No Pole in the Pearl

Mariusz Kwicien is withdrawing from the rest of the run of The Pearl Fishers at the Met, after having made it through the first act of the most recent three. Says the press release:

Alexander Birch Elliott will sing Zurga in all remaining performances of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, replacing Mariusz Kwiecien, who has withdrawn due to illness.

American baritone Alexander Birch Elliott made his Met debut earlier this season, stepping in as Zurga for the second act of the performances on November 14, 17, and 20. Other recent performances include the title role of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Anthony in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd at Portland Opera, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at Opera Omaha, and John Brooke in Mark Adamo’s Little Women at Annapolis Opera. This season, he will sing Belcore in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore at Virginia Opera and Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One at Portland Opera.

The cast for Les Pêcheurs de Perles includes Pretty Yende and Amanda Woodbury as Leïla, Javier Camarena as Nadir, and Nicolas Testé and Raymond Aceto as Nourabad. Emmanuel Villaume conducts.

Performances of Les Pêcheurs de Perles began on November 14, 2018 and continue through December 8, 2018.