A young boy returns home from a matinee performance at The Princess Theatre.  He is impressed, - not with the play itself, but the hand-painted sets he sees behind the drama.  Later struggling with his schooling, this same boy is sent to a lawyer's firm to begin a career as a clerk.  Finding the work dull, he passes the time by building miniature theatre sets.  He is promptly fired. Still, he dreams of painting, and his parents apprentice him to a stage coach painting firm.  Continuing on with study at Trades Hall and the National Gallery of Victoria, he will eventually emerge as one of Australia's greatest painters...  He is Frederick McCubbin.

Best known for his evocative Australian landscapes used on postage stamps and chocolate bar commercials, the life of Frederick McCubbin will now be depicted with the brush-strokes of musical theatre thanks to Peter Burgess. The Melbourne-based composer, musical director and musician, has penned: 'McCubbin, A Musical Biography of Frederick McCubbin' which will premiere at the picturesque BMW Edge Amphitheatre on Friday, February 25th 2005, coinciding with Frederick McCubbin's 150th birthday celebrations.  

Burgess began writing the piece in 2000, and wanted to create a sung-through work that didn't use 'songs'.  "I essentially chose a sung-dialogue format that used reoccurring musical themes, scored for large orchestral forces and adopting a Romantic period style."  McCubbin himself loved to listen to Wagner and Romantic opera, and would often sing whilst he worked.

Growing up in Blackburn, an area where McCubbin lived and painted, Burgess became familiar with the iconic painters name at an early age.  "We were taught about McCubbin in primary school," says Burgess, "then I went to a secondary school in Box hill built on the very site where McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Louis Abrahams painted plein air [outdoors].  I studied in the Frederick McCubbin classroom, so his name has always been familiar."

Peter completed his musical canvas in 2004, and finished the final cast recording in October that year.  His original intention for 2005 was to have the piece approved by McCubbin's descendants and stage a workshop performance at the Ivanhoe Town Hall in the very room named after the painter himself.

"I initially had trouble finding a contact for McCubbin's descendants," says Burgess, "and then discovered art historian Andrew Mackenzie."  Mackenzie, responsible for "The Artist's Trail" found throughout Victoria, has written what is described as the most authoritative text on the artist - with research including interviews with McCubbin's daughter (now deceased) Kathleen McCubbin.

Mackenzie came on board the project, alerting Burgess of the 150th Birthday celebration Frederick McCubbin in February 05. "I had no idea that his 150th was coming up" Burgess says, "and I didn't meet Andrew until November 2004, so I've not had much lead time in preparing this showing.  Thankfully, the National Gallery of Victoria has stepped in and given me the confidence to proceed."

The Ian Potter Gallery (Federation Square) will celebrate the 150th birthday of Frederick McCubbin with a guided tour and special birthday floor talk about the artist.  Those interested in taking brush to hand themselves can also learn the art of landscape painting at Victoria's newest home of domestic art and culture.

The activities of the group of 1880's artists known as 'The Heidelberg School of Painters', which along with McCubbin included Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Walter Withers, Charles Condors and many others, paints a sharp parallel with the current landscape for musical theatre writing in Australia, Burgess believes.

"All of them knew each other and supported each other's efforts in creating truly Australian art," says Burgess. "I feel that the people writing musicals in this town are similar.  We all support each other's efforts and are interested in what each other is doing.  We all look to what's happening overseas and are inevitably influenced by it.  After all, the origins of opera and musical theatre are European and American."

"What I found very surprising while I was researching was that during McCubbin's time, he and his colleagues struggled to sell their paintings to an Australian public obsessed with overseas art.  Certainly during the 1880's there was a buzz about 'what is truly Australian' in the papers, in the work of Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson, and indeed in local painting and imagery.  But by the time the 1900's rolled around, the public was tired of colonial images and resumed their cultural cringe.'

Burgess finds it an odd phenomenon that a society would rather import art than foster it's own.  "Perhaps it's because everyone comes from someplace else and therefore retained their homeland's cultural traditions," he suggests.  "It would be nice if Australian music theatre had the same trade protections as say, agriculture, in reducing imports and increasing local product.  Groups like Magnormos, The Pratt Foundation and Australian Musicals Development are getting the ball rolling here in Melbourne but the movement needs to be diligent.  These catalysts are fantastic at bringing us all together like a Heidelberg School.  They help you to not feel so alone in writing, workshopping and staging your own original work here in Australia."

Refer to WHAT'S ON for more information on the 'McCubbin, A Musical Biography of Frederick McCubbin' premiere performance.