E Bay turned up this splendid photo today, so I thought it was a nudge to preserve it here, along with the story of the man judged one of the greatest baritone singers of his era.
DIAZ DE SORIA, [Mardochée] Jules (b Bordeaux, 28 April 1843; d 13 rue de la Tremoille, Paris, 15 May 1919)
Jules de Soria is one of the more remarkable characters of the Victorian musical era. He sang all over Europe – though principally in France and Britain – for two decades and more, was acclaimed as one of the outstanding vocalists of the age, and yet to the general public he was little more than a name. For de Soria sang largely in the private homes of the aristocratic, the social and the wealthy, and only a handful of times per season, usually for colleagues or for charity, did he venture into the public arena.
Born into an orthodox Jewish family, with a grandfather who had been in charge of Bordeaux’s synagogue music, Jules began his working life in the wine trade, while fulfilling his musical tastes by singing, from a young age, in the Concerts du Cercle philharmonique de Bordeaux. I spot him there in December 1868, in a concert featuring Mme Miolan-Carvalho. M de Soria joins the star in the duet from Hamlet.
It was three years more before the striking, young amateur musician moved out from his home town. In January 1872, Le Ménestral noted: ‘Un amateur de Bordeaux, M. Soria, doué d'une admirable voix, et chantant en artiste, était venu assister le Cercle des Beaux-Arts de Nantes ...’. In February, I spot him in Seligmann’s Patriotic Concert in Nice.
Before long he was launched on the salons of Paris. Starting, it seems, with the Comtesse de Frégain’s soirée, where the handsome dark young man with the superlative light and high baritone voice was lauded: ‘un de ces êtres privilégiés envers qui la nature a été prodigue de ses dons. M. Jules Diaz de Soria, c'est ainsi qu'on le nomme, a une voix de baryton d'une grande étendue, d'un charme dans la demi-teinte, d'une ampleur, d'une richesse de timbre, d'une puissance admirables dans les effets de force …’
He made his first appearance in London on 7 July 1872 at the concert of pianist Mme Viguier, at Dover House. He had become attached to the Gounod-group, and he sang the composer’s work, and a song by Fauré, each accompanied by its writer. ‘Quant à M. Jules de Soria, dont Le Ménestrel a déjà parlé, c'est là un amateur, grand artiste à tous les points de vue. Quelle voix, quelle méthode, quel charme! Il interprète Gounod en maître et voici qu'il vient de s'éprendre pour les melodies de Fauré ..’ reported back the paper’s correspondent. In London, when he appeared for Jules Daniel, a few days later, the press reported ‘The musical ability and fine voice of an amateur baritone, M de Soria, have long been a theme of admiration in private circles … [he] made an extraordinary effect, rousing an apathetic audience to something like enthusiasm … he has a fine future before him if he chooses to work’.
But M Diaz de Soria was not launched on a public career. While music writers on both sides of the channel rhapsodized over his singing – and the English didn’t hesitate to call him the equal of Santley -- he remained an amateur, appearing almost exclusively in private homes, with the music of Gounod, Faure, Schubert, Félicien David and such pieces as Baronne Willy de Rothschild’s songs, or a song written by Marie Antoinette. Or even Virginia Gabriel (‘Il est partout’).
In London, he sang in public for Arditi (2 July 1873, ‘his only appearance in public this season’), or Nita Gaetano, for French charities and at the French Embassy, for Benedict or Tito Mattei, and latterly for Mme Gayrard-Pacini, and the press praised ’so fine a baritone voice, and has withal so excellent a method of employing it ..’ the ‘extraordinary effect’ he produced by his singing, and his tidily understated performance of Faure ‘a model of what concert singing should be’. When a singer was sought for Prince Poniatowski’s funeral (8 July 1873), it was Jules Diaz de Soria who sang Stradella’s ‘Per pietà’.
In Paris … ‘A peine arrive a Paris, M Diaz de Soria est déjà de toutes nos soirées ..’ the press recorded, reporting on a concert chez Mme Heine of la rue de Monceau, where he performed the Hamlet duet with Mlle Devriès and joined Gustave Nadaud in his new duo ‘Causons de nos amours passées’ which was soon ‘de toutes les fêtes musicales’. A couple of days later it was the public concert of M and Mme Viguier … in March he and Faure were the star attraction chez M and Mme Garfounckel alongside Carlotta Patti, at M and Mme Trélat’s soirée he sang St Paul and Gordigiani’s ‘Prière à la Madone’, at the Présidence, at the Palais de Versailles, he gave Jules Cohen’s, ‘L’Invito’ and his St Paulair, the Gordigiani, Faure’s ‘Les Rameaux’, and several Nadauds, for Mme la Maréchal de MacMahon, then for the academician Legouvé (Vaucorbeil’s ‘La Voile qui passe’, “La Ballade serbe’, Faure’s ‘Le Pressoir’ his Nadaud and the Zauberflöte duet with Mme Régnier-Escalier) for the Comtesse de Chambrun, Mme Erard at the Château de la Muette (Faure’s ‘Bonjour, Suzon’) ...
