Opera North returns to Royal Concert Hall Nottingham for one night on Saturday 1 July with an acclaimed concert performance of Georges Bizet’s enchanting opera The Pearl Fishers.
A tale of love, jealousy and bitter betrayal written a decade before Bizet’s final, best-known work Carmen, The Pearl Fishers follows two friends, Nadir (tenor Nico Darmanin, last seen in Opera North’s La traviata at the Theatre Royal), and Zurga, sung by Dutch baritone and Opera North favourite Quirijn de Lang (Trouble in Tahiti, The Merry Widow, Kiss Me, Kate). Their alliance is plunged into peril when they both fall in love with the young priestess Leïla, sung by German soprano Sophia Theodorides.
Out of their predicament comes one of the best-loved duets in all of opera, ‘Au fond du temple saint’. But, says conductor Matthew Kofi Waldren, there’s a lot more to the work than that – and much to gain from hearing the operatic ‘hit’ within its original setting. “The famous theme that we all know and love from the duet returns again and again throughout the piece in different guises, always at moments of psychological tension. We’re used to hearing this duet as a standalone concert number, but it’s actually a subtle exploration of memory – and later on it becomes about loss and unrequited desire.”
Director Matthew Eberhardt continues,
“When Bizet brings the tune back, it’s not about just these two men and their experience of glimpsing Leïla at the temple – it’s about all three characters and their relationship to each other. Every time, there’s a revelation that changes their understanding of the moment when they were all in the temple together. So in a way, Bizet invites us to follow this musical breadcrumb trail in order to understand all the different parts of the narrative”.
The Pearl Fishers is the latest in Opera North’s award-winning series of concert stagings to come to Nottingham, following the Leeds-based company’s majestic Ring Cycle, Turandot, Aida, and last summer’s epic Parsifal.
In these pioneering productions the orchestra becomes the landscape of the piece, placed onstage rather than in the pit, with focus turned firmly on the exceptional power and colour of the music. The audience can see as well as hear the players, and in the Royal Concert Hall’s superb acoustic, they can hear the orchestra with more clarity and detail than a theatrical performance would offer.
This is a particular advantage in the case of The Pearl Fishers, as Matthew Eberhardt explains:
“The score is extraordinary. There are moments of big anthem-like music where everyone sings together in unison, and then there are these moments of absolute exquisite beauty with the sound of one instrument coming from a distance. It feels like Bizet references the big world we’re in, and then brings it right back to something very small and very beautiful and very detailed. That is what I’d love people to take away with them.”
With no proscenium arch or orchestra pit in the way, the audience can also experience the singers’ presence more vividly, and take in the nuances of story more clearly.
“This piece challenges and excites in so many different ways”, Matthew Eberhardt continues. “What’s brilliant about it, and what I’m loving, is that it’s like a riddle. We’re in a world that is deeply layered and complex, dealing with people who are trying to find their way through it. There are so many twists and turns, understandings and misunderstandings, all of which are reflected in the music.”
Opera North’s concert staging of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers comes to the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Saturday 1 July at 7pm. Tickets, are priced from £15.00 to £55.00, with concessions available and a limited number of £10 tickets for Under 30s and students via Opera North’s Under 30s scheme. To book, visit trch.co.uk or contact Box Office on 0115 989 5555.
Posted on 21 June 2023
