Last weekend my mother and her husband drove to San Francisco in honor of her birthday. They met me and a few other family members and we all went to see the San Francisco Opera Summer Season production of The Pearl Fishers. This is a very early Georges Bizet opera, about two Ceylon pearl fishers who fall in love with the same woman, a young priestess who must remain virginal in order to ensure there won't be any tsunamis or anything during pearl-fishing season.

I wasn't sure what it was about this girl that made both these fishermen fall in love with her. Which is one of the chief problems of the opera. As I've said, it was an early Bizet work, and it also didn't help we were sitting clear at the top of the balcony, in the "nosebleed" section, a good mile or so from the stage.

In a good love story, the depiction of the lovers comes alive. You feel great empathy. You never have to question what they see in each other, because you "see it," too, right off, and you're enthralled.

Bizet's priestess was said to be exquisitely beautiful. Of course, we never knew--we couldn't really see her--and, anyway, she spent a lot of time wearing a veil. She also had a lovely singing voice, of course. I'm not sure either of these qualities convinced me she was such a catch.
5:39:13 PM    comment []