Opera North: The Pearl Fishers Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 01 July, 2023.

5*****: William Ruff

Opera North’s concert production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers poses two questions: is it the world’s most underrated opera and is Bizet opera’s most neglected composer? This may sound odd to anyone who knows his most popular work Carmen off by heart. But he wrote 30 operas altogether and almost all the others are completely unknown, no one even occasionally bothering to blow the dust off their scores.

Most music lovers know about The Pearl Fishers, of course. It contains one of the world’s favourite operatic numbers, the duet for the two male leads: ‘Au Fond Du Temple Saint’. In fact this is THE operatic duet for tenor and baritone: all the great male opera stars have sung it to the accompaniment of listeners weeping into their hankies. However, the opera contains far more than this and Opera North proved on Saturday that, despite its less than believable plot (not exactly an unknown for opera) The Pearl Fishers is a compelling musical/dramatic experience with an unusually high level of inspiration throughout.

The opera is set in ancient Ceylon/Sri Lanka and its plot revolves around Leila (Sophia Theodorides), a priestess who is torn between her sacred duty (warding off evil spirits etc) and earthly love. It’s one of those operatic love triangles, the other main roles being those of Zurga (Quirijn de Lang) and Nadir (Nico Darmanin) who long ago fell in love with the same girl but who vowed to give her up for the sake of their friendship. When she comes back into their lives, things get complicated once passions are rekindled. Lives are almost lost but saved just in the nick of time when Zurga (now king) sets fire to his village and endangers the lives of its inhabitants so that Nadir and Leila can escape to live happily ever after. If this sounds daft, it is – but don’t worry: the music is glorious.

The three principals sung magnificently throughout. I don’t usually approve of audiences breaking out into spontaneous applause but their singing was impossible to resist. Beauty of tone, care with the words and lots of drama - despite the restrictions of a concert staging: you couldn’t ask for much more. The famous duet (despite being a tad too well-known) managed to send tingles cascading down the assembled spines. Opera North unfortunately had a mishap with the singer billed to fill the minor role of Nurabad - but such is the talent-in-depth of their Chorus that one of its baritones, Simon Grange, was able to step up and sing the role with distinction.

And talking of the Chorus, they get much to do in this opera as the exotic pearl-fishing folk. Like the principals they sang from memory, diction was crisp and each number had plenty of rhythmic bounce. The orchestra seemed pleased to be released from the theatre pit to sit in full view on the stage. Matthew Kofi Waldren conducted with energy and insight, surely posing that same question as the audience left the Hall: why don’t we hear The Pearl Fishers in its entirety more often?

Cast

Sophia Theodorides (Leila)

Nico Darmanin (Nadir)

Quirijn de Lang (Zurga)

Simon Grange (Norabad)

Creatives

Matthew Kofi Waldren (conductor)

Matthew Eberhardt (Director)

The Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North