I, too, Linn. That duet from "The Pearl Fishers" has to be one of the true gems of opera.

Seattle Opera did "The Pearl Fishers" a couple of seasons ago, but, worse luck, I wasn't able to go. I did hear the full length opera once, played one evening on a local classical music station. One thing that struck me about the opera was the uncommon genius of George Bizet, most famous for his opera "Carmen." "The Pearl Fishers" takes place in Ceylon (now, Sri Lanka), and two of the pearl fishers fall in love at first with a Brahman priestess they see "in the depths of the temple." They have a falling out over her, then, realizing that, as a priestess, neither can have her. Then, they swear eternal friendship in the famous duet.

It turns out, however, that. . . .

To me, one of the ingenious things about the musical score of "The Pearl Fishers" is that, here we are with men who make their living out of the sea and with the sea itself ever-present. Almost all of the music in the opera has a sort of "undulating" quality to it. It permeates the entire opera. Like the ever-present waves of the sea. Kind of subtle, but there! Amazing piece of work! Bravo, Bizet!

Another tenor-baritone duet that I find stirring it the one in Verdi's "Don Carlo."

This duet is in the opera's second act. Don Carlo, son of Spain's King Philip II, is desolate over the fact that the woman he loves is now married to his father!   Carlo's friend Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa, has just returned from Flanders. He asks Prince Carlo to help him ease the oppression and suffering of the Flemish people. Carlo reveals his secret: that he is in love with his stepmother, whom he met and fell in love with before her arranged marriage to his father. Rodrigo advises him to leave Spain and to go to Flanders. The two men vow to be friends forever in the duet Dio, "Dio, che nell' alma infondere" and strive for the freedom of the Flemish people.

Stirring!

Don Firth