ARTHUR STIGANT

Evening Star, Issue 19328, 14 August 1926, Page 15

ARTHUR STIGANT

WILUAMSOH'S CHIEF CAKE BBT LATELY OF MUSICAL COMEDY Mr Arthur Stigant. who has moyed many thousands or New Zealand theatregoers to laughter during the past few years, has just concluded a long and continuous series of contracts * with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., and is now on his way to Australia to decide what ho will do next and where ho will go. With the close of the Lilac Time ’ season here his latest contract expired, and with its expiry an association of nearly twelve years with “ the firm ” ended. Mr Stigant has been such a familiar figure in pantomine and musical comedy that a few details concerning his career will bo of interest. Those details were obtained from bim by a ‘ Star ’ representative ; prior to tbc popular comedian’s do-. parturc. The jovial Arthur was nothing loth I to tell his story, once seated comfortably in an armchair in the smoking room of his hotel. Indeed, he enjoyed the reminiscence as the memory _ pictures came to mind. Though it is many a long year since ho began his career, Mr Stigant shows no signs of being in the sere and yellow leaf. On i the contrary he scorns the idea of j ago, and will, after the few months’ i spoil that he is looking forward to, resumo as fresh as ever. “ And do you know,” ho says, “I am one of the very few actors (the only one, _to my knowledge) who has never iu_ the course of a long career understudied.” Right at the outset he made up his mind to “ get and with this end in view he “ buried himself ” ; in the South Wales mining villages, 1 touring with companies with extensive repertoires. His salary was at the start 15s weekly, and out of this he bad to find all costumes, wigs, and make-up. As it may be imagined, a choice menu could not be his in those days; it invariably consisted of tinned beef, potatoes, and Epps cocoa at 2d a packet. Money went far then, and ho managed to exist without seeking aid from his relations. It need scarcely bo added that bo was a teetotaller and a non-smoker, ns well as an enthusiast in his art. Haying previous (amateur) experience, ho played principal characters right away, all descriptions of parts being assigned to him. In one season of seventeen weeks ho played in five dramas and throe farces weekly; a, matter of 130 parts, and all of them new to him.* It became a habit to read a part in bed over-night and wake up in the morningwithitphotographed on the brain. One day the manager dis- i covered that young Stigant could sing a comic song, and in consideration of bis doing this between the pieces his salary was raised to ono guinea a week. Later, a further rise came by reason of his adaptability. This time be learned and made an immediate hit with a “ legmania ” dance. ; An offer of a position ns stage manager and part producer of pantomime in Exeter followed. It was impressed upon him that be was not to appear in the production. Tin’s was a disappointment, but, being in full charge during the manager’s absence, vonng Sticant worked in his extraordinary “legmania” dance all right, and on the opening night .surprised the manager and scored a triumph. Ho was immediately booked for a tour with the famous Gaiety success ‘The Hiop Girl,” dancing and also playing tlio part of Count St. Vnurion for two •ears. After that came the parks of Wuu-Hi in ‘The Geisha ’; tbc King nf Illyria in ‘Kitty Grey,’ and Hogge.nheimer in ‘The. Girl Eroin Kay’s ’; aho baron and king parts in pnntmnine in a number of big cities. All the time bis salary soared and soared. In 1 901-05 bo loured South America and South Africa (twice each), playing a liflercnt musical comedy every two, lights in Buenos Ayres—twenty pieces in all. Even so. he Inund time to write and successfully produce a potpourri of the gems of the whole twenty pieces, with an original plot •mining through it.

11. may bo hero mentioned that Mr ■Higii'’' s a penchant for writing re.'iio- such thinus, and revels in ■opicul .Material. ITo finds, however, that managers are usually chary about nutting on topical plays, though, when they do lake on, they are. lingo successes. In 19Pi ho wrote a highly successful topical revue entitled ‘On die Move,’ writing nil the lyrics liinise 11, This ran for over a year, and Kir Alfred Unit, of the Palace Theatre, was so impressed with it that bo asked him to submit everything he wrote in future to bim.

