24 August * Saturday * 2019 (6.00 pm)
TOUR PERFORMANCES
of the Karaganda Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy
EMMERICH KALMAN
DIE BAJADERE
An Operetta in 2 Acts
Libretto by Elena Ezerskaya
The performance was premiered on 30 August 2003.
PRODUCTION GROUP
Music Director and Conductor: Valentin Bogdanov
Director: Lyudmila Naletova (Moscow, Russia)
Production Designer: Tatiana Spasolomskaya (Moscow, Russia)
Choreographer: Marina Lepilina (Moscow, Russia)
Chief Chorus Master: Tatiana Shtykova
BACKGROUND
Die Bajadere, one of the most famous operettas of Kalman, was first staged in Vienna in 1921. It owes its origin to the European fashion style advancing all exotic, in particular, Indian. Along with the Hungarian rhythms typical of Kalman, the elements of jazz, rhythmics of the Boston Waltz, Shimmy and other dances of American origin penetrate the music of Die Bajadere.
SYNOPSIS
Odette, a bajadere, falls head over heels in love with the Indian Prince Radjami, who is ready for her sake to sacrifice even the ancient law prohibiting the Lahore princes to marry foreign women. But the Prince relinquishes the throne. Odette decides to make a huge sacrifice: after the engagement has been announced, she keeps up the charade and turns everything into a joke. Radjami is about to leave, Odette has left the stage. The lovers’ hearts are broken. But suddenly the permission to marry is received. Everyone is happy.
Emmerich Kalman’s charming melodies make audiences immersed in the world of the East, where reality and dream, spicy aromas of orchids and barbed words of condemnation, the charm of love and the everydayness of the world around, magical transformations and unexpected surprises merge. But the finale is beautiful and bright, as always happens in operetta. The famous aphorism: "What woman wants, God wants" becomes the metaphor of the whole action.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes