Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run. Set in ancient times on the island of Ceylon, the opera tells the story of how two men's vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same woman, whose own dilemma is the conflict between secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess. The friendship duet "Au fond du temple saint", generally known as "The Pearl Fishers Duet", is one of the best-known in Western opera.
Final scene of act 1 (La Scala, 1886)
From left to right: Giuseppe De Luca (Zurga), Frieda Hempel (Leila) and Enrico Caruso (Nadir), in the New York Met 1916 production
Michel Carré
The Théâtre Lyrique (centre right), Paris, where Les pêcheurs de perles received its first performance on 30 September 1863
Georges Bizet was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.
Bizet photographed by Étienne Carjat (1875)
Part of the Paris Conservatoire, where Bizet studied from 1848 to 1857 (photographed in 2009)
The Villa Medici, the official home of the French Académie in Rome since 1803
The Théâtre Historique in Paris, one of the homes of the Théâtre Lyrique company, pictured in 1862
