Written 12 years before Carmen, The Pearl Fishers, Bizet�s first full-length opera, does much more than foreshadow that well-known masterpiece. New York City Opera's production opens on April 10.
If you had been in the audience at the Th��tre Lyrique in Paris on the night of September 30, 1863, you would have heard the premi�re of the first full-length opera by a 24-year-old composer testing the dangerous waters of the French musical world.
To have expected the public, or even the critics, to grasp even some of these virtues on first hearing might have been unrealistic, and, indeed, Les P�cheurs de perles simply left Paris puzzled. As Herv� Bernard wrote in The Keys to French Opera in the Nineteenth Century, "Bizet� faced major difficulties: his style, rich in color and harmonies, was disconcerting, and his aesthetic vision� resulted in an 'operatic poetry' and depth of expression that the French were slow to understand." The more positive and charitable critics recognized Bizet's talent, but were unable to categorize him or his new work. One even called the young composer a Wagnerian--a remark we find amusing today. Another criticized Bizet for taking a bow after the performance!
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