ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century Victorian vocalist Joseph Staudigl. Many agree that Staudigl was the greatest bass singer of the Victorian era. Lablache fans allow him to have been, at least, the greatest German bass singer. Some commentators and memoirists have gone so far as to say, simply, that he was the greatest of all Victorian singers. Staudigl had been ten years an opera, oratorio and concert singer. He was regarded as the best basso that Vienna, and even the whole of the German world, had to offer. Success in bucketloads was waiting for him on the other side of the English Channel. If Staudigl was prized in Austria and Germany, he was idolised in Britain. In parallel, Staudigl was engaged by the two most fashionable concert institutions of the city: the Concert of Ancient Music and the Philharmonic Society.