Bizet's the Pearl Fishers--Les Pêcheurs de Perles (PDF)

Bizet had completed his studies. Prodigiously talented, young, wild, opinionated, he was considered 'too big for his boots'.
Les Pêcheurs de Perles, premièred in September, 1863 (twelve years before Carmen), was his first opera commission and is particularly remembered for the duet Au fond du temple saint. Set in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), it is full of romantic and oriental exoticism
But the libretto is banal, although written by two experienced librettists, Carré and Cormon. The opera was attacked by the critics.
A virgin is customarily recruited to sit in isolation and pray while pearl fishing takes place. Sometime earlier, the fishermen's leader, Zurga and his companion Nadir, had both fallen in love with a beautiful priestess, who they saw emerging from a temple. Their solution was for them to swear that they would both give her up for ever.
The virgin turns out to be the priestess. Nadir, who had already secretly broken his vow, is discovered with her. Zurga is furious and calls for their sacrifice. But he relents. To divert the others, and give the couple the chance to flee, he burns the village. He is sacrificed in their stead.
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