The son of a judge, Bittner also initially pursued a career in law. Until 1920 he was a judge in Wolkersdorf im Weinviertel, in Lower Austria. From 1920 to 1922 or 1923 he was an official in the Austrian Department of Justice. In addition, Julius Bittner became one of the best known and most performed Austrian opera composers in the first half of the 20th Century. Many of his operas deal with Austrian-Alpine themes. He usually wrote his own libretti. After the Second World War, however, as a typical representative of late Romantic opera in the tradition of Richard Wagner, he was gradually forgotten. Critics gave him the somewhat derogatory nickname "the Anzengruber of the opera"; in importance he is comparable to his better known contemporary Wilhelm Kienzl. Bittner was married to the alto Emilie Werner. As a leading member of Vienna's judiciary and close friend of Gustav Mahler, he assessed Mahler’s estate for probate after his death. He later won the Mahler Prize in 1915. He composed many operas, two symphonies and many songs and was helped and promoted by Mahler and Bruno Walter. He was also a close friend of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schmidt. He was for a while editor of the Austrian music journal Der Merker and wrote music criticism for it and other newspapers. He was so influential that he was able to arrange Arnold Schoenberg's release from active military service in the First World War. He received numerous awards and honors and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1925. In 1964, the archive containing almost all of his works was taken over by the Vienna City Library. Bittner is buried in an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery.
Works
Operas :
1907 Die rote Gred
1909 Der Musikant
1911 Der Bergsee
1916 Das Höllisch Gold
1917 Der liebe Augustin
1921 Die Kohlhaymerin
1923 Das Rosengärtlein
1928 Mondnacht
1934 Das Veilchen
Julius Bittner also composed two symphonies, two symphonic poems and a work for two pianos and orchestra entitled Österreichische Tanze. He wrote incidental music to plays by Shakespeare, and for popular plays by Johann Nestroy and Ferdinand Raimund, chamber works many songs, and a Great Mass and Te Deum which was a cornerstone of the Austrian choral tradition until World War II. He also composed numerous operettas and three ballets, and assisted his friend Erich Wolfgang Korngold in the creation of the most successful of the Johann Strauss pastiches - Walzer aus Wien, which became known in English as The Great Waltz.