And it was the same elsewhere in Europe. In 1873, he was heard at Spa in 1874 he toured with Marie Marimon in a Bernard Ullmann concert party (Havre, Rouen, Salle Brancas at Nantes, Angers, Tours, Bordeaux). In 1875, the French papers reported his visit to Vienna: ‘Le baryton charmeur, J Diaz de Soria, qui, les deux dernières saisons à Londres, avait révolutionné le high-life anglais, vient de renouveler ses brillants exploits dans la capitale de l'Autriche’. Vienna, which had announced him as ‘ein Spanische Romanzensänger’ greeted his appearance, 20 November 1875, with amazement: ‘eine Sensation, um so grössere Sensation als niemand ein Ahnung von dem Genusse hatte ..’ He sang a folk song, a Faure song, ‘La Mandolinata’ and a piece of Rubinstein’s Die Maccabär … in his ‘wunderbar ergreifender Stimme’, and another corner of Europe fell before him.
I also spot him at Dieppe with Adelina Patti at a Farewell (her) concert priced at 20 francs a ticket.
The next year, it was Greece: ‘Jules Diaz de Soria, le prince des barytons ténorisants, est à Athènes où les compatriotes de Periclès et d'Alcibiade l'accueillent comme un nouvel Orphée. Il a chanté à l'Odéon, le vendredi 9 janvier, ‘Les Rameaux’ de Faure, la ‘Sanctissima Vergine’ de Gordigiani, et ‘la Mandolinata’ de Paladilhe. ‘Rien ne saurait donner une idée de l'accueil fait à M. de Soria’, dit le Messager d'Athènes. L'enthousiasme des spectateurs se révélait sous toutes les formes. Un mot d'un de nos confrères nous a surtout frappé. “Maintenant, disait-il, on ne pourra plus entendre avec plaisir les autres chanteurs”, Quelques jours après ce triomphe public, M. de Soria s'est fait entendre à la cour, où il fait une telle impression, que le roi l'a décoré de sa main.’
The takings went to the local school of music: they’d been selling tickets at up to 100 francs apiece. The school showered him with honours.
On the way home to Bordeaux, he stopped off at Monaco for a charity gala at the Casino and it was the same again: ‘Diaz de Soria est toujours le charmeur que l'on sait ; il a littéralement enthousiasmé la salle. Quatre morceaux figuraient au programme; il a dû en chanter sept : ‘Morir per te’, ‘Les Fleurs du matin’, et ‘Alléluia d'Amour’, de J Faure ; une délicieuse mélodie de Corticelli, une autre de Campana, une de Schumann, L'air de la Coupe du Roi de Thulé ; enfin on l'eût fait chanter toute la nuit. Quel merveilleux talent, quelle souplesse de voix il a déployés dans ces œuvres diverses, les unes réclamant l'ampleur et l'énergie, les autres toute la délicatesse des effets de mezza voce. Le grand chanteur s'est surpassé. Bravos, bis, rappels, couronne, rien ne lui a manqué.’
And that was the story of M Diaz de Soria’s career as a vocalist. Each year, he fulfilled a season of aristocratic soirées, and a few public concerts, in Paris and in London, popularizing the work of Faure, in particular, widely. He sang at Dudley House, Marlborough House, Balmoral, Craig-y-nos, he duetted with Albani, Marimon and with Patti, he was a guest in the great houses of the two lands, he was painted by Alma Tadema and Numa Blanc fils, had songs dedicated to him by Faure, Massenet, Lalo, Tosti et al…
‘He sang but little and only to limited audiences in houses where he was sure of the right appreciation…’ wrote an obituarist, describing ‘De Soria’s voice was not large, but few singers have ever so completely mastered diction and modulation…’
Which is what had so completely won everyone over from the start.
Jules died in 1919. By then, there weren’t many folk left who remembered the fine young man with the wonderful voice. But his friend, Gerald du Maurier, won him some notice. The character of the singer, Glorioli, in Trilby was a portrait of Diaz de Soria.
And in France? Jules had married Marie Lucie Indiana Latargerie, and their daughter Rachel (or Isabelle Berthe) had married Elie Alphonse Frank. In 1919, Frank was running two important Paris theatres. Jules was now referred to as ‘the father in law of…’: even as far afield as in Variety.
PS a piece of de Soria ephemera found on ebay.
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