About the work
Marius Petipa's „La Bayadère" was premiered in St Petersburg in 1877 and is one of the principal works of the classical Russian ballet, with music by Ludwig Minkus. Sergei Khudekov's libretto stages an Indian tragedy of love and jealousy among a temple dancer (bayadère), a warrior and a princess.
Plot
In ancient India the warrior chieftain Solor loves the temple dancer Nikiya. But the High Brahmin desires Nikiya himself. The Rajah has promised Solor his daughter Gamzatti in marriage. Solor swears Nikiya eternal faithfulness over the sacred flame. Out of jealousy the High Brahmin accuses Solor of breaking his oath before the Rajah — which only hastens Solor's marriage to Gamzatti. At the betrothal celebrations Nikiya must dance. Gamzatti has prepared a basket containing a snake — Nikiya is bitten, refuses the antidote because her love has been betrayed, and dies. The second great act — the famous „Kingdom of the Shades" — shows the opium-dazed Solor in a vision: 32 shade-figures of the bayadère descending. In the third act, during the wedding ceremony, the temple collapses and buries all. Solor and Nikiya's spirit are united in the afterlife.
Cultural significance
La Bayadère is one of the great tutu ballets of the classical-academic repertoire. The „Kingdom of the Shades" with its 32 identical ballerinas descending in a long diagonal is considered one of the most beautiful moments in all ballet. The third (temple-collapse) act was lost in Soviet times and reconstructed by Natalia Makarova for ABT in 1992; many productions today end with the Shades scene. A choreographic touchstone for all later ballet tragedies (from Swan Lake to Onegin).