Les pêcheurs de perles
Encyclopedia
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet
, to a libretto
by Eugène Cormon
and Michel Carré
. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run. Set in ancient times on the island of Ceylon
, the opera is a story of how two men's vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same women, whose own dilemma is the conflict between secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess. The friendship duet "Au fond du temple saint", known in the English-speaking world as "The Pearl Fishers Duet", is one of the best-known numbers in Western opera.
At the time of the premiere, Bizet was 25 years old and had yet to establish himself in the Parisian musical world. The commission to write Les pêcheurs arose from his standing as a former winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome. Despite a good reception by the public, press reactions to the work were generally hostile and dismissive, although other composers, notably Hector Berlioz
, found considerable merit in the music. The opera was not revived in Bizet's lifetime, but from 1886 onwards it was performed with some regularity in Europe and America, and from the mid-20th century has entered the repertory of opera houses worldwide. Because the autograph score was lost, post-1886 productions were based on amended versions of the score that contained significant departures from the original. However, since the 1970s, efforts have been made to reconstruct the score in accordance with Bizet's intentions.
Modern critical opinion has been kinder than that of Bizet's day. The opera is now widely acknowledged as a work of promise in which Bizet's gifts for melody and evocative instrumentation are clearly evident. Although the quality of the music is described as uneven, and at times as demonstrating the often questionable influence of Bizet's contemporary composers, commentators have identified clear premonitions of the mature opera composer's genius which would culminate, 10 years later, in Carmen
. Since 1950 the work has been recorded on numerous occasions, in both the amended and original versions.
, was written in 1856 when the 18-year-old composer was a student at the Paris Conservatoire. It was Bizet's winning entry in a competition organised by the celebrated composer Jacques Offenbach
, and won him a cash prize, a gold medal, and a performance of the prize work at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. In 1857 Bizet was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome
, and as a result spent most of the following three years in Italy where he wrote Don Procopio
, a short opera buffa
in the style of Donizetti
. By this time Bizet had written several non-stage works, including his Symphony in C
, but the failure of his 1858 Te Deum helped convince him that his future lay primarily as a composer for the musical theatre. He planned and possibly began several operatic works before his return to Paris in 1860, but none of these projects came to fruition.
In Paris, Bizet discovered the difficulties faced by young and relatively unknown composers trying to get their operas performed. Of the capital's two state-subsidised opera houses, the Opéra
and the Opéra-Comique
, the former offered a static repertoire in which works by foreign composers, particularly Rossini and Meyerbeer
, were dominant. Even established French composers such as Gounod
had difficulty getting works performed there. At the Opéra-Comique, innovation was equally rare; although more French works were performed, the style and character of most productions had hardly changed since the 1830s. However, one condition of the Opéra-Comique's state funding was that from time to time it should produce one-act works by former Prix de Rome laureates. Under this provision, Bizet had written La guzla de l'Emir, with a libretto by Jules Barbier
and Michel Carré
, and this went into rehearsal early in 1862.
In April 1862, as the La guzla rehearsals proceeded, Bizet was approached by Léon Carvalho
, manager of the independent Théâtre Lyrique company. Carvalho had been offered a grant of 100,000 francs by the retiring Minister of Fine Arts, Count Walewski, on condition that each year he staged a new three-act opera from a recent Prix de Rome winner. Carvalho had a high opinion of Bizet's abilities, and offered him the libretto of Les pêcheurs de perles, an exotic story by Carré and Eugène Cormon
set on the island of Sri Lanka
, then known as Ceylon. Sensing the opportunity for a genuine commercial success, Bizet accepted the commission. Because Walewski had decided that as part of the arrangement the composer should not have had any previous work performed commercially, Bizet hurriedly withdrew La guzla from the Opéra-Comique; it has never been performed, and the music has disappeared.
A boat draws up on the beach bearing the veiled figure of Leila, the virgin priestess whose prayers are required to ensure the safety of the fishermen. Though not at this stage recognised, she is the woman from Kandy with whom Nadir and Zurga had been in love. As Zurga is explaining her duties she recognises Nadir, though she says nothing and shortly afterwards is led up to the temple by the high priest Nourabad. Zurga and the fishermen go down to the sea, leaving Nadir alone. In a troubled soliloquy before he sleeps he recalls how, in Kandy, he had broken his vows to Zurga and pursued his love for the veiled woman ("Je crois entendre encore"). It is the rumour that she might be found in this place that has brought him here. Alone in the temple, Leila prays and sings. Nadir wakes and, recognising her voice, traces it to the temple. Leila briefly draws her veil aside, and the pair declare their renewed love. On the beach, the fishermen plead with her to continue protecting them, but she tells Nadir she will sing for him alone ("O Dieu Brahma").
Outside the temple, Nadir waits beside the funeral pyre as the crowd, singing and dancing, anticipate the dawn and the coming double execution ("Dès que le soleil"). He is joined by Leila; resigned now to their deaths, the pair sing of how their souls will soon be united in heaven. A glow appears in the sky, as Zurga rushes in to report that the fishermen's camp is ablaze. As the men hurry away to save their homes, Zurga frees Leila and Nadir. He returns the necklace to Leila, and reveals that he is the man she saved when she was a child. He recognises now that his love for her is in vain, and tells her and Nadir to flee. As the couple depart, singing of the life of love that awaits them, Zurga is left alone, to await the fishermen's return ("Plus de crainte...Rêves d'amour, adieu!").
(In the revised version of the ending introduced after the opera's 1886 revival, Nourabad witnesses Zurga's freeing of the prisoners and denounces him to the fishermen, one of whom stabs Zurga to death as the last notes sound of Leila and Nadir's farewell song. In some variations, instead of being stabbed Zurga is burned on the pyre.)
and Michel Carré
. Cormon, whose real name was Pierre-Etienne Piestre, was a prolific author of libretti and straight drama, the vast majority of which were in collaboration with other writers. In his career he wrote or part-wrote at least 135 works, of which Les dragons de Villars
, set to music by Aimé Maillart
, was perhaps the most successful. Carré, who had initially trained as a painter, had worked with Jules Barbier
on Gounod's opera Faust
and had co-written the play Les contes fantastiques d'Hoffmann, which became the basis of the libretto for Offenbach's opera Contes d'Hoffmann. Before Les pêcheurs de perles Cormon and Carré had previously written a libretto for Maillart on a similar theme, Les pêcheurs de Catane, which had been performed in 1860; they had originally planned to set their new story in Mexico before changing its location to Ceylon.
By general critical consent the libretto of Les pêcheurs de perles reflects little credit on either writer. The weak plot, as Bizet's biographer Winton Dean
observes, turns on the unlikely coincidence regarding Leila's necklace, and no real effort is made in the text to bring any of the characters to life: "They are the regulation sopranos, tenors, etc., with their faces blacked". Mina Curtiss, in her book on Bizet, dismisses the text as banal and imitative. A recent critic, Donal Henahan
in The New York Times
said that the libretto "rank[ed] right down there with the most appallingly inept of its kind". The writers themselves admitted its shortcomings: Corman commented later that had they been aware of Bizet's quality as a composer, they would have tried harder. Carré was worried about the weak ending, and constantly sought suggestions for changing it; Curtiss records that in exasperation, the theatre manager Carvalho suggested that Carré burn the libretto. This facetious remark, Curtiss asserts, led Carré to end the opera with the fishermen's tents ablaze as Leila and Nadir make their escape.
Because he only received Carvalho's commission in April 1863, and the projected first performance date was mid-September, Bizet composed quickly with, Curtiss says, "a tenacity and concentration quite foreign to him in his Roman days". He had some music available on which he could draw; through the previous winter he had worked on the score of an opera, Ivan IV with the promise, which fell through, that the work would be staged in Baden-Baden
. Ivan IV provided music for three numbers in Les pêcheurs de perles: the prelude; part of Zurga's "Une fille inconnue"; and the third act duet "O lumière sainte". The "Brahma divin Brahma" chorus was adapted from the rejected Te Deum, and the chorus "Ah chante, chante encore" from Don Procopio. It is also likely that music composed for the cancelled La guzla d l'Emir found its way into the new opera's score, which was completed by early August. The libretto was changed frequently during the creation process, even when the work had reached the rehearsal stage; the chorus "L'ombre descende" was added at Bizet's request, and other numbers were shortened or removed.
