Lakmé and Mallika's "Flower Duet"

Under the thick dome where the white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On the river bank covered with flowers laughing in the morning
Let us descend together!

Gently floating on its charming risings,
On the river’s current
On the shining waves,
One hand reaches,
Reaches for the bank,
Where the spring sleeps,
And the bird, the bird sings.

Under the thick dome where the white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Under the thick dome where white jasmine
With the roses entwined together
On the river bank covered with flowers laughing in the morning
Let us descend together!

Gently floating on its charming risings,
On the river’s current
On the shining waves,
One hand reaches,
Reaches for the bank,
Where the spring sleeps,
And the bird, the bird sings.

Under the thick dome where the white jasmine
Ah! calling us
Together!

Reference:  English translation of "Flower Duet."

I discovered "Lakmé" two to three years ago; watched this performance by mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and soprano Anna Netrebko; and meant, as I remember now, to write a song poem on their famous "Flower Duet."  I simply bookmarked a couple of sites, and hadn't yet written that poem.

In the drama's first act, with the plot barely underway, the title character [Lakmé] and one of her servants [Mallika] pause by a river to gather flowers. Delibes gave them a duet, to help establish the opera's exotic atmosphere, and that "Flower Duet" (audio) has become one of the most familiar numbers any composer, in any genre, has ever written. You can hear it at the movies, on television shows, in elevators and shopping malls, and in all manner of commercials. Recently, it became a sort of TV theme song for British Airways ads, as the peaceful accompaniment to a jetliner floating through calm skies and wispy clouds. You can even download the number as a ringtone for your cell phone.

Reference:  "Lakmé," by Leo Delibes.

I flew British Airways quite a lot, when I was traveling overseas on consulting projects, and that theme song was such an evocative one for me.  What traveling meant to me - the people and places, the hotels and restaurants, the culture and language - floated in when I saw their commercials.  

French composer Leo Delibes scored a hit with his 1883 opera "Lakmé"

The story of the Brahmin girl Lakmé was based on a novel by Frenchman Pierre Loti, who had traveled in the Orient and brought back stories filled with exoticism. Librettist Edmond Gondinet suggested the story to composer Leo Delibes. Gondinet wanted to write a libretto specifically for a young American soprano named Marie van Zandt who had starred in another French opera, Ambroise Thomas's Mignon, in 1880. Gondinet gave Delibes a copy of Loti's novel, to read on a train ride, and Delibes loved it. He composed the score in a year's time.

Lakmé brings together many popular themes of opera in the 1880s: an exotic location — already in vogue thanks to Bizet's The Pearl Fishers — mysterious religious rituals, the beautiful flora of the Orient, and the general novelty of Western colonials living in a foreign land. Composers Jules Massenet and Giacomo Meyerbeer wrote operas with similar elements, and those dramas were also popular in Paris.

Someday I will write that song poem.  Someday I will watch this opera.