love vs. faith
by Douglas Messerli
Eugène
Cormon and Michael Carré (libretto), Georges Bizet (composer) Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The
Pearl Fishers) / New York, The Metropolitan Opera / the production Howard
Fox and I attended was the High Definition Broadcast on January 16, 2016
Yes, the well-known tenor-baritone duet, “Amitié
sainte,” a swearing of the two male lead’s eternal friendship (that reads to
anyone with an ounce of imagination as a male-male matrimony); but almost as
memorable is Nadir’s (Matthew Polenzani) solo recounting of the beauty of Leïla,
“Je crois entendre encore.” And the choral pieces of both acts I and II
beautifully bind the personal emotions of the village leader Zurga (Mariusz
Kwiecien), Nadir and Leïla, with the fears, strengths, and desires of the
community as a whole.
In part, this tale, like so many operas,
represents a struggle to express the self within the confines of communal rules
and decorum. Nadir’s and Leïla’s love does not only betray the love of Nadir
and Zurga, but the pledge Leïla has made to the community and their god.
The fact that both men are also in love
with this woman merely complicates the various positions, public and private, which
have been imposed upon them in this slightly desperate world, threatened by the
possibility of daily death by drowning, being crushed by the waters tsunamis,
and, at opera’s end, destroyed by fire. In short, the central question of the
opera becomes how can these individuals sublimate their private passions to
their public declarations and their faith?
Even after he has sentenced them to
death, Act II finds him suffering for his decision; and, upon meeting with Leïla,
who argues for him to spare Nadir, even if he kills her, he once again
temporarily rescinds his decision, desperately wanting to believe that the
whole affair was a thing of accident instead of a preconceived betrayal of
Nadir’s and his love.
But as Leïla goes on to restate their
love, Zurga’s feelings of reconciliation quickly turn to jealousy and vengeance
again in the magnificently tumultuous ending of “Je frémis, je chancelle, de
son âme cruelle,” in response to which the previously submissive Leïla curses
Zurga and proudly embraces her death beside her lover.
So excellent is this new production of
the early Bizet opera, we can be assured that at least for several years, The Pearl Fishers will again be
available, at least in New York.
Los Angeles,
January 17, 2016
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