pearl fishers @ lyric opera

Last night, my personal Lyric season kicked off with Bizet's rarely performed Pearl Fishers, starring Nicole Cabell, Nathan Gunn and Eric Cutler. We were in NEW subscription seats, having moved from the upper balcony to the back of the first balcony. Way hey hey, movin' on up... Our neighbors were much better behaved, thankfully and we are conveniently located close to an aisle at the back of the balcony, making intermission escapes and after show dashes to the parking lot much more speedy.

So, anyway, Pearl Fishers... very very beautiful music, and well, plenty of opera hunks running around half clothed. Nathan Gunn cut a powerful figure as Zurga who conveniently was crowned king at the opening of the opera. It was very relaxed though, he was all, "We have to choose a leader" and everyone else was like "How about... you?" If only things could really be decided so easily. Anyway, then his friend the tenor shows up and they kind of relive old times through the one famous duet from this opera, and they vow to never let chicks get in the way of their BFF-hood. Bros before hos, yo. And then... you'll never guess what happens... a girl gets between them! The high priestess who is supposed to pray to keep everyone safe while they're diving for pearls has a thing for Nadir (the BFF) and they become secret lovahs for about half of a scene. Then the high priest catches them and sentences them to death. Quel dommage and sacre bleu. Their fate is in the hands of Zurga who's jealous of the secret relationship (he seems more upset over the loss of Nadir than the loss of the girl, whom he also secretly loved, but whatever). She comes to plead for Nadir's life, but it backfires and it just makes Big Z more angry.

In the end though, he goes and sets fire to the pearl fisher's camp and creates a ruse for the lovahs to escape - there's a bit of a plot twist where he discovers that Leila (the priestess) once saved his life so he pays her back by saving hers. Big Z is in trouble for sure, and the head priest shows up at the very end with a scythe... blackout and curtain falls.

So yeah. It got good at the end, but was a little slow going the rest of the time. The music, as I said, was gorgeous, and all three lead singers were wonderful. At the beginning, they announced that Nicole had a cold but would sing for us anyway (yay!) She sounded wonderful.

In two weeks... Natalie Dessay in Manon...