The Pearl Fishers is a 1963 Australian television production based on the opera Les pêcheurs de perles by Georges Bizet.
[1] It was filmed in Sydney at the ABC's Gore Hill studios and marked the one hundredth anniversary of the first performance of the opera.
[3] Keene and Jackson appear in the production, but not McDonald; Edward Brayshaw mimes and lip-synchs the role of Nadir.
[2] The critic from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that, "it may be that producer William Stirling doubted that the music could hold the viewers' interest should the action flag for a moment, for his sets were distractingly cluttered up at times.
The flames in which Ronal Jackson expired at the end of the opera were a further innovation; such an impressively elaborate production obviously cried out for colour television.