straus. Although the title has not entirely vanished, the charming tale of a decidedly choosy princess and her suitors - so warmly received by audiences at the time - was soon cast into the impenetrable shadow of A Waltz Dream.