, who later would provide several librettos for Bizet, described the composer on this occasion as "a little dazed ... a forest of thick curly hair above a round, still rather childish face, enlivened by the quick brown eyes..." The audience's appreciation was not reflected in the majority of the press notices, which generally castigated both the work and Bizet's audacity in appearing on stage. One writer surmised that the calls for the composer had been orchestrated by a "claque" of Bizet's friends, strategically distributed. Gustave Bertrand in Le Ménestrel wrote that "this sort of exhibition is admissible only for a most extraordinary success, and even then we prefer to have the composer dragged on in spite of himself, or at least pretending to be".
Of the opera itself, Benjamin Jouvin of Le Figaro
wrote: "There were neither fishermen in the libretto nor pearls in the music". He considered that on every page the score displayed "the bias of the school to which [Bizet] belongs, that of Richard Wagner". Bertrand compared the work unfavourably with those of contemporary French composers such as Gounod and Félicien-César David
. "Nevertheless", he wrote, "there is a talent floating in the midst of all these regrettable imitations". Hector Berlioz
was a voice apart in the general critical hostility; his review of the work in Journal des Débats
praised the music's originality and subtlety: "The score of Les pêcheurs de perles does M. Bizet the greatest honour", he wrote. Among Bizet's contemporaries, the dramatist Ludovic Halévy
wrote that this early work announced Bizet as a composer of quality: "I persist in finding in [the score] the rarest virtues". The youthful composer Émile Paladilhe
told his father that the opera was superior to anything that the established French opera composers of the day, such as Auber
and Thomas
, were capable of producing.
In its initial run Les pêcheurs de perles ran for 18 performances, alternating with Mozart
's The Marriage of Figaro. It closed on 23 November 1863, and although it brought the theatre little financial success, Bizet had won admiration from his peers. Carvalho was satisfied enough to asked Bizet to finish Ivan IV as quickly as possible with a view to its production, an idea that eventually came to nothing; Ivan IV remained unperformed until 1946.
, Milan
. After this it received regular stagings in European cities, often with the Italian version of the libretto. These revivals, which possibly reflected the growing success of Carmen, were followed by the publication of several versions of the music that incorporated significant differences from Bizet's original. In particular the finale was altered, to provide a more dramatic ending—"a grand Meyerbeerian holocaust" according to Dean. This revised conclusion included a trio composed by Benjamin Godard
, an interpolation which modern critics have described as deplorable. Nevertheless, these corrupted scores remained the basis of productions for nearly a century.
The opera received its British premiere on 22 April 1887, at London's Covent Garden
, under the title Leila. The part of Nadir was sung by Paul Lhérie
, the original Don José in the 1875 Carmen. Press reactions were muted; The Times
s music critic found much of the music incompatible with the exotic setting—the hymn to Brahma was, he suggested, reminiscent of a Lutheran
chorale. The Observer
s reporter found "no trace of genuine inspiration", and drew unfavourable comparisons with Carmen. When Covent Garden repeated the production in May 1889 the Princess of Wales
and other members of the British royal family were present. The Manchester Guardian
s correspondent praised the singers but found that the work "becomes weaker and weaker as it goes on".
Les pêcheurs returned to Paris on 20 April 1889, when it was performed—in Italian—at the city's Gaîté Theatre. Despite a distinguished cast—Emma Calvé
, Jean-Alexandre Talazac
and Lhérie, now a baritone, in the role of Zurga—critical reviews were no more enthusiastic than those which had greeted the original performances. Le Ménestral excused Bizet on account of his youth, while The Manchester Guardians report summed up the Parisian view of the work as "almost entirely lacking in ... boldness & originality". On 24 April 1893 Carvalho revived the work, in French, at the Opéra-Comique, its first performance at what would later become its regular home.
Productions continued to proliferate in Europe, and further afield; on 25 August 1893 the opera received its American premiere in Philadelphia. Two-and-a-half years later, on 11 January 1896, the first two acts were performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera
(the "Met"), as part of a programme that included Jules Massenet
's one-act opera La Navarraise
. The cast was led by Calvé and the Italian baritone Mario Ancona
. However, the Met's first complete staging of the opera did not come until 20 years later, on 13 November 1916, when a star cast that included Enrico Caruso, Frieda Hempel
and Giuseppe De Luca
gave three performances. According to W.H. Chase in the Evening Sun, the Act I duet "brought down the house in a superb blending of the two men's voices"; later, in "Je crois entendre encore", Caruso "did some of the most artistic singing in plaintive minor". In The Sun, W.J. Henderson, praised Hempel for her "ravishing upper tones", Da Luca was "a master of the delicate finish", and the bass Léon Rothier
, in the small part of Nourabad, "filled Bizet's requirements perfectly".
and the Berlin State Opera
. Some revivals were unconventional: one German production used a rewritten libretto based on a revised storyline in which Leila, transformed into a defiant Carmen-like heroine, commits suicide at the end of the final scene. Paris's Opéra-Comique staged a more traditional production in 1932, and again in 1938, Bizet's centenary year. From that time onward it has remained in the Opéra-Comique repertory.
After the Second World War, although the opera was shunned by London's Covent Garden, the Sadler's Wells company presented it in March 1954. The Times announced this production as the first known use in Britain of the opera's English libretto. The stage designs for this production, which was directed by Basil Coleman, were by John Piper
. In the early 1970s, Arthur Hammond orchestrated the sections of the neglected 1863 vocal score that had been cut out from the post-1886 scores. This led to a production in 1973, by Welsh National Opera
, of a version close to Bizet's original, without Godard's trio and Zurga's violent death—the first modern performance to incorporate the original ending.
The Sadler's Wells production was revived several times, but it was not until September 1987 that the company, by then transformed into English National Opera
, replaced it with a new staging directed by Philip Prowse
. The Guardians report on this production mentioned that the "Pearl Fishers Duet" had recently topped the list in a poll of the public's "best tunes", and described the opera as "one of the most sweetly tuneful in the French repertory". This production "...[brought] out its freshness, never letting it become sugary". Despite its run being a sell-out, ENO's managing director Peter Jonas
disliked the production, and refused to revive it. It did not reappear in ENO's repertory until 1994, after Jonas's departure.
In the latter years of the 20th century the opera was a regular feature in many European cities, and was still breaking new ground; in 1990 it made its debut at the Slovak National Theatre
in Bratislava
. Vienna
saw it for the first time in 1994, at the Vienna Volksoper
, in what John Rockwell
in the New York Times described as "an awkwardly updated production", though well performed. The opera had not so far proved particularly popular in the United States, where since the Met premiere of 1916, performances had been rare by comparison with Europe. The Chicago Lyric Opera staged it in 1966, but waited until 1998 before repeating it. In 1980 the New York City Opera
mounted a production based on the 1863 edition, and revived it in 1983 and 1986. Reviewing the 1986 production, Henahan wrote that despite the inept libretto the work was saved by the "melodic suppleness and warmth" of Bizet's score. San Diego Opera
first staged the work in 1993, but it was this company's spectacular 2004 production, designed by Zandra Rhodes
, that generated new levels of enthusiasm for the opera throughout the United States. In the following few years this production was shown in seven other U.S. opera houses; in October 2008 James C. Whitson, in Opera News, reported that worldwide, "between 2007 and 2009, half of all major production of the piece have been or will be ... in the U.S.". San Diego's director, Ian Campbell, suggested that his company's 2004 production was "created at a time when it seemed many U.S. opera companies were looking for a not-too-expensive production with melody, and a little off the beaten track .... [Our] Les pêcheurs de perles fitted the bill.
