This second revival of Penny Woolcock’s 2010 production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera made a strong visual impression but left much else to be desired. Its opening tableau of pearl divers in action is striking – and gorgeously lit, in Jennifer Schriever’s designs. Dick Bird’s sets conjure an exotic backdrop of quaintly dilapidated shacks and creaking boats. Kevin Pollard’s costumes have the women in saris and the men in a sartorial mishmash: suits for managerial fishermen, harem pants or priest smocks for the rest. The dreadlocks, headscarves and face paint might once have been described as “tribal”.
In the production’s only real show of self-consciousness about its own reheated Orientalism, act one’s shantytown sports a large billboard, riffing on the cliches of mid-market perfume ads to promote the location’s “inspiration from the deep”. There wasn’t, alas, much of that in evidence in this performance.
Musically, the best moments are the noisy set pieces – the chorus navigating the sometimes clunky English translation enthusiastically enough, the orchestra under Roland Böer producing quasi-Wagnerian heft. But elsewhere I missed the delicate colours of Bizet’s orchestration and his sheer melodic suavity – even the celebrated friendship duet was wooden.
Ultimately, this was due to a casting problem. Claudia Boyle (Leïla) settled after a shaky first act but lacked the effortless coloratura needed; Robert McPherson (Nadir) failed to persuade in a difficult part; Jacques Imbrailo (Zurga) was touching but underpowered. Only James Creswell (Nourabad) matched the vocal authority demanded by his role. We have to hope that ENO can do better.
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