{"id":168,"date":"2021-03-12T16:46:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/?p=168"},"modified":"2021-03-12T16:46:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:46:12","slug":"lakme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/lakme\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakm\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lakm\u00e9 is a beautiful opera set in late 19th century India during the British colonial rule. During this time the Hindus had to practice their religion in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I this opera, the Hindus go to perform their rights in the sacred Brahmin temple under the priest, Nilakantha. The priest&#8217;s daughter, Lakm\u00e9, and her servant, Mallika, are left to gather flowers from the river. Lakm\u00e9 removes her jewelry as they approach the river bank and puts it on a bench. Then, they sing the famous &#8220;Flower Duet&#8221; as they gather flowers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Flower Duet (Lakm\u00e9)\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8Qx2lMaMsl8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While Lakm\u00e9 and Nilakantha are busy, two British officers and two British girls with their governesses arrive for a picnic. The girls see the jewelry and want the officers to sketch it. The officer, G\u00e9rald, volunteers to stay behind and sketch the jewelry. When he sees Lakm\u00e9 and Nilakantha returning, he hides. Nilakantha leaves Lakm\u00e9 for a minute and Lakm\u00e9 discovers G\u00e9rald. At first, she is frightened and calls for help, but, then, she decides that she is more curious than frightened and sends the people who have come to her aid away. Upon getting to know one another, G\u00e9rald and Lakm\u00e9 end up falling in love. When the priest discovers that Lakm\u00e9 is in love with the general he vows to avenge her honor. They force Lakm\u00e9 to sing a song (Bell Song) at the bazaar to lure G\u00e9rald out into the open.:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Bell song - Lyrics\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/18n5q1hCouA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When he steps forward, Lakm\u00e9 faints, exposing him. The priest stabs and wounds him and Lakm\u00e9 takes him to her secret hide out in the forest and nurses him back to health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Lakm\u00e9 goes to retrieve the sacred water to confirm their marriage vows, G\u00e9rald is visited by a fellow British officer who reminds him of his vows. Lakm\u00e9 notices the change in G\u00e9rald when she returns, and rather than live with dishonor she poisons and kills herself by eating the Datura leaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I never knew that these two pretty songs were about gathering flowers and luring a man to his death in a lovely, tropical, enchanted area of India. What a fantastic setting! Listening to operas can really open your eyes to a different world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakm\u00e9 is a beautiful opera set in late 19th century India during the British colonial rule. During this time the Hindus had to practice their religion in secret. I this opera, the Hindus go to perform their rights in the sacred Brahmin temple under the priest, Nilakantha. The priest&#8217;s daughter, Lakm\u00e9, and her servant, Mallika,&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more navbutton\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/lakme\/\">Read More<i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[],"tags":[102,36,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1322,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/1322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.smoth.net\/Krystal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}