Bizet: Les Pêcheurs De Perles – Diana Damrau

   in Opera Now (Mar, 2017)
Penny Woolcock’s production of Les pêcheurs de perles was first seen at English National Opera before transferring to the Metropolitan Opera in New York (filmed there in 2016). She sets the opera in a contemporary shantytown by the sea, which is both blessing and threat to the community. It’s a good-looking production, traditionalists need have no fear, but the opera itself fizzles out, and there’s nothing much Woolcock can do about it. Diana Damrau limns a delicate Leïla, Matthew Polenzani sings an immaculately refined Nadir, and Mariusz Kwiecien is a sturdy Zurga. Gianandrea Noseda marshals his excellent forces with sensitivity. …