Hidden Treasure

A recital by David Soar bass

James Southall piano

RES10103

Hidden Treasure A recital by David Soar

David Soar bass

James Southall piano

‘… poised and elegant singing ... from the excellent David Soar’The Daily Telegraph

‘… definitely a singer to listen out for’ Opera Today

C. Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)Songs of the Mad Sea Captain, Op. 1111. Hidden Treasure2. Abel Wright3. Toll the Bell4. The Golden Ray

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)Drei Gesänge von Metastasio, D. 9025. L’incanto degli occhi6. Il traditor deluso7. Il modo di prender moglie

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)8. Mentre ti lascio, o figlia K. 513

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)9. This poet sings (Anacreon’s Defeat)10. Bacchus is a pow’r divine

Frederick Keel (1871-1954)Three Salt Water Ballads11. Port of Many Ships12. Trade Winds13. Mother Carey

Total playing time

[1:15][1:00][2:32][1:40]

[2:57][3:32][4:27]

[7:21]

[4:10][2:57]

[2:10][2:12][1:45]

[34:08]

David Soar

‘Toll the Bell’ is a yarn about a ship wrecked in the Bay of Bengal, which foundered because it had been sent to sea by a fiend from Hell, and planned a terrible fate for the Master, the crew and the Mate. ‘The Golden Ray’ is sung at a point in the story when the Captain, now quite mad, has thrown off his clothes and run into the sea to escape his pursuers, and sings ‘with his magnificent voice a song I had not heard before ... I was fascinated by the rolling tune and stood listening...’ This song tells of a beautiful bay in the Indian ocean, where the sea shines with phosphorescence and the crew of the Golden Ray was ‘fought and beaten, then cooked and eaten, by pirates from Malay.’ It ends with a warning not to put to sea in search of treasure, a message Captain Adam has been emphasising throughout the novel. Towards the end of the novel, after finding and losing the chest of rubies, the Captain falls off a cliff and into a pool of boiling mud, and that is the end of him.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)Drei Gesänge von Metastasio D. 902

Among the last songs Schubert wrote were these three settings of aria texts by Pietro Metastasio, the great eighteenth-century librettist who had spent most of his career in Vienna. The first , ‘L’incanto degli occhi’ comes from Act 2 of Metastasio’s libretto

Hidden Treasure

C. Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)Songs of the Mad Sea Captain, Op. 111

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs was born at Great Baddow, near Chelmsford, Essex, in 1889, and died in Chelmsford in 1960. His principal teacher was Ralph Vaughan Williams, and much of his work – an opera, incidental music for plays, songs and symphonies – was in forms Vaughan Williams had mastered. These four songs are settings of poems by Bernard Martin, from his children’s book Red Treasure, published in 1945. Red Treasure is a rattling yarn of lost rubies, Burmese tribesmen, white-cliffed islands and prisoners held hostage. Captain Adam is a ferocious sea-dog who has washed up on one of these islands in search of the fabled rubies from Pegu. He captures the narrator of the tale and forces him (by tying him to a tree) to listen to several of his songs, which he sings in a fine bass voice with all the mannerisms of an opera star. ‘Hidden Treasure’ tells of the rubies of Pegu and ivories of Cathay, lost at sea. Any sailor rash enough to seek for them is bound to end up in Davy Jones’s locker. ‘Abel Wright’ is a sinister little shanty about a ship's carpenter, whose ship sprang a leak and sank, and of a ship’s cook called Nobby Clark, who is buried at sea.

of Darius). The Viennese family of von Jacquin had made friends with Mozart: the father, Nikolaus Joseph, was a professor of botany at the University of Vienna, and his second son Emilian Gottfried was an official in the Austro-Bohemian chancellery. Mozart taught him music, and he published a number of Mozart's songs as his own compositions, with Mozart’s consent. The friendship between von Jacquin and the Mozart family flourished for several years, and one of Mozart’s most important letters, sent from Prague and describing the success there of The Marriage of Figaro, was addressed to von Jacquin, along with a new nickname ‘Hinkity Honky’ that Mozart had concocted for him, along with other equally silly names for other friends and relations, to while away the coach journey from Vienna. Mozart wrote to him shortly after setting this aria to tell him the sad news that Leopold Mozart had died. He continued to write gossipy, chatty letters to von Jacquin, and from them we gain a great deal of information about Mozart’s life, passions and personality. The libretto was set in full by Paisiello, and given its first performance at the Teatro Argentino, Rome, in 1776. This aria describes Darius’s grief at being parted from his daughter. The opening section of the aria, marked larghetto, sets a mood of sorrow and resignation, but the emotion grows

Attilio Regolo. The melody is decidedly Italianate, with quantities of coloratura ornamentation, while the chugging piano accompaniment belongs firmly in Schubert’s familiar lieder style.

