A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Staudigl, Joseph
STAUDIGL, Joseph, one of the most distinguished and accomplished singers of modern times, born April 14, 1807, at Wöllersdorf, in Lower Austria. His father destined him for his own calling, that of Imperial huntsman (Revierjäger), but for this he was not sufficiently strong, and in 1816 he entered the Gymnasium of Wiener Neustadt, where his beautiful soprano voice soon attracted attention in the church. In 1823 he attended the philosophical college at Krems, and was persuaded, in 1825, to enter upon his noviciate in the Benedictine Monastery at Melk. Here his voice, which had developed into a fine sonorous bass, was invaluable for the church services. A vague impulse drove him in Sept. 1827 to Vienna to study surgery, but money ran short, and he was glad to accept a place in the chorus at the Kärnthnerthor Theatre. Here he took occasional secondary parts, until the sudden illness of one of the solo singers brought him forward as Pietro in the 'Stumme von Portici,' after which all the principal parts fell into his hands. High as was his position on the stage, he was still greater as a singer of oratorio and church music. For this branch of music he had not only an inborn love, but great natural gifts, especially quickness of comprehension, and an extraordinary power of singing at sight. In 1831 he was admitted to the Court Chapel, and in 1837 sang for the first time at the great musical festival of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the 'Creation.' In 1833 he sang in the 'Seasons' for the Tonkünstler Societät, a society to which he rendered the greatest services. Though not even a member, he sang at no less than eighty of its concerts, and absolutely declined to accept any fee. Differences with the management of the Court Theatre led him to the theatre 'An der Wien' on its reopening in 1845. There he acted as chief manager, and, with Pischek and Jenny Lind, entered on a series of fresh triumphs. He returned to the Court Theatre in 1848, but only to expose himself to fresh annoyance up to February 1854, when an abrupt dismissal embittered the rest of his life. His last appearance in public was in 'St. Paul,' at the Tonkünstler Societät, on Palm Sunday 1856. A few days after, insanity developed itself, and he was taken to an asylum, which he never quitted alive. His repeated tours abroad spread his fame far and wide, and he had many admirers in England, which he often visited, and where he sang in English. He created the part of 'Elijah' at the Birmingham Festival of 1846, singing the music at sight at the grand rehearsal. As a singer of Schubert's Lieder he was without a rival; those who were happy enough to have heard him sing the 'Erlkönig,' the 'Wanderer,' 'Gruppe aus dem Tartarus,' or 'Aufenthalt,' will never forget it. It was most touching to hear him giving the 'Wanderer' in the asylum with all his old power, accompanied on the pianoforte by a gifted young musician named Vincenz Wagner, who has been seventeen times in the institution, and is there at the present moment. He died March 28, 1861, and half Vienna followed him to the grave. One of the pall-bearers was the first tenor, Aloys Ander, then happily ignorant that death would before long release him (Dec. 11, 1864) from a similar sad fate. [See vol. i. p. 65b.]
Staudigl was a man of varied gifts and ardent temperament. Whatever he undertook he pursued passionately, whether it were hunting, painting, chemistry, chess, or billiards; he was frank, open, and amiable; many a young composer owes his first introduction to the public to Staudigl's interpretation of his songs.
His youngest son, Joseph, born March 18, 1850, possesses a flexible sonorous baryton, which he cultivated with success under Herr Rokitansky at the Vienna Conservatorium till 1874, when he left. He has already made his mark as an oratorio singer in the principal towns of Germany and Switzerland. Since 1875 he has been engaged at the Court Theatre of Carlsruhe, and has lately been appointed chamber-singer to the Grand Duke.[ C. F. P. ]