The Pearl Fishers

Composer: BIZET, Georges
  • Bizet composed his opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) during the summer of 1863. He wrote it in response to a commission from Paris’s Théâtre Lyrique.1
  • The opera premiered in September of 1863, but closed after a short run after receiving bad press. This was partly because 24-year-old Bizet appeared onstage for a curtain call after a performance, and the critics found this impudent. It was revived after premiere of Carmen and has since entered the repertoire.2
  • Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera 
    • The opera’s plot, which concerns a priestess who must choose between her religious vows and profane love, was partly inspired by Bellini’s Norma.3

Sources

  1.  Hugh Macdonald, “Bizet, Georges,” Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), accessed February 17, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051829.
  2.  Hugh Macdonald,”Pêcheurs de perles, Les,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed February 17, 2021, https://oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000903766. 
  3. Ibid.

Cut IDs

12420 19034 22036 45221 45626 49857