Bedtime Stories: La Bayadére (The Temple Dancer)
Welcome to exotic India, the land of fakirs, high priests and mysteries! Our heroes this time (we can discuss how heroic they are later) are the Bayadére, or Temple Dancer Nikiya, and her boyfriend, the holy warrior Solor. They have sworn eternal love and fidelity to one another over a sacred fire by the temple where Nikiya live and serves. Everything is in perfect order… Or wait a minute. The High Brahmin, the leader of the temple priests, is also in love with Nikiya. She is in no position to turn him down, making the situation a little more complex. When the high Brahmin also finds out about her relationship with the warrior Solor, the love-triangle is a fact.
Paloma Hererra as Nikiya
In the meantime, Solor has some issues of his own. The Rajah (a royalty) Dugmanta of Golconda has selected Solor to be the fiancé of his daughter Gamzatti. As Nikiya, Solor is also unable to decline the offer, as the Rajah is a powerful man. He set’s up a betrothal celebration to make the marriage a fact. Nikiya is asked to dance at the celebration, and unknowing that it is her beloved Solor who is the fiancé, she agrees.
Back in the temple, the jealous High Brahmin is plotting on how to have Nikiya all by himself. Blinded by jealousy, he goes to the Rajah, and tells him that Solor already has sworn his love to Nikiya over the sacred fire, hoping this will have the Rajah kill Solor. The plan backfires when the Rajah vows that it is the Bayadére that must die.
His daughter, Gamzatti, has been earsdropping to this conversation, and invites Nikiya to the palace, hoping to bribe her into giving up her beloved warrior. Nikiya gets furious by the offer, and picks up a dagger, thriving it at the Rajahs daughter. She is not successful, though, as Gamzatti’s maid stops her in the final second. In horror of what she almost did, Nikiya flees the palace. Gamzatti, now her sworn enemy, vows, as did her father, that Nikiya must die.
The day comes when it is time for Solor and Gamzatti to confirm their engagement. Nikiya sadly performs a somber dance, fulfilling her duty as a temple dancer. After it, she is given a basket of flowers. Thinking it is from Solor, she begins to dance of joy. Little does she know, the basket contains a venomous snake, put there by Gamzatti and her father, the Rajah. Holding the basket to her chest, the snake jumps out and bites Nikiya in her neck. As the mortal poison spreads through her body, Nikiya realizes she has been betrayed. The High Brahmin, in an attempt to save the girl he is so in love with, offers her an antidote. Nikiya sakes Solor to be with her. When he is unable to say yes, Nikiya chooses death rather than to live without her Solor.
In the next scene, we see the depressed Solor smoking opium (the indian way of drowning your sorrows, I guess). He goes to sleep, and in wakes up in a nirvana in the himalayas called the kingdom of shades. Here, he meets the ghost (or shade, in this story) of his beloved Nikiya’s spirit, and they dance among the shades of other Bayadéres, all suffering terrible fates like Nikiya’s. When Solor awakes from his dream, it is already time for his wedding with Gamzatti (time flies when you’re doing drugs).
The kingdom of the Shades
During the wedding, Solor is haunted by Nikiya’s shade. When the High Brahmin joins the couple in marriage, the Gods of old India takes revenge for Nikiya’s murder. The temple collapses over the wedding, killing everyone inside.
In a last scene, the shades of Nikiya and Solor are reunited and flies off to the sky, heading to the Himalaya’s.
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Read my interview with a great Solor, Matthew Golding
Searching for India – facts about Bayadére
Bayadére was first staged in St. Petersburg, at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre – not to be mistaken with the famous Bolshoi theatre of Moscow. The choreography was by Russian Marius Petipa, set to music by the Austrian (though living great part of his life in Russia) composer Ludwig Minkus, also known for his great Don Quixote score. So far, a great, all-Indian line-up, in other words.
The origins of the story are rather obscure, since Mr. Petipa claimed harshly that he was the sole author of the ballets libretto. Since no-one objected (I guess they loved their jobs too much), there is no evidence to dispute this, and he is credited with the title of author. So no immediate Indian interference here either.
The ballet was created especially for the benefit performance of Ekaterina Vazem, a Prima ballerina of the St. Petersburg imperial theaters. The ballet performances of the 19th century in Russia was dominated by foreign ballerinas like Marie Taglioni and her likes, something the Czar wasn’t to pleased with. The Russian Vazem, apparently a technical virtuoso, worked her way up through the ranks of the Imperial Ballet, and was finally appointed a Prima Ballerina somewhere mid 19th century. The American dream was very much alive in old Imperial Russia as well! The now famous Vazem danced the first role of Nikiya, nevertheless, and the critics of the time was well pleased with her debut. I am quite sure the fact that the Czar just recently made her a star, and that they would probably lose their head if they stated otherwise had no influence on their discernment.
Fact is, there is nothing Indian to the ballet at all. It could have been set anywhere in the world, but Petipa (or whoever actually wrote it) chose India, and so it is today. Fashion claimed ballets to be melodramatic and exotic at the time, and with this in mind, I have to agree that India is a great place to set the tale. But make no mistakes, it is not an Indian ballet.
Ekaterina Vazem costumed as Nikiya for Act II of La Bayadère, created especially for the benefit performance of Vazem, the “Prima ballerina of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres”. St. Petersburg, 1877.
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Until next time, Ta-ta
H