In January 2008 the opera received its first performance in Sri Lanka, the land of its setting. The conductor, Benjamin Levy, directed a large group of singers and musicians, mostly young and local. Against a background of increasing esteem, the opera was reintroduced to London's Royal Opera House in October 2011, after an interval of more than 120 years. Two concert performances were given using a new edition of the score, prepared by Brad Cohen after the discovery in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
of Bizet's 1863 conducting score. Commenting on this performance in The Daily Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen
drew attention to the "musing intimacy and quiet dignity" with which the duet was sung, as compared with more traditional macho renderings. In publishing its plans for the 2011–12 season, the Opéra-Comique announced a new production of the opera for June 2012, with stage designs by Yoshi Oida.
that shows, Dean suggests, the influence of Meyerbeer. Flutes and harps are used to introduce the main theme of the celebrated "Pearl Fishers Duet", in what Lacombe identifies as "the most highly developed poetic scene in the opera". The duet's theme has become the opera's principal musical signature, and is repeated in the work whenever the issue of the men's friendship arises, though in Dean's view the tune is not worthy of the weight it carries. Bizet's ability to find the appropriate musical phrase with style and economy is better demonstrated, Dean suggests, in his treatment of Leila's oath of chastity, where a simple phrase is repeated twice in minor third
steps. Nadir's aria "Je crois entendre encore", towards the end of Act 1, is written on a barcarole rhythm, with a dominant cor anglais
whereby, says Lacombe, "[t]he listener has the impression that the horn is singing".
In Act 2 a short orchestral introduction is followed by an off-stage chorus, notable for its sparse accompaniment—a tambourine
and two piccolo
s. After Nourabad reminds Leila of her oath and leaves her alone she sings her cavatina "Comme autrefois". Two French horns introduce the theme, supported by the cellos. When her voice enters, says Lacombe, "it replaces the first horn whose characteristic sound it seems to continue". Dean likens this song to Micaela's aria "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" from Carmen. Nadir's "De mon amie" which follows the cavatina has, according to Dean, "a haunting beauty"; its introductory phrase recalls the oboe theme in Bizet's youthful Symphony in C
. Dean cites the second act finale, with its repeated climaxes as the crowds demand the errant couple's deaths, as an example of Bizet's developing skills in writing theatrical music. The third act, divided into two brief scenes, begins with Zurga's entrance to quiet chromatic scales
played over a tonic pedal
, an effect that Bizet would later use in his incidental music to L'Arlésienne. The duet "Je frémis", says Dean, has clear hints of Verdi's
Il trovatore
, and the fiery chorus "Dès que le soleil" is reminiscent of a Mendelssohn
scherzo, but otherwise the final act's music is weak and lacking in dramatic force. In the closing scene, in which Zurga bids a last farewell to his dreams of love, the friendship theme from the Act 1 duet sounds for the final time.
According to the opera historian Hervé Lacombe, Les pêcheurs de perles is characteristic of French opèra lyrique, in particular through Bizet's use of arioso
and dramatic recitative
, his creation of atmospheres, and his evocation of the exotic. Berlioz described the opera's score as beautiful, expressive, richly coloured and full of fire, but Bizet himself did not regard the work highly, and thought that, a few numbers apart, it deserved oblivion. Parisian critics of the day, attuned to the gentler sounds of Auber
and Offenbach, complained about the heaviness of Bizet's orchestration, which they said was noisy, overloaded and Wagnerian—"a fortissimo in three acts". The conductor Hans von Bülow
dismissed the work contemptuously as "a tragical operetta", and when it was revived after 1886, resented having to conduct it. Modern writers have generally treated the work more generously; the music may be of uneven quality, says Dean, but there are interesting hints of Bizet's mature accomplishments. Others have given credit to the composer for overcoming the limitations of the libretto with some genuinely dramatic strokes and the occasional inspiring melody.
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
showed scant care for her husband's musical legacy; several of his autograph scores, including that of Les pêcheurs de perles, were lost or given away. Choudens published a second piano vocal score in 1887–88 and a "nouvelle édition" in 1893 that incorporated the changes that had been introduced into recent revivals of the opera. A full orchestral score based on the nouvelle edition was published in 1893.
A trend towards greater authenticity began after Hammond's orchestrations in the 1970s provided a basis for staging he work in its original form. This process was further aided by the discovery in the 1990s of Bizet's 1863 conducting score. In this, the orchestral parts were reduced to six staves
, but notes and other markings in the manuscript provided additional clues to the original orchestration. These new finds became the basis for Brad Cohen's critical edition of the score, published by Edition Peters
in 2002.
, was recorded as early as 1907. The 1919 edition of The Victrola Book of the Opera lists available recordings of several of the solo numbers, the duet, the orchestral prelude, the chorus "Brahma! divin Brahma!" and the Act 3 finale, mainly sung in Italian. The 1977 Prétre recording of the complete opera was the first to be based on the 1863 original as represented in Bizet's recently discovered vocal score; the Platini version of 1989, while using the 1863 score, gives listeners two versions of the duet; the commonly sung one, and the curtailed form in which it appeared in Bizet's original. Brad Cohen's highlights version, sung in English and based on the conductor's adaptation of Bizet's conducting score, also provides both versions of the duet.
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
, to a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Eugène Cormon
Eugène Cormon
Pierre-Etienne Piestre, known as Eugène Cormon , was a French dramatist and librettist. He used his mother’s name, Cormon, during his career....
and Michel Carré
Michel Carré
Michel Carré was a prolific French librettist.He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. His libretto for Mirette was never performed in France but was later performed in English adaptation in...
. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run. Set in ancient times on the island of Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, the opera is a story of how two men's vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same women, whose own dilemma is the conflict between secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess. The friendship duet "Au fond du temple saint", known in the English-speaking world as "The Pearl Fishers Duet", is one of the best-known numbers in Western opera.
At the time of the premiere, Bizet was 25 years old and had yet to establish himself in the Parisian musical world. The commission to write Les pêcheurs arose from his standing as a former winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome. Despite a good reception by the public, press reactions to the work were generally hostile and dismissive, although other composers, notably Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, found considerable merit in the music. The opera was not revived in Bizet's lifetime, but from 1886 onwards it was performed with some regularity in Europe and America, and from the mid-20th century has entered the repertory of opera houses worldwide. Because the autograph score was lost, post-1886 productions were based on amended versions of the score that contained significant departures from the original. However, since the 1970s, efforts have been made to reconstruct the score in accordance with Bizet's intentions.
Modern critical opinion has been kinder than that of Bizet's day. The opera is now widely acknowledged as a work of promise in which Bizet's gifts for melody and evocative instrumentation are clearly evident. Although the quality of the music is described as uneven, and at times as demonstrating the often questionable influence of Bizet's contemporary composers, commentators have identified clear premonitions of the mature opera composer's genius which would culminate, 10 years later, in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. Since 1950 the work has been recorded on numerous occasions, in both the amended and original versions.
Background
Bizet's first opera, the one-act Le docteur MiracleLe docteur Miracle
Le docteur Miracle is an opérette in one act by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto, by Léon Battu and Ludovic Halévy, is based on Sheridan's play Saint Patrick's Day. Bizet wrote the work when he was just 18 years old for a competition organised by Jacques Offenbach. He shared first...
, was written in 1856 when the 18-year-old composer was a student at the Paris Conservatoire. It was Bizet's winning entry in a competition organised by the celebrated composer Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, and won him a cash prize, a gold medal, and a performance of the prize work at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. In 1857 Bizet was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
, and as a result spent most of the following three years in Italy where he wrote Don Procopio
Don Procopio
Don Procopio is a two-act opera buffa by Georges Bizet with an Italian libretto completed in 1859, and first performed in 1906.-Background:Bizet spent three years in Italy, 1857 to 1860, as winner of the Prix de Rome...
, a short opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
in the style of Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
. By this time Bizet had written several non-stage works, including his Symphony in C
Symphony in C (Bizet)
The Symphony in C is an early work by the French composer Georges Bizet. According to Grove's Dictionary, the symphony "reveals an extraordinarily accomplished talent for an 17-year-old student, in melodic invention, thematic handling and orchestration." Bizet started work on the symphony on 29...
, but the failure of his 1858 Te Deum helped convince him that his future lay primarily as a composer for the musical theatre. He planned and possibly began several operatic works before his return to Paris in 1860, but none of these projects came to fruition.
In Paris, Bizet discovered the difficulties faced by young and relatively unknown composers trying to get their operas performed. Of the capital's two state-subsidised opera houses, the Opéra
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
and the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, the former offered a static repertoire in which works by foreign composers, particularly Rossini and Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, were dominant. Even established French composers such as Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
had difficulty getting works performed there. At the Opéra-Comique, innovation was equally rare; although more French works were performed, the style and character of most productions had hardly changed since the 1830s. However, one condition of the Opéra-Comique's state funding was that from time to time it should produce one-act works by former Prix de Rome laureates. Under this provision, Bizet had written La guzla de l'Emir, with a libretto by Jules Barbier
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...
and Michel Carré
Michel Carré
Michel Carré was a prolific French librettist.He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. His libretto for Mirette was never performed in France but was later performed in English adaptation in...
