Album Notes

The Dead Man’s Tale is a story about Captain Goliath, the most fearsome pirate ever to sail the seven seas, and captain of the mighty Cerberus. He is ruthless to everyone except his son Morgan. Morgan lives among the pirates his whole life and is raised by Goliath till he is just as great as his father. But when Morgan goes on his first ransacking and has an unexpected meeting with the past, he starts to question Goliath and his unending quest to find the pieces of a map that will lead to the greatest treasure in the Caribbean. Once Morgan and Goliath retrieve the last piece of the treasure map from a British naval base, the past is finally revealed to Morgan. When Morgan was a baby, Goliath killed Morgan’s mother and father when they refused to give him the map to the family treasure. Morgan’s family treasure is the very treasure that Goliath has been searching for all of Morgan’s life. But it’s too late. Morgan is tied up and forced to watch Goliath follow the map to Callisto’s Cave, where him and his men find mountains of Morgan’s treasure. They load the gold and jewels onto their five ships and sail off. The pirates wake up in the morning to a fleet of ten British ships surrounding them. The only option is to fight. The two forces fight it out in the Devil’s Pit, a large deadly storm that never ends. In one last effort to kill his opponents, Goliath ropes up two of the British ships and takes all three of them down to Davy Jones locker in a massive whirlpool. Morgan surrenders to the British Navy and is reunited with his real father, who survived Goliath all those years.

This is my second opera, and it was made in 2006 while I was attending college in New Zealand. I composed all the music on my imac using garageband, a synthesizer, a penny whistle, and my own voice for all the choir sections. The many beaches surrounding New Zealand were a constant inspiration for this epic tale, as well as the pirate movies and books of the time. I hope you enjoy experiencing the story told through the orchestral sounds that are The Dead Man’s Tale.