On returning to England after his last South A Incan tour Mr Stigant was •(impelled, owing to an accident to liis 'cnee, to give up logmania dancing; but lie broke out in a fresh place and began to make a big reputation as a “dame ” m pantomime. His first dainc part was at the Theatre Royal, Manchester J ■vith Carrie Moore as a most delightful principal boy bo ever performed'with. Wilkie Bard was the baron; and has Hoc.y (who afterwards made a big reputation on the London stage) principal girl. | Soon after this Mr Stigant went into vaudeville and—except for annual pantomime engagements and an occasional dramatic engagement, such as that for the principal comedy part in the Drury Lane drama ‘ The dope’—played there for seven years.: In January, 1911, Mr Ilug''h J. ! Ward, then associated with J. CJ. Wiliiumsou; Ltd., saw Mr Stigant in pantomime, and offered him a six months’ engagement as Dame, to open at Christmas at Melbourne. This was dm beginning of Mr Stigant’s long association with Australia and New Zealand, and from this beginning he broke all previous Australian records »y play- : ing five consecutive'“ Dames ”in J. C. I Williamson pantomimes—‘ Cinderella,’ 1 Mother Goose,’ ‘ The House That Jack Built,’ ‘Dick Whittington,’ and 1 Goody Two Shoos.’ A* the ami of. the run of ‘ Goody Two Shoes ’ the | management informed him that ho was j to go into musical comedy for one year, returning the following year to play in I a pantomime written by himself. How- | over, the fates decreed that he should ; remain with the Koval Comic Opera j Company from that date till he finished up a lew days ago, his original engagement of six months having extended to one of nearly twelve years. The musical comedies ho has played in during the last six and a-half years include ‘Mr Manhattan,’ ‘Theodore and Co.,’ ‘ Kissing Time,’ ‘The Boy,’ ‘ Sybil,’ ‘ Southern Maid,’ ‘ Maid of the Mountains,’ ‘ The Street Singer,’ ‘The Cousin from Nowhere,’ ‘Merry Widow,’ ‘ Ma, Mio Rosette,’ and ‘ Lilac Time.’

Mr Stigant’s homo is in .Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne, and his chief concern is the future of his fiftecn-year-old son. His intentions are at present unformed, but he may possibly return to England to settle in Yorkshire. _ But the gods, otherwise the theatrical managers, may decree otherwise; his immediate future, at any rate, is largely in their laps.

FRANZ SCHUBERT EKUBBEBT WITH ESTEBHAZY THE UiSTBUHEXTAL WORKS [Written by Sophie BLwlu, for the 4 Evening Star.’] No. IV. In 1818 Schubert was invited to go to Zelesa to enter the service of Count Johann Esterhazy as music master to his family. AH the members of the family were musical. The count and countess and their two daughters sang and played the pianoforte. Here our composer very fortunately met_ the great singer, Baron Von Schonstein, a friend ot the family, who interested himself .m Schubert’s songs and helped to bring them 'to the notice of. the public. Schubert had many opportunities here of hearing Hungarian music in its own home, and among his compositions of this time is a very fine ‘ Divertissement a la Hongroise,’ which is said to have been founded on some tunes he hoard a kitchenmaid singing as he and the baron were coming in from a wplk. Schubert remained hero for two but he was not at his ease in highlycultivated circles, and he missed his friends and their amusements.

In a letar from Zelesz to his friend, Von Schober, he wrote: “No one here cares for true art unless it bo, now and then, the countess.” Then he sums up his company as follows: —“ The cook is a pleasant fellow; the lady’s maid is thirty; the housemaid very pretty, and often pays me a visit; the nurse is somewhat ancient; the butler is my rival; the two grooms get on better with the horses than with us. The count is a little rough; the countess proud, but not without heart; the young ladies are good children. I need not tell you, who know me so well, that with my natural frankness I am good friends with everyone.”

Schubert’s engagement with this family culminated in the only romance —brief as it was—in his life, his unreturned love for his fascinating and highborn pupil. The subject of his admiration was tho beautiful Countess Caroline, little more than a young girl and tho finest flower of this haughty Austrian family. The inexperienced maiden hardly understood tho devotion of tho artist, which found expression in a thousand ways peculiar to himself. Once sho asked him why lie had dedicated nothing to her. With abrupt, passionate intensity of tone Schubert answered: “ What’s the use of that? Everything belongs to you.” His love for her lasted to the end of Iris life, but Caroline soon forgot. He returned to Vienna, and to his loved companions, about tho end of 1818. His happy-go-lucky life at this period consisted in working for five or six hours during the morning, then a walk with a companion, and the evening was divided between some friend’s house or a theat re, and finally a “ gasthaus,” where the friends sat smoking and drinking beer or wine, and making merry until the early hours of tho morning.

Tho remainder of his life was rather a struggle for existence, made miserable by his irregular, unbusinesslike habits. Jii.s excessive shyness and timidity, and Ids ill-health.’

Ho made attempts every now and then to get sonic fixed musical appointment which might supply him with a small but regular income and a 'definite position among Irs fellow-artists, but nothing came of them, and he was always too busy and 100 merry with his gonial friends to allow any rebuffs to weigh heavily on his spirits. “ Perfect freedom of action was the. clement in which lie, by preference, moved, and for which he was content to make every sacrifice," says bis biographer. “To drink his mug of beer and eat bis sausage, and flirt with pretty servant maids and peasant girls; to discourse youthful philosophy, ami to play practical jokes with convivial poets, painters, and .students; abn\<; all, to fill reams of paper with tho melodies (hat were always flooding his brain—this was his conception of sufficing happiness.” When ho was in high spirits he would challenge a friend to a mock duel with walking sticks, or sing Urn ‘ Erlking ’ in parody through tho teeth of a comb. Another biographer tells us that when the juice ol the grape flowed in hi.s veins he became a laughing tyrant, and would destroy everything within his reach without making a noise glasses, plates, and cups- mu! sit simpering and screwing up bis eyes into the smallest possible compass. Prom all this we get the picture of a careless, irresponsible Bohemian, innocent enough, no doubt, but decidedly wanting in refinement, very fond of jovial companions, perfectly gullible in business matters, but with all a very lovable ami affectionate personality. In fertility and case of production Schubert fell short of none of tbc great masters, but in the development ami the display of ids idea* when dealing with the vaster conceptions of tbo sonata and the .symphony he did fall short of many of them, Mozart and Beethoven especially. He was so serious about Ids work that lie Ls said to have slept in Ids spectacles so as to be ready for action immediately on waking in the morning. Sitting up in bod Schubert wrote from early morning till bis middav meal.

