The "pearl" of the show, though, is El-Khoury's Leila. Pearl Fishers marks El-Khoury's Dallas Opera debut, and we should be so lucky to see her at the Winspear again in future productions. Her soprano has a haunting richness to it, the kind of bittersweet tone that makes Leila's arias particularly sympathetic and dramatic, but she switches between barely whispered prayers to pained declarations of love with such ease and authenticity that emphasizes the character's own tortured psyche. – Broadway World
