Les Pêcheurs de perles, Opera by G. Bizet
Georges Bizet's three-act opera, Les Pêcheurs de Perles – or The Pearl Fishers in English – comes to the stage of the Vienna State Opera in a production that draws out all the mournful sentiment of the great French composer's work. Bizet was 25 years old when he was given a libretto set in Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka, for an operatic composition that would blend rhythms and harmonies within the context of large choral scenes. Les Pêcheurs de Perles includes one of the most famous duets in opera, Au fond du temple saint, popularly known as The Pearl Fishers' duet, which is sung as a kind of renewal of a vow of loyalty between two characters at the centre of the story. The opera premiered at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris on 30 September 1863 following a commission for the young Bizet from Léon Carvalho, the theatre's director.
Bizet composed Les Pêcheurs de Perles to a libretto provided by a pair of writers, Michel Carré and Eugène Cormon, who came up with the South Asian plot. The story focuses on a Brahman priestess named Léila who has attracted two pearl fishermen, or pêcheurs de perles, Nadir and Zurga. Léila oversees the spiritual safety of the fishing community which means she must remain pure. She wears a veil to represent this which causes a problem when Nadir recognises her through it but Zurga does not.
The pair of pearl fishermen had vowed neither would pursue Léila to preserve their friendship and for the good of the community. However, when the men are reunited, the promises that all three of the main characters have made come under considerable strain. Not only does this complicate their relationships with one another but it places the whole fishing village into a state of consternation. When a storm breaks out, the dramatic tension of the opera approaches its thrilling climax as themes of betrayal, retribution and self-sacrifice are played out.
When Bizet wrote Les Pêcheurs de Perles, he was, no doubt, attempting to blend exoticism with eroticism, two themes that would also be expressed in his subsequent masterpiece, Carmen. The opera had been set in Mexico at one point during its development, but it was switched to Ceylon as a potentially more exotic setting, at least in the eyes of typical 19th-century Parisian theatre-goers. Bizet made use of arioso, a blend of recitative and sung vocal scoring, to generate the kind of musical moods he was seeking for the opera. Many see this – and other parts of his score – as a reflection of the composer's idea of the exotic at that time. Certainly, Bizet's contemporary, Hector Berlioz, approved of the score, describing the opera's orchestration as being full of fire.
Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Wiener Staatsoper is a superb opportunity to witness Bizet's early operatic success in a top-quality venue.