He wrote as fast as Mozart, perhaps faster, but he did not merely copy what was already finished in his mind. Mozart carefully elaborated Ids works before setting them down on paper. Beethoven sketched Lis ideas in his note book and built up his music on this foundation. But Schubert simply wrote, on the inspiration of the moment, with the least expenditure of thought or energy, Li short, Schubert was to a much larger extent an improviser in his compositions than almost any of the supreme masters of our art. The neglect of head work previous to the use of the pen is a serious drawback in composition, and, considering the weaknesses of many of Schubert’s larger forms, it is not going too far to assume that lie was deficient in the capacity for braimvork, and especially in the power of seeing, at one glance, the whole course of a long composition, as the great classical tone builders must bo able to do. tTom Schubert’s diary we can see how his spirit soared above the dingy outer circumstances of his life, for, in his distress, ho wrote; “Grief sharpens the understanding and strengthens the soul; joy, on the other hand, seldom troubles itself about the one, and makes the other effeminate or frivolous. My musical works are the offspring of my genius and my misery, and what the public mold relish is that which is born of grief.” In another place be wrote: “ Certainly that happy, joyous time is gone, when every object seemed encircled with a halo of youthful glory . . . and yet I am now, much more than formerly, in the way of finding peace and happiness in myself.” That Schubert not only gave utterance to his bitter experience of sorrow, but through the pain and stress of that experience found his true self, can be seen when we study that wonderful series of compositions which ho wrote between 1820 and 1828. Here it is that we find the true Schubert, The beautiful string quartet in C minor is dated 1820, and from this time onwards masterpiece followed masterpiece. The ‘ Unfinished Symphony,’ in 1822, the A minor quartet and the octet in 1824, the D minor and G major quartets in 182 G, two piano trios in 1827, and, to cap the climax, the C major quintet and the immortal C major symphony in 1828. To his experience of extreme poverty ill-health was added, and in the year 1824 he was compelled to spend some months is. a hospital for treatment.

During the time of this illness ho wrote a complete opera of some 900 pages oi manuscript between the months of May and September, the whole of the first act, consisting of OUO pages, being completed in seven days. All through his latter years the sense of the indifference of the public to his high artistic achievements must have been very depressing indeed. His songs were ultimately received favorably, but little interest was taken in his chamber and orchestral music, except by a small circle of friends. The various features of the pianoforte music, with its weaknesses and excellencies, can bo studied best in his sonatas, which are, however, wanting in effective technique, and it is doubtless ior this reason that they are rarely performed in public. In the most important and voluminous duets we have the lyric element combined with romantic feeling. Schubert himself was very fond of duet playing, and .he put a great deal of his best work into that form. His talent for charming modulations is shown in most of his duets, especially in his ‘ Grand Duo ’ (op. 140), which ranks as a classic. His ‘ Impromptus ’ and ‘Momens Musicals ' _ are considered by some great authorities to be the most perfect of his pianoforte utterances. Schubert, in his piano pieces, was the forerunner of the methods of Schumann, Chopin, and Imvri, and in his songs of Frans, Rubinstein, Grieg, and Brahms. The melody in Schubert's ‘ Fantasia Sonata in G ’ (op. 78) is reminiscent in its first phrase of the trio of Beethoven's ‘ Seventh Symphony.’ While in the variations in bis string 1 Quartet in D Minor ’ Schubert is the only one of the great masters who has rivalled the stylo of Beethoven in the finale of Jiia great, !Hh (choral) Symphony.’

Tn his two great masterpieces,_ the 1 Symphony in C,’ and tbo ‘ Unfinished Symphony,’ which are the only ones that can approach those of Beethoven, Schubert’s rich individuality is very evident. The great one in 0 was never performed during Schubert's lifetime, and it probably would have remained for ever unknown had not Schumann discovered it long after tiro composer's death. It consists of four monumental movements. The first movement is full of exuberant life and force; the second, of gipsy-like romanticism, with its marvellous mysterious born passage (the celestial host, as Schumann calls iO, the charming Scherzo ,and the finale of colossal fantasy.

Owing to his tenderness the great critic. Robert Schumann, called Schubert “the wife of Beethoven.” And, regarding his symphonic movements, Schumann says: “Schubert is a maidenly character compared with Beethoven—far more talkative, softer, and broader, though compared with others he is man enough.” “Schubert,” he says, “ brings in his powerful passages and works in masses, hut there is always a masculine and feminine contrast-—one commands and one teaches and persuades.”