How can Bizet’s two best-known operas be so different – in so short a lifetime?
Between the early, much criticised mythical and romantic Les Pêcheurs de Perles (he was 25), and his triumph, brilliantly and scandalously realistic, Carmen, 12 years later, his musical goals and styles changed dramatically. He was a brilliant musician, a pretty radical thinker, a largely unsuccessful player int he mid nineteenth century full field of musicians, a heavy smoker, and his name wasn't even Georges.
In 1875, the year Carmen was first produced, whilst the management was giving away tickets for this apparently failed opera that took his music to realism and opera towards verismo, far from the frivolous style he had come to despise... he died.
Read more about Georges Bizet (1838–1875) here - or just check out this splendidly illustrated collection of fascinating facts.
The people of the sea - Pearl Fishers
Pearl Fishers had only a reasonable success at launch, despite its appeal to the current fashion for romantic portrayals of the Orient. .
Of all operas, this may be the one most often described as having wonderful music (or at least a few good tunes) but the worst plot. Even the librettists thought so. Bizet would soon turn against romantic stories and music. Should we rethink Pearl Fishers?
Yes, Ceylon of the past was famous for precious pearls and pearling was always one of the main attractions of the island to foreign invaders. (Are you intrigued by the ever more complex relationship of human greed and natural phenomena? Read this fascinating account!!)
It's now Sri Lanka, and this embattled country is still one of the world's great pearl fisheries. The Pearl Banks stretch from the island of Mannar, off the northwestern tip, south to Chilaw, at depths ranging from five to 15 fathoms.
Five fathoms is already 9 meters deep – and the fishers of our opera had no diving gear.
The opera grew more popular recently, as directors played with the fact that it’s very strongly about those fishers - the vulnerable, endangered villagers on the edge of the water and poverty, whose survival depends on their ability to fish the sea for pearls. Most recently, the Met produced a version , directed by Penny Woolcock, originally created by English National Opera, that was set in the rickety poverty of these people, in and around the dangerous sea. Watch a closeup video of the divers accompanying the overture in rehearsal here. The Met production we saw is reviewed here.
A sharp insight into this production is in this review from LATimes. "Come for the visual spectacle and very fine singers. Stay for the ideas. And while you’re at it, you will see, thanks to Penny Woolcock’s startling production, a little something about what’s wrong with our troubled world."
So... the story?
Productions vary in their handling of the awkward story and its underlying themes of exotic mystery and complex sexuality. There’s an irreverent summary here in a review of Lyric Opera’s production.
As to theology, history, and culture, the opera has the story all wrong. At the time Europeans were entranced with the exotic Orient – but it was also terra incognita. (One Sri Lankan academe notes the opera originally was set in Mexico, the contemporary heart of global pearl production, until someone pointed out to Bizet that it was not in the Orient.) There was no Wikipedia back then.
Nevertheless, in the Hindu temple at Lyric we find Buddhist monks and an annual ritual in which a vestal virgin must abstain from romance overnight at the temple, or she will be sacrificed. (She gets a precious pearl if she is well behaved.) A high priest is also chief justice over all such executions. The God Brahma is also involved.
The plot revolves around two young men, Zurga and Nadir, who previously competed for Leila, but now have pledged undying friendship, both forswearing her in the interest of preserving their friendship.
Darndest thing! Leila is this year’s vestal candidate. And so we have a scene in which the tenor creeps into the temple to seduce her – with lots of “I must have you” tenor-ing, and even more “no you must go or you will be killed” soprano-ing…
The Lyric calls the relationship between the guys a bromance, and the intensity of their fealty made me research whether Georges Bizet was gay (he was married with a daughter). Suffice it to say "gay" still means "happy" in the world of opera. “
But it's a lot more complicated - the opera ends with the village burning (Zurga did that to distract the angry mob). The fishermen riot, fearing divine retribution for freeing of the disgraced priestess and Nadir. And meanwhile the lovers drift off singing - yes - the tune from that duet between the two men. A revised version after the opera's 1886 revival ended with Zurga's death, at the hands of the fishermen - it was the chief priest who denounced them to the crowd. Other later variations also have Zurga meeting his end in different ways and his body consigned to the already burning pyre.
Wikipedia here offers the history of the opera, as well as a more proper synopsis of the highly improbable story.
Our production
In 2020, during lockdown, the Met screened the Woolcott production - here's my blog post then. This week, we’re watching a much earlier (2004) recording of the opera from Teatro La Fenice di Venezia. (thankyou, Hilary.)
For those who know the Met’s celebrated production it’s a fascinating comparison.
Les Pêcheurs de Perles - Opera in three acts (1863) Léïla … Annick Massis (soprano) Nadir … Yasu Nakajima (tenor) Zurga … Luca Grassi (baritone) Nourabad. … Luigi De Donato (bass) Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice di Venezia/Marcello Viotti rec. Teatro Malibran, Venice, April 2004 Director, set and costume designer: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Oh yes, and there’s that duet –
George Bernard Shaw reputedly said that “Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone”. In this opera it’s more complicated – the baritone and tenor both love the same soprano – and each other – hence this duet, then (spoiler alert) the baritone rescues and frees the other pair to his own cost.
(One of the most popular duets in opera, intriguingly, is between a baritone and a tenor. What other tenor-baritone duets can you recall?)
Jonas Kaufmann and Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing it in a 12/16/08 concert in Moscow. Apologies for the lack of English subtitles, but the French words and English translation are below the video. It’s arguably the best possible rendition in concert, by the then top tenor and baritone.
Interested in how a voice – and presentation – alters over time? Here’s a 1995 rendition by a younger Hvorostovsky with Paul Groves.
And here’s a traditional production – from two of the greats, Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill, in 1950. . (Accidental discovery: there’s a recording here of Jussi singing ‘On Mt Ida’ – the judgement of Paris, from La Belle Helene.)
How traditional do you want to be? Here in 1906 are Enrico Caruso and Mario Ancona. (Caruso apparently loved the role - here he is a decade on, and she is still singing "Like old times..." (Comme autrefois..- my vote for the best aria in this tuneful opera - had you ever heard of Mary Dunleavy?)
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