Les Pêcheurs de perles, composed rapidly by Bizet when he was still beginning to make his mark, is set in the exotic location of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. In an age of colonialism, librettists Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré originally set it in another fashionably exotic place – Mexico – then switched to the Far East. The result is a notoriously weak and underdeveloped plot, probably inspired in part by Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, involving Leïla, a priestess torn between love and duty, and two fishermen, friends and rivals Zurga and Nadir, who are caught in a similar dilemma in a fantasy world which is more Neverland than the real Ceylon.
In Matthew Eberhardt's semi-staged concert production for Opera North, pearls like gigantic billiard balls were placed on stage, big enough to hide behind and to be hoisted up in nets. Thick maritime ropes were tangled around a central mast in Acts 1 and 2 and appeared in grey close-up video shots on a rear-stage curtain in Act 3. Joanna Parker’s set and Peter Mumford’s lighting, with a battery of spotlights lowered in the gloom of Act 3 to focus on faces, provided intelligent interpretations of their brief on dark, mysterious places.
Bizet makes the whole thing worthwhile with his melodies and Wagner-influenced orchestration, and justice was done to his legacy in the use of the 2015 edition of the score by Hugh Macdonald which puts back a number of elements which were lost in previous editions. Dancing has always been specified, but there was little evidence of it on this occasion. Mass movement was confined to the impressive Opera North Chorus, which was often static, a series of statuesque figures clad in versions of dark concert dress.
Early in Act 1, two fishermen sing about friendship and loyalty in their world famous duet, “Au fond du temple saint”. Tenor Nico Darmanin (Nadir) and bass-baritone Quirijn de Lang (Zurga) excelled. Darmanin’s vocal agility and ability to capture top notes effortlessly was well balanced by de Lang, who brought a kind of convincing sobriety to his character which, like the others, seems incomplete and insubstantial in the libretto. I consider that de Lang is at his best in comic parts, often (I read) compared to Basil Fawlty, but here he confirmed once again that he is most versatile. Darmanin gave a ravishing performance when he sang of hearing his lover’s voice again in another aria often included in concert programmes, “Je crois entendre encore”.
Sophie Theodorides, making her ON debut, has an impressively pure and penetrating soprano. She was terrific from the moment she swore an oath of chastity on pain of death in Act 1, through a definitive “Me voilà seule” in Act 2 to the moment when she handed over the necklace in Act 3 with a section of the famous duet theme when Zurga suddenly clicks that she is the veiled woman he once saved from death years ago. Theodorides' coloratura was note perfect. Duetting with Darmanin, she shone. Bass James Creswell can be a really imposing or sinister figure on stage, but in this production he was quite mellow as Nourabad, wearing an odd hat like a bowler, but the politeness in his manner was belied by his voice, which is rich and particularly incisive, conveying an ability to dominate without trying too hard.
It's a pity that the ending here was so weak, with the two lovers skittering off and a spotlight on Zurga, standing nobly waiting for his fate, but that's an inherent problem with the piece. Bizet, in his efforts to deal with an unpromising bundle of words and a plot without promise, made the opera successful, no thanks to Cormon and Carré. He realised that the duet theme, with its unworldly flute melody and harp accompaniment, was a winner, which is why he made it into a fate motif, but there are also memorable arias and orchestration, expertly interpreted by the Opera North Orchestra under Matthew Kofi Waldren.