, and this went into rehearsal early in 1862.
In April 1862, as the La guzla rehearsals proceeded, Bizet was approached by Léon Carvalho
Léon Carvalho
Léon Carvalho was a French impresario and stage director.-Biography:Born Léon Carvaille in Port-Louis, Mauritius, he came to France at an early age...
, manager of the independent Théâtre Lyrique company. Carvalho had been offered a grant of 100,000 francs by the retiring Minister of Fine Arts, Count Walewski, on condition that each year he staged a new three-act opera from a recent Prix de Rome winner. Carvalho had a high opinion of Bizet's abilities, and offered him the libretto of Les pêcheurs de perles, an exotic story by Carré and Eugène Cormon
Eugène Cormon
Pierre-Etienne Piestre, known as Eugène Cormon , was a French dramatist and librettist. He used his mother’s name, Cormon, during his career....
set on the island of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, then known as Ceylon. Sensing the opportunity for a genuine commercial success, Bizet accepted the commission. Because Walewski had decided that as part of the arrangement the composer should not have had any previous work performed commercially, Bizet hurriedly withdrew La guzla from the Opéra-Comique; it has never been performed, and the music has disappeared.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 30 September 1863 (Cond. Adolphe Deloffre Adolphe Deloffre Louis Michel Adolphe Deloffre was a French violinist and conductor active in London and Paris, who conducted several important operatic premieres in the latter city, particularly by Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet.... ) |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leïla, a priestess of Brahma | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Léontine de Maësen | |
| Nadir, a fisherman | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
François Morini | |
| Zurga, head fisherman | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Jean-Vital Ismaël | |
| Nourabad, high priest of Brahma | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Prosper Guyot | |
| Chorus of fishermen, virgins, priests and priestesses of Brahma | |||
Act 1
The scene is a desolate seashore, with the ruins of a Hindu temple in the background. A chorus of pearl fishermen sing of the dangerous tasks that lie ahead ("Sur la grève en feu"), and perform ritual dances to drive away evil spirits. They then elect one of their number, Zurga, as their leader or "king". Nadir enters, and is hailed by Zurga as a long-lost friend; left alone, the pair reminisce about their past, in the city of Kandy, when their friendship was nearly destroyed by their mutual love of a young priestess whose beauty they had glimpsed briefly. They had each renounced their love for this stranger, and had sworn to remain true to each other. Now, reunited, they affirm once again that they will be faithful until death ("Au fond du temple saint").A boat draws up on the beach bearing the veiled figure of Leila, the virgin priestess whose prayers are required to ensure the safety of the fishermen. Though not at this stage recognised, she is the woman from Kandy with whom Nadir and Zurga had been in love. As Zurga is explaining her duties she recognises Nadir, though she says nothing and shortly afterwards is led up to the temple by the high priest Nourabad. Zurga and the fishermen go down to the sea, leaving Nadir alone. In a troubled soliloquy before he sleeps he recalls how, in Kandy, he had broken his vows to Zurga and pursued his love for the veiled woman ("Je crois entendre encore"). It is the rumour that she might be found in this place that has brought him here. Alone in the temple, Leila prays and sings. Nadir wakes and, recognising her voice, traces it to the temple. Leila briefly draws her veil aside, and the pair declare their renewed love. On the beach, the fishermen plead with her to continue protecting them, but she tells Nadir she will sing for him alone ("O Dieu Brahma").
Act 2
In the temple with Nourabad, Leila expresses fear at being left alone, but Nourabad exhorts her to be brave and to fulfil her vows to Brahma on pain of her own death. She tells him of the courage she once displayed when, as a child, she hid a fugitive from his enemies and refused to give him up even when threatened with death ("J'étais encore enfant"). The fugitive had rewarded her with a necklace that he asked her always to wear. She had kept this promise, as she would her vows. On the priest's departure, Leila quietly muses on the former times when she and Nadir would meet together secretly ("Comme autrefois dans la nuit sombre"). Nadir then enters; in her fear of Nourabad's threats Leila begs him to leave, but he remains and the two declare their love in a passionate duet ("Léïla! Léïla!...Dieu puissant, le voilà!"). He goes, promising to return next night, but as he leaves he is captured by the fishermen and brought back to the temple. Zurga, as the fishermen's leader, at first resists the fishermen's calls for Nadir's execution and advocates mercy. However, after Nourabad removes Leila's veil, Zurga recognises her as his former love; consumed by jealousy and rage, he orders that both Nadir and Leila be put to death. A violent storm erupts, as the fishermen unite in singing a hymn to Brahma ("Brahma divin Brahma!").Act 3
In his tent on the beach, Zurga notes that the storm has abated, as has his rage; he now feels remorse for his anger towards Nadir ("L'orage est calmé"). Leila is brought in; Zurga is captivated by her beauty as he listens to her pleas for Nadir's life, but his jealousy is rekindled. He confesses his love for her, but refuses mercy ("Je suis jaloux"). Nourabad and some of the fishermen enter, to report that the funeral pyre is ready. As Leila is taken away, Zurga observes her giving one of the fishermen her necklace, asking for its return to her mother. With a shout, Zurga rushes out after the group and seizes the necklace.Outside the temple, Nadir waits beside the funeral pyre as the crowd, singing and dancing, anticipate the dawn and the coming double execution ("Dès que le soleil"). He is joined by Leila; resigned now to their deaths, the pair sing of how their souls will soon be united in heaven. A glow appears in the sky, as Zurga rushes in to report that the fishermen's camp is ablaze. As the men hurry away to save their homes, Zurga frees Leila and Nadir. He returns the necklace to Leila, and reveals that he is the man she saved when she was a child. He recognises now that his love for her is in vain, and tells her and Nadir to flee. As the couple depart, singing of the life of love that awaits them, Zurga is left alone, to await the fishermen's return ("Plus de crainte...Rêves d'amour, adieu!").
(In the revised version of the ending introduced after the opera's 1886 revival, Nourabad witnesses Zurga's freeing of the prisoners and denounces him to the fishermen, one of whom stabs Zurga to death as the last notes sound of Leila and Nadir's farewell song. In some variations, instead of being stabbed Zurga is burned on the pyre.)
Writing and compositional history
The libretto was written by Eugène CormonEugène Cormon
Pierre-Etienne Piestre, known as Eugène Cormon , was a French dramatist and librettist. He used his mother’s name, Cormon, during his career....
and Michel Carré
Michel Carré
Michel Carré was a prolific French librettist.He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. His libretto for Mirette was never performed in France but was later performed in English adaptation in...
. Cormon, whose real name was Pierre-Etienne Piestre, was a prolific author of libretti and straight drama, the vast majority of which were in collaboration with other writers. In his career he wrote or part-wrote at least 135 works, of which Les dragons de Villars
Les dragons de Villars
Les dragons de Villars is an opéra-comique in three acts by Aimé Maillart to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Joseph-Philippe Lockroy.-Performance history:...
, set to music by Aimé Maillart
Aimé Maillart
Louis-Aimé Maillart was a French composer, best known for his operas, particularly Les Dragons de Villars and Lara.-Biography:Maillart was born in Montpellier...
, was perhaps the most successful. Carré, who had initially trained as a painter, had worked with Jules Barbier
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...
on Gounod's opera Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and had co-written the play Les contes fantastiques d'Hoffmann, which became the basis of the libretto for Offenbach's opera Contes d'Hoffmann. Before Les pêcheurs de perles Cormon and Carré had previously written a libretto for Maillart on a similar theme, Les pêcheurs de Catane, which had been performed in 1860; they had originally planned to set their new story in Mexico before changing its location to Ceylon.
