Les pêcheurs de perles

As said in my review for the 2016 Met production, despite being Bizet's second most well-known opera after 'Carmen', 'Les Pecheurs De Perles' ('The Pearl Fishers') while having some real pearls musically is not up to that opera's level.

Bizet's music is undoubtedly beautiful and certainly shows his gift for melody and orchestration, especially in Nadir's "Je Crois Entendre encore", Laila's "Comme autrefois" and the justifiably famous tenor-baritone duet "Au fond Du temple saint". To say that these three musical highlights are real pearls (pun intended) is not doing them enough justice. The exotic setting also convinces when done right, and while less than three-dimensional and not with an awful lot of depth (Zurga in Act 3 convinces the most characterisation-wise in the opera) the characters are likable.

On the other hand, the story is the prime reason, from personal opinion, as to why 'Les Pecheurs De Perles' isn't more well-known. It has its moments, but more in individual parts, but it is wafer- thin and inconsistent dramatically (the ensemble scenes feeling static and somewhat cut-and-paste, though it's hard to say whether that's the opera's fault or how it's executed, from experience it's a bit of both) its twist ending also being one of the most implausible in all opera.

'Les Pecheurs De Perles' DVD competition is scant, if remembered correctly there are only two and while both have their merits both are also heavily flawed (the earlier one from Teatro Di Fenice in particular suffers from a poor Nadir). The best production seen of the opera is the 2016 Met production, which boasted superb musical values but inconsistent staging. This production on the other hand is very problematic.

Albeit not without good qualities. The real treasure is Sonya Yoncheva's absolutely magical Laila. Her voice is of astonishingly dark yet gleaming beauty, that sounds easy in the more lyrical passages as well as the heavier ones, and she is easily the best actress on stage, with a "Comme Autrefois" that's poignant and sincere. The orchestral playing while small and somewhat under-sized with some instruments (more strings would have been more welcome) play beautifully and with authority and nuance, the woodwind shine in particular. The chorus have little to do dramatically, pretty neglected actually, but are very good vocally. The conducting is sympathetic and alert.

Dmitry Korchak has a very pleasant and musically shaped voice, was also surprised at how good his French was, if not acting with much distinction as Nadir (the staging is largely at fault here). Nicolas Testé sounds appropriately sonorous in the rather small role of Naroubad and acts with dignity and firmness, but one kind of wishes that he sang Zurga instead (a meatier role which would have been far more suited to Testé's acting skills, and vocally it's not too beyond Testé's reach).

Because André Heyboer doesn't cut it as Zurga. He is constantly stiff and wooden, especially in Act 1 and it doesn't improve much in Act 3 either, and the voice is dry and with not much colour. More problematic are the visuals and staging. The sets are as far away from exotic as you can get, also looking gloomy in the lighting, while the costumes are an ugly mish-mash of styles that suggest a director who couldn't make up their mind what style they wanted.

It is admitted that the opera's story is not a strong suit in the first place, but the production does nothing to make the story interesting, with a lot of static movement and non-existent interaction (completely undermining any tension in Act 3 especially) between the characters, or make the notorious plot-twist less implausible and convoluted. Never got the sense that Nadir and Zurga were friends, their chemistry ranging from too casual to non-demonstrative, nor the sense that Nadir and Laila were lovers. Only in "Comme Autrefois" does the staging come to life and that is mainly down to how good Yoncheva is as a singing-actress.

To summarise, a very average at best production that has moments but only Yoncheva here is outstanding. 5/10 Bethany Cox