Guy Edwards
Pearl Fishers
Bristol Opera
2010
Bizet's opera, 'The Pearl Fishers' probably deserves more performances given some of the outstandingly beautiful music it contains. Arguably its two best known pieces are the the Divine Brahma chorus and the very well-known and beautiful Pearl Fishers' Duet between Zurga and Nadir. Singing that duet in a live show is quite daunting because it is so well known and the audience is invariably expecting great things! Thankfully it seemed to go well as the review from the Bristol Evening Post suggests:
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"...A soaring performance from John Fletcher as Zurga and company debutant Guy Edwards as Nadir tugged at the heartstrings and left the audience - and many of the cast, as they admitted afterwards - in tears."
The role of Leila was split between Katherine Price (now Everett) seen here, and Louise Merrifield. The role of Nourabad was played by Timothy Allen.
Always remember, that boats, when on land, tend to rock when you sit on them!
Nadir and Leila about to escape......but before they do, they need to sing about it; this is opera after all!
I never thought I would need to learn how to tie a turban, but it's a skill that definitely came in handy during the Pearl Fishers.
In this production, we cut the palms of our hands with Zurga's knife before clasping them together in a highly theatrical "blood brothers" gesture!
The Pearl Fishers was staged at the Olympus Theatre, Bristol from 5-8 May 2010.
With Zurga in the background realizing he has lost Leila, the three sing the trio "O Lumiere sainte" (in English for this production). Here, Leila is played by Louise Merrifield.
Leila and Nadir discovered together by the villagers.
I think I'm trying really hard not to corpse at this point during the dress rehearsal. At least John Fletcher (playing Zurga) is managing to keep things together!