{"id":3392,"date":"2003-08-28T11:04:53","date_gmt":"2003-08-28T01:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/?post_type=project&p=3392"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:09:09","slug":"the-pearl-fishers-2003","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/?project=the-pearl-fishers-2003","title":{"rendered":"The Pearl Fishers (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This version of The Pearl Fishers is set in classical Ceylon in a community of pearl fishermen…but the story is universal: the king and his friend make the fatal mistake of falling in love with the same girl, a priestess named Leila.<\/p>\n

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Production Details<\/h1>\n

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Dates<\/span>:
August 28 – September 7th, 2003.
<\/span>Venue:<\/span>
Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne.
<\/span><\/p>\n

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Composer: Georges Bizet.
Conductor: Greg Hocking & John Dingle.
Director: Plamen Kartaloff<\/p>\n

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Following the sold-out triumph of La Traviata<\/a> in June 2003, Melbourne Opera\u2019s next production was a brand new production of Bizet\u2019s ever-popular The Pearlfishers. This was the first Australian performance of Bizet\u2019s original version of 1863.<\/p>\n

Sung in English, The Pearl Fishers features some of the best loved music in all opera, including the memorable duet In the depths of the temple, Leila\u2019s aria, and the magnificent Brahma chorus.<\/p>\n

This new production was directed by Plamen Kartaloff, designed by Kaoru Alfonso, conducted by John Dingle and Greg Hocking, and featured the acclaimed 45-voice Melbourne Opera Chorus and Orchestra along with a cast of extraordinary Australian singers.<\/p>\n

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Cast<\/h1>\n

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Cast:<\/div>\n
Leila <\/span>\u2014 Ebony Hack & Elena Xanthoudakis<\/div>\n
Nadir <\/span>\u2014 James Egglestone & Stephen Smith<\/div>\n
Zurga <\/span>\u2014 Roger Howell & Manfred Pohlenz<\/div>\n
Nourabad <\/span>\u2014 Piers Bray, Tim Daly & David Gould<\/div>\n

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CHORUS <\/span>\u00a0<\/div>\n
Jacob Caine<\/div>\n
Rebecca Crabtree<\/div>\n
Peter Donnelly<\/div>\n
Brendan Egan<\/div>\n
Marie Finne<\/div>\n
Peter Grant<\/div>\n
Sue Halls<\/div>\n
John Handley<\/div>\n
Kathy Hatton<\/div>\n
Mark Henderson<\/div>\n
Fatih Karakas<\/div>\n
Seija Knight<\/div>\n
Alex McCutcheon<\/div>\n
Helena Nicolaou<\/div>\n
Bernard Nolan <\/span>Bryan O’Connell<\/div>\n
Josh Perillo<\/div>\n
Rodney Phillips<\/div>\n
Taso Psychoulas<\/div>\n
Kylie Purcell<\/div>\n
Robert Ratcliffe<\/div>\n
Camila Rivera<\/div>\n
Sue Robertson<\/div>\n
Roland Seidl<\/div>\n
Katrina Soucoultanos<\/div>\n
Rachel Sztanski<\/div>\n
Erica Taylor<\/div>\n
Lynda Watkins<\/div>\n
Cecily Woodberry<\/div>\n
David Woodberry<\/div>\n

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Melbourne Opera gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our sponsors.<\/p>\n

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This version of The Pearl Fishers is set in classical Ceylon in a community of pearl fishermen…but the story is universal: the king and his friend make the fatal mistake of falling in love with the same girl, a priestess named Leila.Production DetailsDates:August 28 – September 7th, 2003.Venue:Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne.Composer: Georges Bizet.Conductor: Greg Hocking & […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_wds_title":"","_wds_metadesc":"","_wds_focus-keywords":"","_wds_meta-robots-adv":"","_wds_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_wds_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_wds_meta-robots-index":false,"_wds_meta-robots-follow":false,"_wds_autolinks-exclude":false,"_wds_canonical":"","_wds_redirect":"","_wds_opengraph":[],"_wds_twitter":[],"wds_primary_project_category":0,"footnotes":""},"project_category":[63,29],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-3392","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-2003-to-2010","project_category-past-production"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/project\/3392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/project\/3392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8903,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/project\/3392\/revisions\/8903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproject_category&post=3392"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melbourneopera.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproject_tag&post=3392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}