Lakmé

Whether it’s Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah, or Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, 19th-century opera—particularly French opera—found inspiration in stories and sounds inspired by far-flung locales. Where Bizet and Massenet led, Delibes soon followed. Set in India during the British Raj, his opera Lakmé (1883) explores forbidden love across colonial lines. Brahmin priest Nilakantha rages against the British invaders, and is horrified to discover that his daughter Lakmé has fallen in love with British officer Gerald. The Brahmin’s anger turns to violence, but his revenge ends not in the death of his enemy, but in the death of his daughter. Eastern-style scales and bright orchestral colours collide with the precision of Western military marches to create a vivid musical conflict. Inevitably it’s the East that gives us the opera’s greatest hits: Lakmé’s heady, incantatory “Bell Song” (Où va la jeune Hindoue), the lushness of Act I’s “Flower Duet” (Dôme épais) and the atmospheric music for Act II’s market scene.