Les Bayadères: presentation of the work

Les Bayadères is a rare example in the French repertoire of an opera that assimilates the Mozartian style as a means of toning down the brazenness and sterility of neo-Gluckism. Of course, blazing brass and cymbals are to be heard in the overture, but the contrast between the warlike exoticism of the beginning and the striking grace of the second theme is handled so well that neither the initial fury of the piece, nor its resurgences at other points throughout the work, could be equated with pandemonium.