Christina Scheppelmann, artistic director at Liceu, commented on the text in the programme of Les pêcheurs de perles, that the opera’s plot is ‘naive and old fashioned’, and considered that ‘it is hard for this story to be emotionally touching’. Later, in regards to the work of stage director Lotte de Beer, who situates her version of this opera in a reality show, Scheppelmann wrote that Beer’s work manages to ‘make the story work from...