The Dallas Opera 2021-2022 - The Barber of Seville/The Pearl Fishers

18 THE DALLAS OPERA | 2021/2022 SEASON PHOTO: LYNN LANE/HOUSTON GRAND OPERA There’s a love triangle, with two close friends loving the same woman. Nadir, a fisherman, and Zurga, leader of the pearl fishers, have sworn that, for the sake of their friendship, they’ll forget Leïla, the beautiful Brahmin priestess who had previously enchanted them both. But Leïla and Nadir eventually find each other and declare their love. When they’re discovered together, Zurga’s rage leads him to condemn the two to death. When he realizes that Leïla is the same young woman who had saved his life years before, he then saves her and Nadir, but with catastrophic consequences for himself. In composing for a small cast (only four characters), Bizet wrote for just one dramatic voice: the formidable high priest Nourabad (bass), whose imposing music demands the ultimate in grand-scale singing. The other three principals are lyric voices (soprano, tenor, and baritone). That’s not saying that their music is consistently lightweight; certain moments need a good deal of intensity and vocal thrust. The emphasis, however, is on lyricism, with one glorious melody after another. As Leïla, a soprano can dazzle her listeners with flights of coloratura in the first act, but later she has one of the warmest, most elegant, most lusciously beautiful arias written for a soprano in French opera. Bizet gives Nadir a mesmerizing aria, too, requiring phenomenal breath control from the tenor, with the final phrase including a softly floated high C. Zurga’s soliloquy is a stunner, magnificently expressive and deeply moving. Besides the world-famous “friendship duet” for Zurga and Nadir that has been so crucial to the success of this opera, there are also two other duets—one achingly lovely (the love scene for Nadir and Leïla), the other thrillingly intense (Leïla’s confrontation with Zurga, in which she pleads for Nadir’s life). Each act includes exhilarating choral episodes, including a second-act finale that raises the roof. TDO has assembled a truly exceptional cast. Leïla is Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury, an artist known for her extraordinarily elegant singing and luminous personality. She’s starred all over North America, as well as with such major European companies as London’s Royal Opera, Glyndebourne, and Dutch National Opera. From Paris and Vienna to San Francisco and New York, Texas-born tenor René Barbera (Nadir) is recognized as one of today’s leading lyric tenors. Mexican baritone Alfredo Daza (Zurga), who began his international career when only 21, is a great favorite at the Berlin State Opera, and Morris Robinson (Nourabad), a star of the Met and every other major American company, is one of this country’s most celebrated basses in both operatic and concert repertoire. On the podium, French-Canadian conductor Nicole Paiement will bring the essence of French style to TDO’s production. Onstage—in a production co-directed by Shawna Lucey and Jimmy Smith—audiences are sure to be astonished by the sets and costumes. They’re designed by British fashion icon Zandra Rhodes, who explored Sri Lanka, Madras, and Delhi when doing research for this opera. She’s described her vision as “a bit far from reality with pink palm trees with turquoise trunks.” There are oranges and pinks for Leïla, blues and green for the community of fishermen and women, with everything combining to create a true “fantasyland.” If you want total enchantment, you can’t afford to miss The Pearl Fishers . And, by the way, at the end, it’s absolutely guaranteed that you’ll find yourself walking out of the opera house humming the big tune from “The Duet”! • A writer, lecturer, teacher, and coach, Roger Pines has contributed articles to every major opera-related publication in America, as well as to seven prestigious recording labels. Since 2006 he has appeared annually as a panelist on the Met broadcasts’ “Opera Quiz.”