Product Review

The name Bizet means so much more than just Carmen! In his Les Pêcheurs de perles, lovers of lush airs and ensembles will find everything their hearts desire. The storyline, a classic love triangle, pits the best friends Zurga and Nadir against each other, when the girl they both love arrives in their fishing village as a priestess sworn to chastity. Her arrival gives rise to jealousy and moral dilemmas, but also to such lustrous melodies as the tenors Je crois entendre encore one of the most popular tenor melodies of all and the immortal baritone-tenor duet Au fond du temple saint. The exoticism of the operas setting amid sand dunes on a beach in ancient Ceylon is conveyed with great flair. I have rarely seen a production as beautiful and faithful to the music, writes Paolo Isotta of Corriere della sera.