By general critical consent the libretto of Les pêcheurs de perles reflects little credit on either writer. The weak plot, as Bizet's biographer Winton Dean
Winton Dean
Winton Dean is an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research concerning the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of Handel, as detailed in his book Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques .Dean was born in Birkenhead...
observes, turns on the unlikely coincidence regarding Leila's necklace, and no real effort is made in the text to bring any of the characters to life: "They are the regulation sopranos, tenors, etc., with their faces blacked". Mina Curtiss, in her book on Bizet, dismisses the text as banal and imitative. A recent critic, Donal Henahan
Donal Henahan
Donal Henahan is a retired American music critic and journalist who had lengthy associations with the Chicago Daily News and The New York Times...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that the libretto "rank[ed] right down there with the most appallingly inept of its kind". The writers themselves admitted its shortcomings: Corman commented later that had they been aware of Bizet's quality as a composer, they would have tried harder. Carré was worried about the weak ending, and constantly sought suggestions for changing it; Curtiss records that in exasperation, the theatre manager Carvalho suggested that Carré burn the libretto. This facetious remark, Curtiss asserts, led Carré to end the opera with the fishermen's tents ablaze as Leila and Nadir make their escape.
Because he only received Carvalho's commission in April 1863, and the projected first performance date was mid-September, Bizet composed quickly with, Curtiss says, "a tenacity and concentration quite foreign to him in his Roman days". He had some music available on which he could draw; through the previous winter he had worked on the score of an opera, Ivan IV with the promise, which fell through, that the work would be staged in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
. Ivan IV provided music for three numbers in Les pêcheurs de perles: the prelude; part of Zurga's "Une fille inconnue"; and the third act duet "O lumière sainte". The "Brahma divin Brahma" chorus was adapted from the rejected Te Deum, and the chorus "Ah chante, chante encore" from Don Procopio. It is also likely that music composed for the cancelled La guzla d l'Emir found its way into the new opera's score, which was completed by early August. The libretto was changed frequently during the creation process, even when the work had reached the rehearsal stage; the chorus "L'ombre descende" was added at Bizet's request, and other numbers were shortened or removed.
Premiere and initial run
The premiere, originally planned for 15 September 1863, was postponed to the 30th because of the illness of the soprano lead, Léontine de Maësen. The first-night audience at the Théâtre Lyrique received the work well, and called for Bizet at the conclusion. The writer Louis GalletLouis Gallet
Louis Gallet was an inexhaustible French writer of operatic libretti, plays, romances, memoirs, pamphlets, and innumerable articles, who is remembered above all for his adaptations of fiction—and Scripture— to provide librettos of cantatas and opera, notably by composers Georges...
, who later would provide several librettos for Bizet, described the composer on this occasion as "a little dazed ... a forest of thick curly hair above a round, still rather childish face, enlivened by the quick brown eyes..." The audience's appreciation was not reflected in the majority of the press notices, which generally castigated both the work and Bizet's audacity in appearing on stage. One writer surmised that the calls for the composer had been orchestrated by a "claque" of Bizet's friends, strategically distributed. Gustave Bertrand in Le Ménestrel wrote that "this sort of exhibition is admissible only for a most extraordinary success, and even then we prefer to have the composer dragged on in spite of himself, or at least pretending to be".
Of the opera itself, Benjamin Jouvin of Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
wrote: "There were neither fishermen in the libretto nor pearls in the music". He considered that on every page the score displayed "the bias of the school to which [Bizet] belongs, that of Richard Wagner". Bertrand compared the work unfavourably with those of contemporary French composers such as Gounod and Félicien-César David
Félicien-César David
Félicien-César David was a French composer.-Biography:Félicien David was born in Cadenet , France, and began to study music at five under his father, whose early death however left him an impoverished orphan...
. "Nevertheless", he wrote, "there is a talent floating in the midst of all these regrettable imitations". Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
was a voice apart in the general critical hostility; his review of the work in Journal des Débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
praised the music's originality and subtlety: "The score of Les pêcheurs de perles does M. Bizet the greatest honour", he wrote. Among Bizet's contemporaries, the dramatist Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris...
wrote that this early work announced Bizet as a composer of quality: "I persist in finding in [the score] the rarest virtues". The youthful composer Émile Paladilhe
Emile Paladilhe
Émile Paladilhe was a French composer of the late romantic period.-Biography:Émile Paladilhe was born in Montpellier. He was a musical child prodigy, and moved from his home in the south of France to Paris to begin his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris at age 10...
told his father that the opera was superior to anything that the established French opera composers of the day, such as Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
and Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
, were capable of producing.
In its initial run Les pêcheurs de perles ran for 18 performances, alternating with Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Marriage of Figaro. It closed on 23 November 1863, and although it brought the theatre little financial success, Bizet had won admiration from his peers. Carvalho was satisfied enough to asked Bizet to finish Ivan IV as quickly as possible with a view to its production, an idea that eventually came to nothing; Ivan IV remained unperformed until 1946.
Early revivals
After its opening run, Les pêcheurs was not performed again until 20 March 1886, when it was presented, in Italian, at La ScalaLa Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. After this it received regular stagings in European cities, often with the Italian version of the libretto. These revivals, which possibly reflected the growing success of Carmen, were followed by the publication of several versions of the music that incorporated significant differences from Bizet's original. In particular the finale was altered, to provide a more dramatic ending—"a grand Meyerbeerian holocaust" according to Dean. This revised conclusion included a trio composed by Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Louis Paul Godard was a French violinist and Romantic composer.-Biography:Born in Paris, Godard was a student of Henri Vieuxtemps. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Vieuxtemps and Napoléon Henri Reber and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany...
, an interpolation which modern critics have described as deplorable. Nevertheless, these corrupted scores remained the basis of productions for nearly a century.
The opera received its British premiere on 22 April 1887, at London's Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, under the title Leila. The part of Nadir was sung by Paul Lhérie
Paul Lhérie
Paul Lhérie , was a French tenor, then baritone, later a vocal teacher, most famous for creating the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen.-Life and career:...
, the original Don José in the 1875 Carmen. Press reactions were muted; The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
s music critic found much of the music incompatible with the exotic setting—the hymn to Brahma was, he suggested, reminiscent of a Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
chorale. The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s reporter found "no trace of genuine inspiration", and drew unfavourable comparisons with Carmen. When Covent Garden repeated the production in May 1889 the Princess of Wales
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
and other members of the British royal family were present. The Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s correspondent praised the singers but found that the work "becomes weaker and weaker as it goes on".
Les pêcheurs returned to Paris on 20 April 1889, when it was performed—in Italian—at the city's Gaîté Theatre. Despite a distinguished cast—Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet , was a French operatic soprano.Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly and to considerable acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera...
, Jean-Alexandre Talazac
Jean-Alexandre Talazac
Jean-Alexandre Talazac , was a French operatic tenor, particularly associated with the French repertory.Talazac was born in Bordeaux. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, and made his debut in 1877 at the Théâtre Lyrique...
and Lhérie, now a baritone, in the role of Zurga—critical reviews were no more enthusiastic than those which had greeted the original performances. Le Ménestral excused Bizet on account of his youth, while The Manchester Guardians report summed up the Parisian view of the work as "almost entirely lacking in ... boldness & originality". On 24 April 1893 Carvalho revived the work, in French, at the Opéra-Comique, its first performance at what would later become its regular home.
Productions continued to proliferate in Europe, and further afield; on 25 August 1893 the opera received its American premiere in Philadelphia. Two-and-a-half years later, on 11 January 1896, the first two acts were performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
(the "Met"), as part of a programme that included Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's one-act opera La Navarraise
La Navarraise
La Navarraise is an opera in one act by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie and Henri Cain, based on Claretie's novel La Cigarette...
. The cast was led by Calvé and the Italian baritone Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona , was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".-Career:Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany,...
. However, the Met's first complete staging of the opera did not come until 20 years later, on 13 November 1916, when a star cast that included Enrico Caruso, Frieda Hempel
Frieda Hempel
Frieda Hempel was a German soprano singer in operatic and concert work who had an international career in Europe and the United States.-Biography:...
and Giuseppe De Luca
Giuseppe de Luca
Giuseppe De Luca , was a famous Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the New York Metropolitan Opera...
gave three performances. According to W.H. Chase in the Evening Sun, the Act I duet "brought down the house in a superb blending of the two men's voices"; later, in "Je crois entendre encore", Caruso "did some of the most artistic singing in plaintive minor". In The Sun, W.J. Henderson, praised Hempel for her "ravishing upper tones", Da Luca was "a master of the delicate finish", and the bass Léon Rothier
Léon Rothier
Léon Rothier was a French musician, predominantly an opera singer in the bass range, who reached the peak of his powers in the early 20th century at New York's Metropolitan Opera....
