CHAPTER VII

"LAKME"


Lakme is the daughter of Nilakantha, a fanatical Brahmin priest,
who has withdrawn to a ruined temple deep in an Indian forest. In
his retreat the old man nurses his wrath against the British
invader, prays assiduously to Brahma (thus contributing a
fascinating Oriental mood to the opening of the opera), and waits
for the time to come when he shall be able to wreak his revenge on
the despoilers of his country. Lakme sings Oriental duets with her
slave, Mallika:--

Sous le dome epais ou le blanc jasmin
A la rose s'assemble,
Sur la rive en fleurs, riant au matin
Viens, descendons ensemble--


a dreamy, sense-ensnaring, hypnotic barcarole. The opera opens
well; by this time the composer has carried us deep into the
jungle. The Occident is rude: Gerald, an English officer, breaks
through a bamboo fence and makes love to Lakme, who, though widely
separated from her operatic colleagues from an ethnological point
of view like Elsa and Senta, to expedite the action requites the
passion instanter. After the Englishman is gone the father returns
and, with an Oriental's cunning which does him credit, deduces from