- Born
- Died
- Richard Kraus was born on November 16, 1902 in Berlin, Germany. He is known for Spiel oder Ernst? (1965), Phädra (1964) and Prestige de la musique (1963). He died on April 11, 1978 in Kassel, Germany.
- During his time at Halle he participated in the Händel revival with a production of the opera Agrippina.
- He was the son of the Wagnerian tenor Ernst Kraus.
- Kraus's great skills as a theatrical conductor are preserved in the recording of his 1942 account of Der fliegende Holländer from the Bayreuth Festival and in the radio recordings of operas which he made during the late 1940 and early 1950s, predominantly with the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra based in Cologne. These include powerful readings of Richard Strauss's Elektra, with Astrid Varnay in the title role; Verdi's Macbeth, with Josef Metternich; Wagner's Lohengrin with Peter Anders, and Parsifal with Martha Mödl as Kundry; Humperdinck's Königskinder; and Pftizner's Palestrina with Julius Patzak.
- Between 1954 and 1961 he was chief conductor of the Städtische Oper, Berlin, prior to its renaming as the Deutsche Oper in 1961, making several commercial recordings of operatic excerpts and orchestral works for German companies such as Deutsche Grammophon and Ariola- Eurodisc.
- Kraus also skilfully accompanied the pianist Shura Cherkassky in a popular recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2, and the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Hans Werner Henze's Five Neapolitan Songs.
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