Les Pêcheurs de Perles is an opera you might think would benefit from being performed in concert. Theatrically, Bizet's Ceylonese drama has a habit of misfiring. Directors, mindful of its exotic locale, have tended to load it with orientalist tropes or self-consciously meaningful symbols – forgetting, perhaps, that it is primarily an examination of muted psychological shifts that works best when the surrounding paraphernalia is minimal.
So the Royal Opera's decision to give the work in concert promised much in terms of exploring its emotional subtleties. In fact, it proved an uneven experience, thanks to inequalities of casting, and occasional indecisions about proportion and scale. Conductor Antonio Pappano thinks of it in bigger, broader terms than we are used to, frequently – and necessarily – reminding us of the sensual colours of Bizet's orchestration, but sometimes lingering with overt fondness over effect. The orchestral sound is consistently glorious, if more suggestive of Italianate fullness than French conciseness.
Vocally, John Osborn and Gerald Finley are a bit mismatched as Nadir and Zurga, the friends whose relationship unravels with the realisation that they love the same woman. Finley's voice has been in better shape, though he pushes himself to his expressive limits to create an entirely credible portrait of a man at once noble and emotionally volatile. In contrast, Osborn is impressively secure in music that lies implacably high, but he is seriously limited in colour and dynamic range. Léïla's ambiguous, hieratic glamour suits Nicole Cabell better than some of her recent roles, while Raymond Aceto is a superb Nourabad, baleful in tone and utterly terrifying in moments of moralistic fury.
