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Organization

Singer

Soprano

Diana Damrau

Leila

Tenor

Dmitry Korchak

Nadir

Baritone

Nathan Gunn

Zurga

Bass

Nicolas Testé

Nourabad

Conductor

Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Stage director

Lotte de Beer

Costume designer

Jorine van Beek

Set designer

Marouscha Levy

Lighting designer

Alex Brok

Video designer

Finn Ross

Dramaturge

Peter te Nuyl

MusikTheater an der Wien

Orchestra

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

French

Les Pêcheurs de perles -  (The Pearl Fishers)

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

The Pearl Fishers

German

Approved

Les Pêcheurs de perles Bizet

Georges Bizet: The Pearl Fishermen (Arnold Schoenberg Chor)

Georges Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Arnold Schoenberg Chor)

Duett "At the bottom of the holy temple" - Les Pêcheurs de Perles

Duett "Au fond du temple saint" - Les Pêcheurs de Perles

In the wake of exoticism in the 19th century, remote locations and apparently foreign musical elements were also very much in vogue in opera. In 1863, Georges Bizet was commissioned by the director of the Parisian Théâtre Lyrique to compose such a piece - it was Bizet's first major opera that he was allowed to present. The triangle story from the pen of the experienced librettists Cormon and Carré offered strange rituals, beautiful natives, but between which the same storms of feeling are kindled as in the pieces set in the Old World.

The pearl fishermen await the consecrated Virgin, who should calm the sea with her prayers so that the fishermen can safely go about their work. Zurga, their new leader, and his friend, the hunter Nadir, had once fallen in love with the same girl, but for the sake of their friendship had sworn that they would both renounce her. But Nadir secretly broke the oath and approached the girl. When the veiled virgin approaches, she has to swear that she will never belong to a man. But by the sound of her voice, Nadir immediately recognizes in her the girl he loves, Leila. The lovers meet at night, but are caught by the high priest Nourabad. Zurga has to sentence them to death. First he wants to pardon the friend and the maiden, but when Nourabad tears down the veil of the virgin and Zurga has to discover Nadir's betrayal, he condemns the couple to death in jealous fury. He quickly regrets his decision, especially since he learns from Leila, who is asking for Nadir's life, that she once saved Zurga's life. When the lovers are led to the execution, Zurga sets a fire in the fishermen's tent camp to give Nadir and Leila the opportunity to escape in the ensuing chaos.

English

The Pearl Fishers by Bizet, From (2014/2014), Directed by Lotte de Beer,, Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

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