As discussed in chapter 3, Strauss had been stirred by the Ballets Russes since the time of Josephslegende (1914) and set out to emulate Diaghilev's enterprise while serving as codirector of the Vienna Staatsoper from 1919 to 1924. Hoping to revamp the Vienna Opera Ballet, the composer recruited the dancer-choreographer Heinrich Kröller to the Austrian capital. There, Kröller brought a number of dance productions to the stage, including Josephslegende (1922), Carnaval (1922), Don Juan (1924), and Die Ruinen von Athen (1924), all of which involved Strauss on some level (see the introduction to chapter 3). Riding the wave of the artistic and cultural-political success of the 1923 Ballettsoirée—the first true collaboration between Strauss and Kröller—composer and choreographer saw to completion their most ambitious and provocative project yet: Schlagobers (Viennese dialect for “whipped cream”), subtitled Heiteres Wiener Ballett (Comic Viennese Ballet) and given its premiere on May 9, 1924. Despite its obscurity, Schlagobers was one of Strauss's major endeavors of the 1920s, along with the operas Intermezzo (1924) and Die ägyptische Helena (1927).