The Pearl Fishers

I have long adored the duet in The Pearl Fishers and finally got to see the opera in Seattle. I hadn't realized that the duet is repeatedly heard throughout the opera. Andrea Bocelli & Bryn Terfel sing the Pearl Fishers duet from Les Pecheurs de perles.

Click here to listen to the duet.

"Au fond du temple saint"
from The Pearl Fishers (Les Pêcheurs de Perles)
Music by Georges Bizet
Libretto in French by Michel Carré and Eugène Cormon

Scene: The coast of Ceylon. Zurga, the newly elected leader of the little world of Cingalese fishermen, has scarcely been inaugurated when Nadir, a long-lost friend of his youth, appears. After greeting one another with affection, they recall the time when they were foolish enough to quarrel over a beautiful priestess in the temple of Brahma, Leila.

In the duet, "Au fond du temple saint" the two men sing rapturously about falling in love at first sight with a beautiful woman as she was revealed to them for an instant in the dim, incense-clouded temple. For each it was an almost mystical experience. When they realize they were in love with the same woman, they are alarmed. Believing themselves cured of the old infatuation, they swear eternal friendship.

Here's the duet as translated into English:

BRYN
It was in the evening!
In the air cooled by a breeze,
The brahmanes with faces flooded with light,
Slowly called the crowd to prayer!

ANDREA
At the back of the holy temple,
decorated with flowers and gold,
A woman appears!
BRYN
A woman appears!
ANDREA
I can still see her!
BRYN
I can still see her!

ANDREA
The prostrate crowd
looks at her amazed
and murmurs under its breath:
look, this is the goddess
looming up in the shadow
and holding out her arms to us.

BRYN
Her veil parts slightly.
What a vision! What a dream!
The crowd is kneeling.

BRYN & ANDREA
Yes, it is she!
It is the goddess,
more charming and more beautiful.
Yes, it is she!
It is the goddess
who has come down among us.
Her veil has parted and the crowd is kneeling.

ANDREA
But through the crowd
she makes her way.

BRYN
Already her long veil
hides her face from us.

ANDREA
My eyes, alas!
Seek her in vain!

BRYN
She flees!

ANDREA
She flees!
But what is this strange flame
which is suddenly kindled in my soul!

BRYN
What unknown fire is destroying me?

ANDREA
Your hand pushes mine away!

BRYN
Your hand pushes mine away!

ANDREA
Love takes our hearts by storm
and turns us into enemies!

BRYN
No, let nothing part us!

ANDREA
No, nothing!

BRYN
Let nothing part us!

ANDREA
No, nothing!

BRYN
Let us swear to remain friends!
ANDREA
Let us swear to remain friends!
BRYN
Let us swear to remain friends!

BRYN & ANDREA
Oh yes, let us swear to remain friends!
Yes, it is her, the goddess,
who comes to unite us this day.
And, faithful to my promise,
I wish to cherish you like a brother!
It is her, the goddess,
who comes to unite us this day!
Yes, let us share the same fate,
let us be united until death!