When a certain Count Walewski established a stipend for a new three-act opera by a recent Prix de Rome laureate, León Carvalho, director of the Theâtre Lyrique, commissioned the libretto for a new opera before he even knew who would be chosen as the composer. As a result, Cormon and Carré started to work on an opera, Leïla, to be set in Mexico.
Eventually, Bizet was selected as the recipient of the stipend. He was then working on another opera, La guzla de l'emir, but he dropped that to take on the more prestigious assignment. La guzla was never finished. The music has been lost, but Bizet used some of it in The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles). He worked steadily during the summer in spite of the advice he received from his fellow composer and mentor, Charles Gounod. He constantly reminded the young man of the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. It was better to go slowly and get it right the first time than to go too fast and have to make extensive revisions.
Meanwhile, the French Emperor Napoleon III withdrew his support from Maximilian, the Austrian Emperor of Mexico. Taking the hint, the locale for the opera was changed from Mexico to the more 'exotic' Ceylon, but Leïla remained the title until two weeks before the opening.
The story gave a good deal of trouble. While it was original, the tale of the virgin priestess who forsakes her vows had already been told in Bellini's Norma and Spontini's La Vestale. The libretto was not completely finished until a few days before the première; the librettists, who apparently did not hear any of the music before the final orchestra rehearsals, could not agree on the ending. In despair, Carvalho is said to have exclaimed, "Throw it on the fire!". This gave them the idea for the fire in the third act. Then the opening had to be delayed for a month because the soprano was sick.
The opera finally played for 18 performances, but although admired by both Berlioz and Halévy, it was not well received by the critics who characterized the libretto as poor, the music as quite good. Cormon and Carré said that if they had realized Bizet's talent, they would have written a better book. Bizet himself said it was, "A failure in short, honorable and brilliant,...but nevertheless a failure". Still, the story is told of the composer Saint-Saëns trying to go to Bizet's house one day. When he couldn't find it he started loudly to sing Nadir's aria Je crois entendre until its composer heard it and came to his rescue.
The Pearl Fishers did not reappear until 1886 after Bizet's death. Meanwhile the original orchestral score had been lost. The vocal score was the only reliable source. So the changes started! Cuts and additions were made; some of the music used was by not even by Bizet. There are now several versions of the ending. The San Diego production is as close to the original as possible.