‘Il traditor deluso’ is a recitative and aria, again in thoroughly operatic style, with a melodramatic accompaniment to the declamatory recitative, that leads into the aria itself, in which the deluded traitor finds himself enveloped by a dark night of terror with ghosts and other horrors all around him. The effect is closer to Weber than to the Italians, with more than a hint of the Wolf's Glen scene of Der Freischütz.The Mozartian phrase that opens the third song, ‘The way to take a wife’ declares it to be a comic ballad, in which the singer makes a case in favour of marrying for money. What happens next, as the outrageous argument unfolds through the ballad's verses, is worthy of Leporello, and Schubert clearly has Don Giovanni in mind.

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)Mentre ti lascio, o figlia K.513

Mozart wrote this aria in 1787 for Gottfried von Jacquin, dating it 27 March, and taking his text from Duca Sant’Angioli-Morbilli’s opera libretto La disfatta di Dario (The Defeat

David Soar & James Southall at Wyastone Leys

desperate as the tempo changes to allegro. The aria belongs to the tradition of opera seria, and although Mozart wrote it in the midst of his collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte, it has more of the mood of Idomeneo or the later La clemenza di Tito than of either The Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)This poet sings (Anacreon’s Defeat)Bacchus is a pow'r divine

These two songs by Purcell are evocations of women and wine respectively. The first is a setting of an anonymous translation of a poem by the Greek poet Anacreon. The poet says how some poets sing of war, others of wine, while he sings of his defeats, not by armies or navies, but by the fatal power of his mistress’s eyes.

In ‘Bacchus is a pow’r divine’, Purcell sets words of a drunkard’s song, celebrating the force of wine to drive away care, bring pleasant thoughts, give illusions of wealth, pour scorn on martial valour, until the singer begs the soldier to consider the benefits of being dead drunk, instead of dead on the field of battle. The words are by an anonymous poet, and the song was published in 1698, three years after Purcell’s death.

J. Frederick Keel (1871-1954)Three Salt-Water Ballads

J. Frederick Keel published his Three Salt-Water Ballads in 1919, setting poems by John Masefield. Masefield had sailed in naval vessels and windjammers, and his collection of sea-inspired poems Salt-Water Ballads came out in 1902. Masefield was appointed Poet Laureate in 1930, and held the post until his death in 1967. ‘Port of Many Ships’ is a lyrical evocation of the afterworld of Kingdom Come, where the singer wishes to be. Heaven in his vision is an ideal port full of ships ready to set sail, wrecks from long ago brought back to life with their crews on board. The lilting ‘Trade Winds’ evokes the tropical islands on the Spanish Main, with their fireflies and moonlight, palmtrees and the ‘long, low croon’ of the winds themselves. ‘Mother Carey’ is an old sea-hag who lives on an iceberg alongside Davy Jones, and she brings about shipwrecks and tempests. The song is a fast patter-setting of the third of these lively ballads.

© 2011 Simon Rees

Simon Rees has been the Dramaturge of Welsh National Opera since 1989. He has translated more than 60 opera libretti for surtitles; published three novels and written reviews for The Literary Review, The Sunday Correspondent and The Independent.

James Southall

Texts

Songs of the Mad Sea Catpain, Op. 111

1. Hidden TreasureThere were rubies red from Pegu,And iv’ries from Cathay,But they’re lost and gone foreverOr so the tallies say,When a ship was sunk at the harbour barA curse on the devil of a Sharbandar!

And those rubies red from PeguAnd the iv’ries of CathayWere stolen and hid foreverWhere there ain’t no light o’ day,And now none knows where them sparklers areA curse on the devil of a Sharbandar.

