★★★★☆ Good ideas, good voices and great conducting help a rum old story.

This review was originally published on January 17, 2016.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
January 15, 2016

It’s fair to say that The Pearlfishers has had a chequered history. By the time his magnum opus Carmen caught the popular imagination, the composer had been dead a couple of years and looked set to become one of classical music’s one hit wonders. Written 12 years earlier, Les Pêcheurs de Perles was the 25-year-old Bizet’s first opera since winning the prestigious Prix de Rome. The public seemed to like it, as did Berlioz (always a fair guide), but the majority of the snooty Parisian critics pooh-poohed it for a range of solecisms: the plot was lame; it was too Wagnerian; Bizet had a nerve taking a bow on stage etc. etc. Caruso’s appearance as Nadir at the Met in 1916 (check the cast photo – still one of the silliest ever!) was part of a gradual revival in the opera’s fortunes. Nowadays, though still a relative rarity, it does get a major outing every decade of so and Opera Australia have long been fans – this is their...