Penny Woolcock’s breathtaking production, a highlight of the 2015–16 season, makes its much awaited return with an all-star cast. Soprano Pretty Yende is the beautiful priestess Leïla, with tenor Javier Camarena and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as rivals for her forbidden love. Emmanuel Villaume conducts Bizet’s sensual score.
French composer Georges Bizet (1838–1875) was known as a brilliant student and prodigy, but his works only found lasting success after his untimely death. His final opera, Carmen, which premiered to very mixed reactions three months before he died, became a hit shortly afterward and is acknowledged today as one of opera’s greatest achievements. Eugène Cormon (1810–1903) was the pen name of Pierre-Étienne Piestre, a French dramatist and prolific librettist. His collaborator on Les Pêcheurs de Perles was Michel Carré (1821–1872), who also co-created the libretti to Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette and the play that formed the basis for Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
PRODUCTION: Penny Woolcock