Good News In History September 30
Good News In History September 30 162 years ago, George Bizet’s famous opera Les Pêcheurs de Perles, The Pearl Fishermen, debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. Set in ancient times on the Island of Sri Lanka, it tells the story of how two men’s vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same woman, whose own dilemma is the conflict between secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess. The friendship duet “Au fond du temple saint,” generally known as “The Pearl Fishers Duet”, is one of the best-known in Western opera. READ a bit more and listen to the duet… (1863) A page from the libretto, 1886, of The Pearl Fishermen from La Scala in Milan – pub domain The Peral Fishermen was, if one can believe it, composed when Bizet was just 25 years old. The opera was not revived in Bizet’s lifetime, but from 1886 onwards it was performed with some regularity in Europe and North America, and from the mid-20th century has entered the repertory of opera houses worldwide. Bizet w…
