Les pêcheurs de perles

Léon Carvalho commissioned Les pêcheurs de perles from Bizet under a scheme obliging the Théâtre Lyrique to stage a work by a Prix de Rome winner; it opened on 30 September 1863, when the composer was twenty-four, and ran for eighteen performances. The press was largely hostile. Berlioz was the exception, writing that the score contained a considerable number of fine expressive pieces. The opera was not revived in France during Bizet's lifetime; the duet Au fond du temple saint kept his name in circulation long before the rest of the work returned.