Metropolitan Opera broadcasts continue on Classical 90.5 at 11:00 a.m. this Saturday, January 16, with a performance of The Pearl Fishers (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) by Georges Bizet, set to a French libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. The performance will run approximately three hours.
Bizet’s gorgeous opera of lust and longing set in the Far East returns to the Met stage for the first time in 100 years. The protagonist, Leïla, is a beautiful Hindu priestess pursued by rival pearl divers competing for her hand. Her suitors sing the lilting duet “Au fond du temple saint,” which opera fans know and adore. Director Penny Woolcock explores the timeless themes of pure love, betrayal, and vengeance in a production that, for those in the audience at Lincoln Center, vividly creates an undersea world on the stage. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda brings his romantic flair to the lush score.
Few operas can match the sheer lyric beauty of Bizet’s youthful The Pearl Fishers. Critics at the time were not in favor of it but the audience was swept up in the ravishing score tinged with the allure of a mythical South Asian setting. The drama itself remains within the conventional standards of the day, with a love triangle complicated by the true friendship of the two men involved in it. Although not performed frequently, the opera successfully stands on its own when appreciated for its unique atmosphere, rather than compared to the composer’s later masterpiece, Carmen, or held up to modern notions of dramatic plausibility.
THE CAST
Leïla: Diana Damrau
Nadir: Matthew Polenzani
Zurga: mariusz kwiecien
Nourabad: Nicolas Testé
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