The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino restarts with Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers"

It is with the exotic charm of the Pearl fishermen (Les pêcheurs de perles) rare and fascinating early work by Georges Bizet, that the Theater of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino reopens its doors after the summer break: the opera, on stage the 16, 19, 21 is September 23, 2025 in the Great Hall, it is presented in the setting designed by the famous filmmaker Wim Wenders, coming from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and presented for the first time in Italy.

The French director steps onto the podium Jérémie Rhorer, making his debut with the Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio, while on stage the vocal cast composed of Hasmik Torosyan in the role of Léila, Javier Camarena in that of Nadir, Lucas Meachem like Zurga and Huigang Liu in the role of Nourabad.

The staging of Wenders, first seen in Berlin in 2017 and now revived by Derek Gimpel, makes use of the scenes of David Regehr, of the costumes of Montserrat Casanova and the lighting design of Olaf Freese, taken from Oscar Frosio, while the dramaturgy is handled by Detlef Giese,

"This work, in my eyes - or rather in my ears - is unjustly underperformed," he explained. Wim Wenders at the Berlin premiere. "My desire was therefore to 'expose' the story as much as possible and to tell it while encouraging the viewer to listen. The audience," the German director emphasized, "shouldn't be reminded of grandiose visual elements, but rather should feel they had 'discovered' Bizet's music, and that it was this that told the story."

The set is spare, dominated by dark projections of the sea, waves, clouds, and palm tree shadows, with wisps of smoke. The costumes are equally restrained, with a single splash of color in the first act, when the chorus dons saffron-yellow robes and red hair.

From a musical point of view, the maestro Jérémie Rhorer He highlighted the connection between Bizet and Italian opera: "In recent years, I have focused on the underestimated relationships between Italian and French music. For example, in The Pearl Fishers, there are many aspects that seem to be found, as in an ideal twin relationship, in several Puccini works: a stimulating aspect, waiting to be explored."