But the rubies red as bloodAnd the iv’ries white as bones Have sent a score of ruffiansAlong o’ Davy Jones;So stick to your ship, you jolly, jolly tar,And curse that devil of a Sharbandar.

2. Abel WrightAbel Wright was a joiner’s mateWho shipped as a carpenteerThe ship she sprang a tiny leak,And now, if Abel you would seek,Look twenty fathoms below,Yo Ho!Look Twenty fathoms below.

O, Nobby Clark was a soldier boldWho went to sea as a cook,His one idea was fried fishroes,Sew him up tight with a weight at his toes,For Nobby won’t cook no more,Yo Ho!Nobby won’t cook no more.

3. Toll the BellA ship went down in the Bay of Bengal,(Toll the bell for the Master!)It wasn’t a rock nor it wasn’t a squall,(Toll the bell for the Mate!)And why she sank isn’t known at all,(Toll the bell for the Crew!)

By the knell of the bellYou may tell full well ‘Twas a fiend from Hell,Had a purpose fell,When he sent that ship to sea, O, when he sent that ship to sea.

So pray for the Master, Crew and Mate,And damn the devil who planned their fate!

4. The Golden RayO, hark, ye lubbers, in a far off sea,There’s a beautiful land-locked bay,Where the wind sings softAnd they never go aloft,Nor are drench’d with driving spray.

On the shores of that bay in the Indian seaWhere the sun burns hot all day,The water at night Shines phosphorous bright,But a sailor can’t spend his pay.

Yet ‘twas in this bay of a landlocked seaThat the crew of the Golden RayWas fought and beaten,Then cooked and eatenBy pirates from Malay.

O, hark, ye lubbers that put to sea,For the treasures of far Cathay,If ye stay in portYe’ll never be caught,Like the crew of the Golden Ray.

Bernard Martin

Drei Gesänge von Metastasio, D. 902

5. L’incanto degli occhiDa voi, cari lumi,Di pende il mio stato;Voi siete i miei Numi, Voi siete il mio fato.A vostro talentoMi sento cangiar,Ardir m’inspirate,Seliete splendate;Se torbidi siete,Mi fate tremar.

On you, beloved eyes,Does my life hang;You are my Gods,You are my destiny.At your bidding My mood changes,You inspire me with courageWhen you shine joyfully;If you are downcast,You make me tremble.

6. Il traditor delusoAime, io tremo!Io sente tutto in ondarmiIl seno di gelido sudor!Fuga si, ah quale?Qual’ è la via?Chi me l’addita?Oh Dio! che ascoltai?Che m’avenne?Oh Dio! che ascoltai?Ove son io?

Ah l’aria d’intorno lampeggia, sfavilla;Ondeggia, vacilla l’infido terren!Qual notte profondaD’orror mi circonda!Che larve funeste,Che smanie son queste,Che fiero spaventoMi sento nel sen!

Alas, I tremble!All over, I feel wavesOf chill sweat on my brow!I must flee here! But where?What is the way?Who will I turn to?O God! What do I hear?What comes here?O God! What do I hear?Where am I? Ah, around me the air flashes and sparkles;The faithless earth trembles and quakes!The dark nightOf horror surrounds me!What anguished spectres,What turmoil this is!What fierce terrorI feel inside!

7. Il modo di prender moglieOr sù! non ci pensiamo,Corraggio e concludiamo,Al fin s’io prendo moglie,Sò ben perche lo fò.

Lo fò per pagar i debiti,La prendo per contanti,Di dirlo, e di repeterlo,Difficoltà non ho.

Fra tanti modi e tantiDi prender moglie al mondo,Un modo più giocondoDel mio trovar non sò.

Si prende per affetto,Si prende per rispetto,Si prende per consiglio,Si prende per puntiglio,Si prende per capriccio,È vero, si o nò?

Ed io per medicinaDi tutti i mali mieiUn poco di sposinaPrendere non potrò?

Ho detto e’l ridico,Lo fò per li contanti,Lo fanno tanti e tantiAnch’ io lo farò.

Away, without thinking of it,More courage, I have concludedIf eventually I shall take a wife,I know well why I do it.

I do it to pay my debts,I'll take a wife for money,I will have no difficulty in telling you and then repeating it.

