“The Pearl Fishers represents opera as ritual, rather than opera as drama,” Mauceri said. “Like Parsifal, Aida, The Magic Flute, and Fidelio, it treats the audience much like a congregation and takes it on a journey of redemptive action in an exotic locale.

“This opera’s unique ingredients are not merely its foreignness and the beauty of Bizet’s music,” continued the renowned American conductor. “It is the fundamental empathy for the human condition that makes Pearl Fishers so attractive and moving. All the oaths sworn by the three protagonists must be broken to achieve a higher resolution and transformation. That, above all, is the unique nature of this extraordinary opera.”

The cast includes soprano Nicole Cabell, baritone Nathan Gunn and tenor Eric Cutler.

For more information, visit the Lyric Opera’s website at www.lyricopera.org.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. For more information, visit www.ncarts.edu.