, in the small part of Nourabad, "filled Bizet's requirements perfectly".
Widening repertory
In the years after the First World War the work lost popularity with opera-house directors, and it was seen less frequently. The Met did not repeat its 1916 production, though individual numbers from the work—most frequently the famous duet and Leila's "Comme autrefois"—were regularly sung at the Met's concert evenings. The 1930s saw a return of interest in the opera, with productions in new venues including NurembergNuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
and the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
. Some revivals were unconventional: one German production used a rewritten libretto based on a revised storyline in which Leila, transformed into a defiant Carmen-like heroine, commits suicide at the end of the final scene. Paris's Opéra-Comique staged a more traditional production in 1932, and again in 1938, Bizet's centenary year. From that time onward it has remained in the Opéra-Comique repertory.
After the Second World War, although the opera was shunned by London's Covent Garden, the Sadler's Wells company presented it in March 1954. The Times announced this production as the first known use in Britain of the opera's English libretto. The stage designs for this production, which was directed by Basil Coleman, were by John Piper
John Piper (artist)
John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH was a 20th-century English painter and printmaker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames.-Life:...
. In the early 1970s, Arthur Hammond orchestrated the sections of the neglected 1863 vocal score that had been cut out from the post-1886 scores. This led to a production in 1973, by Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
, of a version close to Bizet's original, without Godard's trio and Zurga's violent death—the first modern performance to incorporate the original ending.
The Sadler's Wells production was revived several times, but it was not until September 1987 that the company, by then transformed into English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, replaced it with a new staging directed by Philip Prowse
Philip Prowse
Philip Prowse is a stage director and designer, and was one of the triumvirate of directors at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 1970 until 2004....
. The Guardians report on this production mentioned that the "Pearl Fishers Duet" had recently topped the list in a poll of the public's "best tunes", and described the opera as "one of the most sweetly tuneful in the French repertory". This production "...[brought] out its freshness, never letting it become sugary". Despite its run being a sell-out, ENO's managing director Peter Jonas
Peter Jonas (director)
Sir Peter Jonas, CBE, FRCM, FRNCM, FRSA, b.14 October 1946, is a British Arts Administrator and opera company director.-Career:Jonas studied at Worth School, and took an English Literature degree at the University of Sussex...
disliked the production, and refused to revive it. It did not reappear in ENO's repertory until 1994, after Jonas's departure.
Modern productions
Slovak National Theatre
The Slovak National Theatre denotes:* the oldest Slovak professional theatre consisting of 3 ensembles ,* a Neo-Renaissance theatre building in the Old Town of Bratislava, Slovakia, which formerly housed two of the theatre's ensembles , and* the theatre's large modern theatre building in...
in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
. Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
saw it for the first time in 1994, at the Vienna Volksoper
Vienna Volksoper
The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
, in what John Rockwell
John Rockwell
John Rockwell is a music critic, editor, and dance critic. He studied at Phillips Academy, Harvard, the University of Munich, and the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in German culture....
in the New York Times described as "an awkwardly updated production", though well performed. The opera had not so far proved particularly popular in the United States, where since the Met premiere of 1916, performances had been rare by comparison with Europe. The Chicago Lyric Opera staged it in 1966, but waited until 1998 before repeating it. In 1980 the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
mounted a production based on the 1863 edition, and revived it in 1983 and 1986. Reviewing the 1986 production, Henahan wrote that despite the inept libretto the work was saved by the "melodic suppleness and warmth" of Bizet's score. San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
first staged the work in 1993, but it was this company's spectacular 2004 production, designed by Zandra Rhodes
Zandra Rhodes
Zandra Rhodes, CBE, RDI, is an English fashion designer.Zandra Rhodes was introduced to the world of fashion by her mother, who was a fitter in a Paris fashion house and a teacher at Medway College of Art, now the University for the Creative Arts. Rhodes studied first at Medway and then at the...
, that generated new levels of enthusiasm for the opera throughout the United States. In the following few years this production was shown in seven other U.S. opera houses; in October 2008 James C. Whitson, in Opera News, reported that worldwide, "between 2007 and 2009, half of all major production of the piece have been or will be ... in the U.S.". San Diego's director, Ian Campbell, suggested that his company's 2004 production was "created at a time when it seemed many U.S. opera companies were looking for a not-too-expensive production with melody, and a little off the beaten track .... [Our] Les pêcheurs de perles fitted the bill.
In January 2008 the opera received its first performance in Sri Lanka, the land of its setting. The conductor, Benjamin Levy, directed a large group of singers and musicians, mostly young and local. Against a background of increasing esteem, the opera was reintroduced to London's Royal Opera House in October 2011, after an interval of more than 120 years. Two concert performances were given using a new edition of the score, prepared by Brad Cohen after the discovery in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
of Bizet's 1863 conducting score. Commenting on this performance in The Daily Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen
Rupert Christiansen
Rupert Christiansen is an English writer, journalist and critic, grandson of Arthur Christiansen and son of Kay and Michael Christiansen . Born in London, he was educated at Millfield and King's College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in English...
drew attention to the "musing intimacy and quiet dignity" with which the duet was sung, as compared with more traditional macho renderings. In publishing its plans for the 2011–12 season, the Opéra-Comique announced a new production of the opera for June 2012, with stage designs by Yoshi Oida.
Music
The opera begins with a brief orchestral prelude, the principal theme of which prefigures Leila's entrance. The opening chorus is punctuated by a dance which critic John W Klein describes as "electrifying". Nadir's first significant contribution is his aria "Des savanes et des forêts", sung to an accompaniment of cellos and bassoons under a string tremoloTremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
that shows, Dean suggests, the influence of Meyerbeer. Flutes and harps are used to introduce the main theme of the celebrated "Pearl Fishers Duet", in what Lacombe identifies as "the most highly developed poetic scene in the opera". The duet's theme has become the opera's principal musical signature, and is repeated in the work whenever the issue of the men's friendship arises, though in Dean's view the tune is not worthy of the weight it carries. Bizet's ability to find the appropriate musical phrase with style and economy is better demonstrated, Dean suggests, in his treatment of Leila's oath of chastity, where a simple phrase is repeated twice in minor third
Minor third
In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
steps. Nadir's aria "Je crois entendre encore", towards the end of Act 1, is written on a barcarole rhythm, with a dominant cor anglais
Cor anglais
The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....
whereby, says Lacombe, "[t]he listener has the impression that the horn is singing".
In Act 2 a short orchestral introduction is followed by an off-stage chorus, notable for its sparse accompaniment—a tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
and two piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
s. After Nourabad reminds Leila of her oath and leaves her alone she sings her cavatina "Comme autrefois". Two French horns introduce the theme, supported by the cellos. When her voice enters, says Lacombe, "it replaces the first horn whose characteristic sound it seems to continue". Dean likens this song to Micaela's aria "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" from Carmen. Nadir's "De mon amie" which follows the cavatina has, according to Dean, "a haunting beauty"; its introductory phrase recalls the oboe theme in Bizet's youthful Symphony in C
Symphony in C (Bizet)
The Symphony in C is an early work by the French composer Georges Bizet. According to Grove's Dictionary, the symphony "reveals an extraordinarily accomplished talent for an 17-year-old student, in melodic invention, thematic handling and orchestration." Bizet started work on the symphony on 29...
. Dean cites the second act finale, with its repeated climaxes as the crowds demand the errant couple's deaths, as an example of Bizet's developing skills in writing theatrical music. The third act, divided into two brief scenes, begins with Zurga's entrance to quiet chromatic scales
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
played over a tonic pedal
Pedal tone
Pedal tones are special notes in the harmonic series of cylindrical-bore brass instruments. A pedal tone has the pitch of its harmonic series' fundamental tone. Its name comes from the pedals of a pipe-organ. Cylindrical brasses do not naturally vibrate at this frequency.A closed cylinder...
, an effect that Bizet would later use in his incidental music to L'Arlésienne. The duet "Je frémis", says Dean, has clear hints of Verdi's
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, and the fiery chorus "Dès que le soleil" is reminiscent of a Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
scherzo, but otherwise the final act's music is weak and lacking in dramatic force. In the closing scene, in which Zurga bids a last farewell to his dreams of love, the friendship theme from the Act 1 duet sounds for the final time.