Of all the many waysTo take a wife,A more joyful wayI will not find.

One marries for love,Another marries for respect,Another marries on adviceAnother marries out of stubbornness,Another marries on a whim,This is true, yes or no?

And I marry for medicineFor all my malaises,A little wifeShall I not take?

I have said it and repeated it,I marry for the money,So many do it,And I will do it too!

Pietro Metastasio

8. Mentre ti lascio, o figlia K. 513Mentre ti lascio, o figliaIn sen mi trema il coreAhi che partenza amara!Provo nel mio doloreLe smanie ed il terrorParto, tu piangi! o Dio!Ti chiedo un sol momento.Figlia, ti lascio. o Dio,Che fìer tormento!Ah mi spezza il cor.

As I leave you, oh daughter,In my chest trembles my heart,Ah, what a bitter parting,I feel in my sorrow frenzy and terror.I depart. You weep? Oh God!I ask of you a single moment,Daughter, I leave you, Oh God, what cruel torment!Ah, my heart is breaking!

Text from Sant'Angiolo-Morbilli's libretto to Paisiello’s opera La disfatta di Dario

9. This poet sings (Anacreon’s Defeat)This poet sings the Trojan wars,Another of the Theban jars,In rattling numbers, verse that dares.

Whilst I, in soft and humble verse,My own captivities rehearse;I sing my own defeats, which areNot the events of common war.

Not fleets at sea have vanquish'd me,Nor brigadiers, nor cavalry,Nor ranks and files of infantry.

No, Anacreon still defiesAll your artillery companiesSave those encamp'd in killing eyes;Each dart his mistress shoots, he dies.

Anonymous

10. Bacchus is pow’r divineBacchus is a pow’r divine,For he no sooner fills my headWith mighty wine,But all my cares resign,And droop, then sink down dead.Then the pleasing thoughts begin,And I in riches flow,At least I fancy so.And without thought of want I sing,Stretch’d on the earth, my head all aroundWith flowers weav’d into a garland crown’d.Then I begin to live,And scorn what all the world can show or give.Let the brave fools that fondly thinkOf honour, and delight,To make a noise and fightGo seek out war, whilst I seek peace and drink.Then fill my glass, fill it high,Some perhaps think it fit to fall and die,But when the bottles rang’d make war with me,The fighting fool shall see, when I am sunk,The diff’rence to lie dead, and lie dead drunk.

Three Salt-Water Ballads11. Port of Many ShipsIt’s a sunny pleasant anchorage, is Kingdom Come,Where crews is always layin’ aft for double tots o’ rum,‘N’ there’s dancin’ ‘n’ fiddlin’ of every kind o’ sort,It’s a fine place for sailormen is that there port.‘N’ I wish, I wish as I was there.

The winds is never nothin’ more than jest light airs,‘N’ no-one gets belayin’ pinn’d, ‘n’ no one never swears,Yer free to loaf ‘n’ laze around, yer pipe atween yer lips, Lollin’ on the fo’c’sle, sonny, lookin’ at the ships.‘N’ I wish, I wish as I was there.

For ridin' in the anchorage the ships of all the worldHave got one anchor down ‘n’ all sails furl’d.All the sunken hookers ‘n’ the crews as took ‘n’ diedThey lays there merry, sonny, swingin’ to the tide‘N’ I wish, I wish as I was there.

Drown’d old wooden hookers green wi’ drippin’ wrack,Ships as never fetch’d to port, as never came back,Swingin’ to the blushin’ tide, dippin’ to the swell,‘N’ the crews all singin’ sonny, beatin’ on the bell‘N’ I wish, I wish as I was there.

12. Trade WindsIn the harbour, in the island, in the Spanish seas,Are the tiny white houses and the orange trees,And day-long, night-long, the cool and pleasant breeze Of the steady Trade Winds blowing.

There is the red wine, the nutty Spanish ale,the shuffle of the dancers, and the old salt’s tale,The squeaking fiddle, and the soughing in the sailOf the steady Trade Winds blowing.

And o’ nights there’s the fire-flies and the yellow moon,And in the ghostly palm trees the sleepy tuneOf the quiet voice calling me, the long low croonOf the steady Trade Winds blowing.

