Chorus of The Pearl Fishers.

Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers at White Rock

Hastings’ finest opera practitioners join together next week to produce what they promise will be a feast for the ears and eyes in a stunning production of Bizet’s popular opera The Pearl Fishers.  This comes hot on the heels of last year’s two triumphant and moving productions: Verdi’s Nabucco and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, writes HOT’s Chris Cormack.

Jenny Miller of Barefoot Opera fame joins as director with Kenneth Roberts of South East Opera and the Sussex Concert Orchestra in this production, which, set in ancient Ceylon, tells a story of two men’s vow of friendship being fraught by their love for the same woman, Leila, who is also torn between her love and her sacred oath as a priestess. Most people visit this opera for its best known aria, the Pearl Fishers Duet (Au fond du temple saint), but go away with their ears ringing from an array of wonderful music, including Leila’s Aria, Nadir’s Aria and a beautiful range of music from the chorus.

Luci Briginshaw (www.lucibriginshaw.co.uk)

Soprano Luci Briginshaw plays Leila, the goddess of the temple and the love interest. During summer 2012, Luci toured nationally with an original production of Martyn Harry’s children’s opera, My Mother Told Me Not To Stare, for which she was principal pianist as well as playing two singing roles; she later joined Bampton Opera for their production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Buxton Opera Festival. She currently studies singing with Raymond Connell and stagecraft with Mandy Demetriou.

Nadir and Zurga, Leila’s suitors, are played by Ian Parrett and Peter Grevatt. Ian Parrett is well known from many choral and operatic performances in Hastings and in opera in Maidstone and Medway. Peter Grevatt has sung many operatic parts near home with the Kentish Opera and in London, but also further afield with the Maggio Musicale in Florence, for instance. The part of Nouraband, high priest of Brahma, is played by Toby Sims.

Some of The Pearl Fishers' cast with Jenny Miller (standing right).

This is Jenny Miller’s first solo project with South East Opera. Jenny and her husband Alan Privett have worked with the opera group on several occasions, most recently on Verdi’s La Traviata and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This time she brings along with her a collaborator on the design of sets and costume, Rachel Whitham, who has a degree in three-dimensional design from Manchester College of Art and Design and also collaborated on sets and costumes with several Longborough Festival Opera productions.

Co-incidentally, Jenny Miller is also participating in Hastings Filmmakers Festival 2013 as her Barefoot Opera production (with Polly Graham) of Handel’s Alcina was transformed into a feature film made with prize-winning local film-maker Nichola Bruce. This project brought together talent from across the arts. Watch out for composer Peter Foggitt‘s  new score which “reimagines” Handel’s music, and the “physical theatre, dance and improvisation” in collaboration with movement coach Evelyn Miller Freebury. International soprano Penelope Randall Davis, mezzo Matilde Wallevik, accordian player Ian Watson, clarinettist Andrew Sparling and cabaret singer Krysia Mansfield are just some of the talents who performed in this project. Alcina, Friday 26 April, 8pm at Christ Church Parish Centre, London Rd, St Leonards, TN34 3ER.

The Pearl Fishers, by Georges Bizet. Sung in English with full orchestra and chorus. April 26 and 27 at 7.30pm at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings.  Tickets (01424 462288) £16 and £12 (concessions £2 off, accompanied children under 16 free), plus booking fee.

See also: How do they do it in Hastings?

Also in: Music & Sound