According to the opera historian Hervé Lacombe, Les pêcheurs de perles is characteristic of French opèra lyrique, in particular through Bizet's use of arioso
Arioso
In classical music, arioso is a style of solo opera singing between recitative and aria. Literally, arioso means airy. The term arose in the 16th century along with the aforementioned styles and monody. It is commonly confused with recitativo accompagnato....
and dramatic recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
, his creation of atmospheres, and his evocation of the exotic. Berlioz described the opera's score as beautiful, expressive, richly coloured and full of fire, but Bizet himself did not regard the work highly, and thought that, a few numbers apart, it deserved oblivion. Parisian critics of the day, attuned to the gentler sounds of Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
and Offenbach, complained about the heaviness of Bizet's orchestration, which they said was noisy, overloaded and Wagnerian—"a fortissimo in three acts". The conductor Hans von Bülow
Hans von Bülow
Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard...
dismissed the work contemptuously as "a tragical operetta", and when it was revived after 1886, resented having to conduct it. Modern writers have generally treated the work more generously; the music may be of uneven quality, says Dean, but there are interesting hints of Bizet's mature accomplishments. Others have given credit to the composer for overcoming the limitations of the libretto with some genuinely dramatic strokes and the occasional inspiring melody.
Musical numbers
The listing is based on the 1977 EMI recording, which used the 1863 vocal score. In the post-1886 revisions the Act 1 "Amitié sainte" duet was replaced with a reprise of "Au fond du temple saint". In Act 3 the sequence of numbers after the chorus "Dès que le soleil" was changed after 1886, together with cuts from and additions to the original. "O lumière sainte", was recomposed by Benjamin Godard as a trio for Nadir, Leila and Zurga.Act 1
- Sur la grève en feu (Chorus)
- Amis, interrompez vos danses et vos jeux! (Zurga, Chorus)
- Mais qui vient là...Des savanes et des forêts (Zurga, Nadir, Chorus)
- Demeure parmi nous, Nadir (Zurga, Nadir, Chorus)
- C'est toi, toi qu'enfin je revois! (Zurga, Nadir)
- Au fond du temple saint (Nadir, Zurga)
- Amitié sainte (Zurga, Nadir)
- Que vois-je...Une fille inconnue (Zurga, Nadir)
- C'est elle, c'est elle...Sois la bienvenue (Chorus)
- Seule au milieu de nous (Zurga, Leila, Nadir, Chorus)
- Qu'as-tu donc? Ta main frissonne et tremble (Zurga, Leila, Nourabad, Chorus)
- À cette voix...Je crois entendre encore (Nadir)
- Le ciel est bleu! (Chorus, Nourabad, Nadir)
- O Dieu Brahma! (Leila, Nadir, Chorus)
Act 2
- La lala la, la lala la...L'ombre descend des cieux (Chorus, Nourabad, Leila)
- Les barques ont gagné la grève...J'étais encore enfant (Nourabad, Leila, Chorus)
- Me voilà seule dans la nuit...Comme autrefois (Leila)
- De mon amie, fleur endormie (Nadir, Leila)
- Léïla! Léïla!...Dieu puissant, le voilà! (Nadir, Leila)
- Ton coeur n'a pas compris le mien (Nadir, Leila)
- Ah! revenez à la raison! (Leila, Nadir, Nourabad, Chorus)
- Dans cet asile sacré, dans ces lieux redoutables (Nourabad, Leila, Nadir, Chorus)
- Arrêtez! arrêtez! (Zurga, Nourabad, Leila, Nadir, Chorus)
- Brahma! divin Brahma! (Chorus)
Act 3
- L'orage est calmé...O Nadir, tendre ami de mon jeune âge (Zurga)
- Qu'ai je vu? O ciel, quel trouble...Je frémis (Zurga, Leila)
- Quoi! Innocent? Lui, Nadir? (Zurga, Leila)
- Je suis jaloux (Zurga, Leila)
- Entends au loin ce bruit de fête? (Nourabad, Leila, Zurga)
- Dès que le soleil (Chorus)
- Hélas! Qu'ont-ils fait de Leila? (Nadir, Nourabad, Chorus)
- Ah, Leila!...O lumière sainte (Nadir, Leila, Nourabad, Chorus)
- Le jour enfin perce la nue! (Nourabad, Zurga, Nadir, Leila, Chorus)
- Plus de crainte...Rêves d'amour, adieu! Leila, Nadir, Zurga)
Editions
Having completed the score of Les pêcheurs in August 1863, Bizet fell out with his publisher, Choudens, over publication rights. The quarrel was patched up and Choudens retained the rights, but published only a piano vocal score in 1863. After Bizet's death in 1875 his widow Mme Geneviève BizetGeneviève Halévy
Geneviève Halévy , was a French salonnière. She inspired Marcel Proust as a model for the Duchesse de Guermantes and Odette de Crécy in À la recherche du temps perdu....
showed scant care for her husband's musical legacy; several of his autograph scores, including that of Les pêcheurs de perles, were lost or given away. Choudens published a second piano vocal score in 1887–88 and a "nouvelle édition" in 1893 that incorporated the changes that had been introduced into recent revivals of the opera. A full orchestral score based on the nouvelle edition was published in 1893.
A trend towards greater authenticity began after Hammond's orchestrations in the 1970s provided a basis for staging he work in its original form. This process was further aided by the discovery in the 1990s of Bizet's 1863 conducting score. In this, the orchestral parts were reduced to six staves
Staff (music)
In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
, but notes and other markings in the manuscript provided additional clues to the original orchestration. These new finds became the basis for Brad Cohen's critical edition of the score, published by Edition Peters
Edition Peters
Edition Peters, also known as C.F.Peters Musikverlag, is a German music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1800.From the 1860s it was largely run by members the Hinrichsen family, who were Jewish. The company was confiscated by the Nazis and administered by the "Trustee of Jewish Property"....
in 2002.
Recordings
The first complete recordings of the opera were issued in the early 1950s. Before then, numerous recordings of individual numbers had been issued; the duet "Au fond du temple saint", sung in Italian by Caruso and Mario AnconaMario Ancona
Mario Ancona , was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".-Career:Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany,...
, was recorded as early as 1907. The 1919 edition of The Victrola Book of the Opera lists available recordings of several of the solo numbers, the duet, the orchestral prelude, the chorus "Brahma! divin Brahma!" and the Act 3 finale, mainly sung in Italian. The 1977 Prétre recording of the complete opera was the first to be based on the 1863 original as represented in Bizet's recently discovered vocal score; the Platini version of 1989, while using the 1863 score, gives listeners two versions of the duet; the commonly sung one, and the curtailed form in which it appeared in Bizet's original. Brad Cohen's highlights version, sung in English and based on the conductor's adaptation of Bizet's conducting score, also provides both versions of the duet.
