Neither Philip Hope-Wallace nor AB could work up much enthusiasm for this recording of Les pecheurs de perles on its previous appearances, and regrettably I have to agree with them. Its chief merit is Ernest Blanc's commanding presence and noble voice in the role of the pearl-fishers' king Zurga; but Nicolai Gedda's performance is routine and lacking in subtlety, only at moments does Janine Micheau recall the bright security that had once characterized her singing; and it would be generous to call the chorus mediocre. The alternative EMI recording (5/78—LP only) featuring Vanzo and Cotrubas is not only a better performance (though I have a still softer spot for the 1953 Simoneau/Alarie team on Philips—nla), but is of Bizet's original score, which has different endings to ''Au fond du temple saint'', ''Je crois entendre'' and the Zurga/Leila duet and is without that musically dreadful and dramatically inept trio at the end of the last act.
The main interest in this set is likely to lie in the extracts from a rarity—Bizet's very next opera, Ivan IV. Apart from the serenade for the young Bulgarian, ''Ouvre tes yeux'' (which Bizet lifted from his ode-symphony Vasco da Gama), these will probably be unknown to almost everyone, though those familiar with La jolie fille de Perth will prick up their ears at the first duet here. Like Les pecheurs, this melodramatic opera is heavily influenced by Gounod and Meyerbeer, but nevertheless it contains some music far too good to ignore—particularly the scena for the heroine (Micheau in radiant voice here), the vengeance aria by her brother (that admirable artist Henri Legay—who, incidentally, was the tenor in the old mono Cluytens/Columbia recording of Les pecheurs—5/55, nla) and their duet. The chorus and orchestra are nothing to write home about, but the magnificent voice of Pierre Savignol makes one sit up: did he never record again, and if not why not? EMI seem to show little interest in promoting this release: they provide nothing in the way of background notes or text for Ivan IV, only a quite inadequate and wildly inaccurate synopsis (it isn't Marie and Igor who are led to the scaffold but Yorloff); and though the LPs of Les pecheurs included a translation of the libretto, it has been dropped for this CD issue.'