LAKMÉ Comic Quintet
from Seattle Opera Podcasts Hosted by Seattle Opera
LAKMÉ Act One is set in a Hindu temple in nineteenth-century India. After all the locals exit, five dopey British explorers blunder in—two sisters, their soldier fiancés, and the sisters’ governess (who should probably be played by Maggie Smith). The five of them sing a lively quintet speculating on whether men and women are any different in the East than they are in the West. Composer Léo Delibes had written many opéras-bouffes, in the comic style of Offenbach, and originally composed LAKMÉ for the Opéra Comique, where this kind of scene was de rigeur. A bonus here was an excuse for the French to make fun of the English. In 2002 Patrick Fournillier conducted the Seattle Opera orchestra and Vinson Cole (Gérard), Kurt Ollmann (Frédéric), Nathalie Morais (Ellen), Ellen McLain (Rose), and Rosemary Alvino (Miss Bentson).
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