13. Mother CareyMother Carey? She's the mother of the witchesand all them sort o’ rips;She’s a fine gell to look at, but the hitch is,She’s a sight too fond of ships.She lives upon an iceberg to the norred,‘N’ her man he’s Davy Jones,‘N’ she combs the weeds upon her forredWith pore drown’d sailors’ bones.

She’s the mother o’ the wrecks, ‘n’ the motherOf all big winds as blows;She’s up to some deviltry or otherWhen it storms, or sleets, or snows;The noise of the wind’s her screamin’,“I’m arter a plump, young, fine,Brass-button’d, beefy-ribb’d young seam'nSo as me ‘n’ my mate kin dine.’

She’s a hungry old rip ‘n’ a cruelFor sailor-men like we,She’s give a many mariners the gruel‘N’ a long sleep under sea;She's the blood o’ many a crew upon her‘N’ the bones of many a wreck,‘N’ she’s barnacles a-growing on her‘N’ shark’s teeth round her neck.

I ain't never had no schoolin’Nor read no books like you,But I knows it ain’t healthy to be foolin’With that there gristly two;You’re young, you thinks, ‘n’ you’re lairy,But if you’re to make old bones,Steer clear, I says, of Mother Carey,‘N’ that there Davy Jones.

David Soar bass

Born in Nottinghamshire David Soar studied organ and singing at the Royal Academy of Music. After working as a freelance organist, singer and conductor, including the post of Director of Music at All Saints Paris Church, Kingston, he joined Welsh National Opera (WNO), where he performed a number of roles including Captain & Zaretsky (Eugene Onegin), Doctor Grenvil (La Traviata) and Bertrand (Iolanta).

Following studies at the National Opera Studio, David returned to WNO as an Associate Artist, where significant roles included Colline (La Boheme), Zuniga (Carmen), Bonze (Madam Butterfly), Brander (The Damnation of Faust), Bass (The Seven Deadly Sins), Ferrando (Il Trovatore), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), The King (Aida) and Lodovico (Otello). Other early roles included Banquo (Macbeth), for Opera Holland Park, and Donner (Das Rheingold) for the Lucerne Festival. In 2009 David was the first recipient of the Family Parry Bursary for an Associate Artist at WNO.

In the 2008-09 season David sang several lead roles for WNO, the Buxton Festival, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

under Sir Charles Mackerras and with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

Among David’s many concert engagements have been Handel’s Messiah with the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket, Masetto (Don Giovanni) with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robin Ticciati, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Hallé Orchestra, and Brahms’ Requiem with WNO.

In the 2009-10 season David sang First Workman (Wozzeck) with the London Philharmonia under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music in Utrecht conducted by Richard Egarr, Escamillo (Carmen), the Doctor (La Traviata), Nightwatchman (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Sparafucile(Rigoletto) for Welsh National Opera, where he was Principal Artist. David completed the season making his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Le Duc in Romeo et Juliette.

Engagements in the 2010-11 season included the Old Monk (Don Carlo) in Bilbao and Quinault (Adriana Lecouvreur) for his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Masetto (Don Giovanni) in his debut for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Also coming up is Signor La Rocca (Un giorno di regno) for Bilbao Opera, and his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2012-13 season.

James Southall piano

James has been a full-time member of Music Staff at Welsh National Opera (WNO) since September 2008. Before that he was holder of the David Bowerman Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, having gained a distinction in his Masters degree in Piano Accompaniment there the previous year. At the College he was a student of John Blakely and Roger Vignoles.

In 2008 James won the MBF Accompanist’s Prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, where he collaborated with winner Ben Johnson, and the Maggie Teyte Competition. Before his postgraduate studies, James read music at Queens’ College, Cambridge where he was principal cellist of the university orchestra. Alongside his work as a pianist, James has conducted Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at Opéra de Baugé and The Magic Flute at WNO. James is a recipient of the WNO Chris Ball Bursary.

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© 2011 Resonus Ltd 2011 Resonus Ltd

Recorded in Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK on 6 & 7 March 2011Producer & Engineer: Adam Binks

Executive Producers: Adam Binks and Jonathan Manners

Cover image: The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao © Resonus LtdSession photography © Resonus Ltd

With thanks to Camilla Roberts.

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Recorded at 24-bit / 96kHz resolution

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