SongFlowerDuet

About the Story

Nilakantha, a fanatical Brahmin priest, nurses his hate of those who have
forbidden him to practise his religion. He attends a gathering of the faithful, leaving
his daughter Lakmé, and Millika, her servant, at the temple. They prepare to bathe
and Lakmé removes her jewelry and leaves it on a bench. Gerald, Frederic, two
young English girls, and their governess are on a picnic. They break through the
bamboo fence that surrounds the temple. The girls are warned that many of the
flowers present in the area are poisonous. When Frederic reminds them that the
group's presence in the garden is an unforgiveable sacrilege for the Hindus, Ellen
finds the jewels Lakmé removed when she went to bathe. Gerald insists on staying
behind to draw the jewels, promising that he will have copies made for Ellen to
wear on their wedding day. When Lakmé and Millika return, he hides. Millika goes
off leaving Lakmé alone. She spots Gerald and cries in alarm. She tells Gerald to
forget he ever saw her, but Gerald is captivated by Lakmé. When Nilakantha
returns, he realizes the garden has been desecrated, and swears vengeance.

In order to identify the intruder, Nilakantha forces Lakmé to sing at the bazaar. To
his fury, no one answers to her singing. He bids her to continue. When Gerald
appears, she faints in his arms. Knowing Gerald is the culprit, the priest plots
against him. When the plan is put into play, Gerald is stabbed but, he is only
slightly injured. Hadji, servant of Nilakantha, helps Lakmé to remove Gerald to her
secret hiding place.

Lakmé tends Gerald in her hut in the forest. Far off is the sound of singing. She
tells him it is a band of lovers come to drink of the sacred spring whose waters
confer the gift of eternal love. She presses him to drink magical water that will
ensure the couple eternal love. Gerald hesitates, torn between his love for her and
his duty to his regiment. A claim further pressed by his fellow officer Frederic, who
appears when Lakmé leaves to fetch the water. Lakmé notes a change in Gerald
when she returns. She tears a leaf off of the fatal datura tree and bites it. As she is
dying, they drink from the water of the sacred river. Nilakantha comes in. Lakmé
tells him of the drink she and her lover shared from the sacred river and dies.

Under a dome of white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On a river bank covered with
flowers laughing in the morning

Gently floating on
it's charming risings
On the river's current
On the shining waves
One hand reaches
Reaches for the bank
Where the spring sleeps and
The birds, the birds sing.

Under a dome of white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Under a dome of white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On a river bank covered with
flowers laughing in the morning
Let us descend together
Gently floating on
it's charming risings,
On the river's current
On the shining waves,
One hand reaches,
Reaches for the bank,
Where the spring sleeps,
And the birds, the birds sing.

Under a dome of white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Sous le dôme épais
où le blanc jasmin
A la rose s'assemble
Sur la rive en fleurs
riant au matin

Doucement glissons De son
flot charmant
Suivons le courant fuyant
Dans l'onde frémissante
D'une main nonchalante
Viens, gagnons le bord,
Où la source dort et
L'oiseau, l'oiseau chante.

Sous le dôme épais ou le
blanc jasmin,
Ah! descendons
Ensemble!

Sous le dôme épais
où le blanc jasmin
A la rose s'assemble
Sur la rive en fleurs
riant au matin
Viens, descendons ensemble

Doucement glissons de
son flot charmant,
Suivons le courant fuyant
Dans l'onde frémissante
D'une main nonchalante
Viens, gagnons le bord
Où la source dort et
L'oiseau, l'oiseau chante.

Sous le dôme épais
ou le blanc jasmin,
Ah! descendons
Ensemble!

Cultures collide, generations are at war and lovers fall irresistibly,
helplessly and hopelessly in love. Feel the heady love and crushing
despair in this passionate opera, and relish one of opera's greatest
show-stoppers, Lakmé's transcendent 'Flower Duet.'

Lakmé is the story of the ill-fated love between Lakmé, the daughter
of the Brahmin priest Nilakantha who is bitterly opposed to the
English occupation, and Gerald, an English officer who unwittingly
enters sacred ground.