The Blue Danube. Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) By Estelle Bertrand Before achieving worldwide success, this piece had a difficult start due to the weakness of the sung text, written by a police officer who drew his inspiration from the new gas lighting installed in Vienna! It was 1867 and a few weeks after this chaotic first performance, Strauss conducted his score again in Paris. This time, he removed the sung part. It was such a success that he apparently had to play it more than twenty times in a row…