| Year of recording | Cast (Leila, Nadir, Zurga, Nourabad) |
Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra |
Label (most recent issue) |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Rita Streich Rita Streich Rita Streich , was one of the most admired and recorded sopranos of the post-war period.Rita Streich was born in Barnaul in Russia, and moved to Germany with her parents during her childhood. She grew up bilingual, something that was extremely helpful during her later career... Jean Löhe Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"... Wilhelm Lang |
Artur Rother Artur Rother Artur Martin Rother was a German conductor who worked mainly in the opera house.He was born in Stettin, Pomerania . His father was an organist and music teacher. He studied under Hugo Kaun and other teachers. By the age of 20, in 1906, he was conducting in Wiesbaden, and was assistant conductor... RIAS Symphonie-Orchester und Kammerchor, Berlin |
Audio CD: Walhall WLCD 0179 (Sung in German) |
|
| 1950 | Nadezda Kazantseva Sergei Lemeshev Sergei Lemeshev Sergei Yakovlevich Lemeshev was one of the most well-known and beloved Russian operatic lyric tenors.-Early Life and Career:Lemeshev was born into a peasant family, and his father wanted him to become a cobbler. In 1914, he left a parish school and was sent to be trained to make shoes in St... Vladimir Zakharov Trofim Antonenko |
Onissim Bron Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus |
Audio CD: Gala GL 100764 (Sung in Russian) |
|
| 1951 | Mattiwilda Dobbs Mattiwilda Dobbs Mattiwilda Dobbs is an African-American coloratura soprano and one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera... , Enzo Seri, Jean Borthyre, Lucien Mans |
René Leibowitz René Leibowitz René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:... Orchestre et Choeur Philharmonique de Paris |
Audio CD: Preiser PR 20010 |
|
| 1953 | Pierrette Alarie Pierrette Alarie Pierrette Alarie, was a French Canadian coloratura soprano. She was married to the French-Canadian tenor Léopold Simoneau.-Life and career:... , Léopold Simoneau Léopold Simoneau Léopold Simoneau, CC, CQ was a French-Canadian lyric tenor, one of the outstanding Mozarteans of his time. In 1959 he became the first recipient of the Calixa-Lavallée Award.-Life and career:... , René Bianco, Xavier Depraz |
Jean Fournet Jean Fournet Jean Fournet was a French conductor.Fournet’s father was a flutist who gave him some instruction on the flute and music theory. Fournet was then trained at the Conservatoire de Paris in flute by Gaston Blanquart and Marcel Moyse, and conducting by Philippe Gaubert... Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux and Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur |
Audio CD: Opera d'Oro OPD 1423 |
|
| 1954 | Martha Angelici Martha Angelici Martha Angelici , was a French operatic soprano of Corsican origin, particularly associated with the French lyric repertoire.... Henri Legay Henri Legay Henri Legay was a French operatic tenor. He was primarily French-based as his light lyric voice was especially suited to the French operatic repertoire.... Michel Dens Michel Dens Michel Dens was a French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory, both opera and operetta.... Louis Noguera |
André Cluytens André Cluytens André Cluytens was a Belgian-born French conductor who was active in the concert hall, opera house and recording studio. His repertoire extended from Viennese classics through French composers to 20th century works... L'Opéra-Comique de Paris |
Audio CD: EMI Classics B000005GR8 |
|
| 1959 | Marcella Pobbé Marcella Pobbé Marcella Pobbé , was an Italian operatic soprano who sang a wide range of roles in both the lyric and spinto repertory.... Ferruccio Tagliavini Ferruccio Tagliavini Ferruccio Tagliavini was an Italian operatic tenor mainly active in the 1940s and 1950s... Ugo Savarese Ugo Savarese Ugo Savarese was an Italian operatic baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.... Carlo Cava |
Oliviero De Fabritiis Oliviero De Fabritiis Oliviero De Fabritiis was an Italian conductor and composer.Born in Rome, where he studied with Refice and Setaccialo. He made his debut at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome in 1920, and later moved to the Teatro Adriano. He was artistic secretary at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from 1932 until 1943... Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli |
Audio CD: Walhall WLCD 0299 (Sung in Italian) |
|
| 1959 | Manuel Rosenthal Manuel Rosenthal Manuel Rosenthal was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America... Orchestre Radio-Lyrique and Choeurs de la Radio Television Francaise |
Janine Micheau Janine Micheau Janine Micheau was a French singer, one of the leading lyric sopranos of her era in France.Janine Micheau was born in Toulouse, and studied voice at the Paris Conservatoire... Alain Vanzo Alain Vanzo Alain Vanzo was a French opera singer and composer, one of few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era... Gabriel Bacquier Gabriel Bacquier Gabriel Bacquier is a French operatic baritone. One of the leading baritones of the 20th century and particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories, he is considered a fine singing-actor equally at home in dramatic or comic roles.-Life and career:Gabriel Bacquier was born in... Lucien Lovano |
Audio CD: Gala GL 100504 |
|
| 1961 | Janine Micheau Janine Micheau Janine Micheau was a French singer, one of the leading lyric sopranos of her era in France.Janine Micheau was born in Toulouse, and studied voice at the Paris Conservatoire... , Nicolai Gedda Nicolai Gedda Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history... , Ernest Blanc Ernest Blanc Ernest Blanc was a French opera singer, one of the leading baritones of his era in France.Born in Sanary-sur-Mer, Ernest Blanc studied at the Music Conservatory of Toulon with Sabran, from 1946 to 1949. He made his debut in Marseille, as Tonio, in 1950... , Jacques Mars |
Pierre Dervaux Pierre Dervaux Pierre Dervaux was a French operatic conductor, composer, and pedagogue. At the Conservatoire de Paris, he studied counterpoint and harmony with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau and Jean and Noël Gallon, as well as piano with Isidor Philipp, Armand Ferté, and Yves Nat... Orchestra and Chorus of L'Opéra-Comique Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the... |
Audio CD: EMI CMS 5 66020-2 |
|
| 1977 | Ileana Cotrubas Ileana Cotrubas Ileana Cotrubaş is a Romanian opera soprano whose career spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was much admired for her acting skills and facility for singing opera in many different languages.-Biography:... , Alain Vanzo Alain Vanzo Alain Vanzo was a French opera singer and composer, one of few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era... , Guillermo Sarabia, Roger Soyer Roger Soyer Roger Soyer is a French operatic bass-baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory and with Mozart.Soyer was born in Paris, and first studied privately with G. Daum, before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 19. There he was a pupil of Georges Jouatte and Louis Musy... |
Georges Prêtre Georges Prêtre - Biography :He was born in Waziers , and attended the Douai Conservatory and then studied harmony under Maurice Duruflé and conducting under André Cluytens among others at the Conservatoire de Paris. Amongst his early musical interests were jazz and trumpet. After graduating, he conducted in a... , Paris Opera Paris Opera The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique... Orchestra and Chorus |
Audio CD: EMI 3677022 |
|
| 1989 | Barbara Hendricks Barbara Hendricks Barbara Hendricks is an African American operatic soprano and concert singer. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland on Lake Geneva since 1985, She is a citizen of Sweden.-Early life and education:... , John Aler John Aler John Aler is an American lyric tenor who performs in concerts, recitals, and operas. He is particularly known for his interpretations of the works of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Handel.... , Gino Quilico Gino Quilico Gino Quilico, OC is a Canadian lyric baritone of Italian descent and the son of Canadian baritone Louis Quilico and Lina Pizzolongo.-Early life:... , Jean-Philippe Courtis |
Michel Plasson Michel Plasson Michel Plasson is a French conductor.Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. He studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Münch... , Orchestra and Chorus of Capitole de Toulouse Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse The Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse is a French orchestra based in Toulouse. It acts as both a symphony orchestra whose main residence is Toulouse's Halle aux Grains, and the permanent orchestra of the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.... |
Audio CD: Angel CDCB-49837 |
|
| 1991 | Alessandra Ruffini, Giuseppe Morino, Bruno Pratico, Eduardo Abumradi |
Carlos Piantini, Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia |
Audio CD: Nuova Era 6944-6945 |
|
| 2004 | Annick Massis Annick Massis - Biography :She worked as a school teacher before going to study at the Conservatoire Francis Poulenc in Paris. Her stage career began in Toulouse in the early 1990s, where she performed in operas by Mozart as well as playing the role of Leila in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.In 1999, she took the... , Yasu Nakajima, Luca Grassi, Luigi De Donato |
Marcello Viotti Marcello Viotti Marcello Viotti was a Swiss classical music conductor, best known for opera.Viotti was born in Vallorbe, in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, to Italian parents. He studied cello, piano and singing at the Conservatory of Lausanne. Wolfgang Sawallisch was a mentor to Viotti and encouraged... , Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice, Venice |
Audio CD: Dynamic Dynamic (record label) Dynamic is an Italian independent record label located in Genoa. Founded in 1978, it specialises in classical music and opera, especially rarely performed works and has produced several world premiere recordings... CDS 459 DVD: Dynamic DVD 33459 |
|
| 2008 | Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans is a Welsh operatic soprano.-Personal life:Born in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Neath, the same village as Hollywood actor Richard Burton.... Barry Banks Barry Banks (tenor) Barry Banks, Born in Stoke-on-Trent. English lyric tenor. Who after a long association with The Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera has achieved acclaim as one of finest interpreters of the Italian bel canto repertoire.-Early education:... Simon Keenlyside Simon Keenlyside Simon Keenlyside CBE is a British baritone who has had an active international career performing in operas and concerts since the mid 1980s.-Early life and education:... Alastair Miles |
Brad Cohen London Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera... , Geoffrey Mitchell Singers |
Audio CD: Chandos Chandos Records Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :... CHAN3156 (Abridged: sung in English) |
External links
- Libretto (in French) on WikiSource