Costumes Fail to Revive Fishers

In an attempt to make the primarily 19th century medium of opera sexy for contemporary audiences, the opera world has been engaged in a campaign to commission sets and costumes to popular artists and designers. In the past, artists ranging from March Chagall to David Hockney have been called upon, and in the New York City Opera’s new production of George Bizet’s rarely performed first opera, Les pêcheurs de perles , the veritable Matron of fashion eccentricity Zandra Rhodes was employed.

As dawn opens on this tale of love, jealousy, and other operatic sentiments in Sri Lanka, we are confronted with badly drawn palm trees colored in with fluorescent markers (yes, there’s a black light as well). Elsewhere we find a ridiculously cartoonish Cocteau-like temple. Rhodes’ costumes, on the other hand, dominated by saffron and blue, are less radically imagined. Still, the general skimpiness of the dancers is sufficient to inspire occasional chuckles.

Dating from 1863, Pecheurs was the young Bizet’s first opera. Twelve years Carmen’s junior, it shares with that better-known work an interest in exotic settings and evocative local color (something very popular in France at the time) by appropriating (and more often inventing) the “authentic” melodies of Ceylon (Pêcheurs) or Spain (Carmen). Set in the exotic East, it feeds into nineteenth-century France’s fascination with the Orient, with scenes of pearl fishing, mystic religious rituals, and decaying temples. It was also hard to classify for the opera-going public of 1860s Paris, a fact that might have contributed to its initial failure. Neither opera-comique or Grand Opéra, Pêcheurs is structurally confused. It owes much of its comparative neglect to its clunky and unremarkable libretto, for which Bizet’s tuneful score does its utmost to compensate. Like Carmen, the opera underwent several revisions after Bizet’s death. These revisions have contributed to the slight increase in popularity it has seen.

The triangle at the core of Pêcheurs is between the two Sri Lankan pearl fishers—themselves long-estranged friends—and a virginal priestess named Leïla. As the leader of the pearl fishers, Zurga, the American baritone Stephen Powell, was in top form Sunday afternoon, despite his appalling outfit—a cross between a Samurai and football player—that Rhodes clad him in. Powell’s warm and maturing voice, though it wavered at times, sounded like Samuel Ramey. He was especially strong in his act two aria “L’orage s’est calme.”

Making his debut was the Armenian tenor Yeghishe Manucharyany, who made a solid Nadir. He started out a bit wooden but gained confidence and character as the afternoon wore on. Manucharyany slipped into falsetto during the dreamy “Je crois entendre encore,” which was otherwise lovely. Especially well sung was their friendship duet (among the opera’s only famous moments), “Au fond du temple saint,” which introduces a love motif that brings early Wagner to mind.

Mary Dunleavy made for a vocally and physically stunning Leïla. Her voice was agonizing and sweet. Despite occasional slips, the cumulative effect of her performance was like a dreamy lullaby. Especially glorious was her plea to Zurga (“Je frémis, je chancelle”), wherein she offers her life up to save Nadir. Rounding out the principals was Brian McIntosh as the high priest Nourabad, whose voice was commanding, though shrill at times. The well-prepared chorus sounded fuller and more assured than usual and made the most of the rather prosaic choral writing.

Despite the fine cast City Opera has assembled for this revival, one wonders what led them to rediscover this thoroughly unremarkable opera. Maestro Emmanuel Plasson (also making his debut) reveled in Bizet’s more lyrical moments. He gave a clean and thoughtful account of the fluid score, in which—like much French opera of the period—strings dominate. Like the composer, however, the score was unable to overcome its stiff, oppressively stagnant, and uninteresting libretto.

For a satisfactory exploration of the antagonism that has always existed between composers and librettists, we’ll need to wait for next season’s revival of Richard Strauss’ Capriccio.