The Pearl Fishers, Santa Fe Opera, August 10 2012

Pearl Fishers is rare enough; how fortunate to be able to see it twice in one year! There are four productions in the US this year; Santa Fe and San Jose account for two of them. One measure of its (undeserved) obscurity is the fact that the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera each count exactly one production in their histories. And this was Santa Fe Opera’s first production.

For the first (and last) time this week, the director took full advantage of the open-to-the-rear stage. In three of the previous operas the view to the mountains beyond was completely blocked by the set; in Tosca, much of the view was blocked by the dome of the Sant’Andrea della Valle lying on is side. Here the back of the stage was completely open. The stage was divided into two sections. Upstage was (presumably) traditional Ceylonese architecture, with stone walls right and left, each with a large opening. On the right, to the rear, was a stone sculpture of a gigantic foot.

Dividing downstage from upstage was a gigantic gold picture frame, as wide and tall as the entire set. Downstage the walls to the left and right were said to be typical of French Colonial architecture, with walls built from carved panels. I heard some attempt at an explanation of such a divided stage, the idea being to contrast the traditional Ceylonese culture with the imposed colonial culture—although it was a British crown colony. Perhaps they chose French Colonial in recognition of the French librettists and composer. But I didn’t get the point, particularly since the singers moved freely between the two worlds; the picture frame and a step down from upstage to downstage merely got in their way.

One particularly effective bit of staging came at the opening of the third act. At the end of the second act, Leïla has broken her promise to Zurga to live pure, chaste, friendless, without husband or lover, by having a long love duet with Nadir. Well, Brahma is not happy with this, and the orchestra calls up a big storm. As act 3 opened, upstage was littered with shattered fishing boats and dead bodies, testifying to the violence of the storm. And when Leïla and Nadir are about to be burned at the stake, the fuel for the fire was supplied by those shattered fishing boats. Very effective.

Earlier, at the beginning of act 1, the stage director had addressed the issue of why Zurga tells the pearl fishers that they need to choose a leader. What happened to the old leader? Was there one? Were the pearl fishers living in anarchy until Zurga stepped forward? The librettists are famously quoted as having said, if we’d known the music was going to be this good, we’d have spent more time on the libretto. So what Santa Fe did was to bring on the body of the old king, and let the queen mourn over it. Meanwhile the dancing at the beginning was suppressed, and they even changed the word “dance” to “sing.”

Our cast: 
Leïla: Nicole Cabell
Nadir: Eric Cutler
Zurga: Christopher Magiera
Nourabad: Wayne Tigges
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Director: Lee Blakely

 Both of the lovers sang exceedingly well; I am particularly looking forward to hearing Cabell again as Giulietta in San Francisco’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi later this fall. Magiera simply didn’t have the projective power; he seemed out of place next to those two.  Tigges performed well without dominating his scenes. The orchestra played magnificently under their French conductor. Definitely the best experience of the entire week in Santa Fe—a strong beta.