First performance in Bulgaria - 19 October 2012, Sofia Opera and Ballet

Staged by Pavel Stalinsky, conducted by Grigor Palikarov.

First performance in Ruse - 17 June 2021

Director's version and staging - Kalina Bogoeva, Scenography - Ivan Tokadzhiev, Costumes - Yana Dvoretska, Artistic Director - Vesela Vassileva, Ballet Master - Mariana Zaharieva

Main characters:
Nicia
Solor
Gamsati
High Priest
Raja
Golden God
Priestesses of the Temple

Short content

First act

First scene

Nikiya is the high priestess of the temple. She is the object of the high priest's affections, but is wholly devoted to her love for Solor, the warrior-hero of the land. Her love is shared. The happiness of the two lovers is bright and boundless. Solor swears before the gods eternal fealty to his beloved.

The high priest cannot bear this and, deeply hurt and offended, vows to punish Nikiya severely for her courage in rejecting his feelings.

Second scene

In the palace of the all-powerful ruler of the country. He prepares to present his daughter Gamzatti to Solor, whom he has chosen as her husband. The high priest informs him of the love between Nikiya and Solor. In his anger, the lord condemns Nikiya to death. He imperiously insists and solemnly decrees his daughter's coupling with Solor. Solor is miserable because he is powerless to resist the all-powerful lord.

Third scene

The lavish wedding of Gamsati and Solor. She is infinitely happy. She is unaware of the tragedy she and everyone else is about to witness. Only her father and the high priest know that Nikkiya will die.

Nicia is instructed to bless the newlyweds, and she does so while expressing her deep sorrow at Solor's betrayal.

A poisonous snake is hidden in the basket of flowers and it burrows into Nikki. Nikki is terrified, begging for help. The high priest tries to force his love on her, offering to save her. Nikiya refuses. Without the love but Solor, she does not want to live. Everyone is shocked, and Solor is broken because he realizes the extent of his betrayal to true love.

Second act

Solor suffers deeply. For him, life has stopped. Weary with grief and remorse, he reaches out to his beloved with all his soul, feeling her invisible presence. She appears before his hazy consciousness, and he runs in the rush of his feelings after that image, seeing the shadows descending from the heights of heaven. Nikia comes to him. Their dance is filled with tenderness and sadness, with love. Nicia is but a fleshless shadow, and soon she is gone to the celestial realms.

Solor remains alone, broken, having lost the meaning of his life.

The cruelty of self-love and the power of omnipotence have condemned a pure love to death.

Aloysius Ludwig Minkus (1826-1917) is an Austrian ballet composer, virtuoso violinist and conductor. In Russia he was initially invited as concertmaster of Prince Yusupov's house orchestra. Later, attracted by the management of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg, he remained living and working in Russia for many years.

He is primarily known for his work as a composer of ballet music. During his long career he worked with the famous ballet master Marius Petipa (1818-1910), who choreographed many of his works. Their long artistic collaboration contributed significantly to the development and worldwide recognition of the Russian school of ballet. Among Minkus's best-known works are the ballets Le Rouge (1866) (in collaboration with the composer Leo Delibes), Don Quixote (1869), Camargo (1872) and La Bayadère (1877). He is the author of 16 ballets and numerous adaptations of existing ballet works.

La Bayadère, set to the music of Ludwig Minkus, features classical choreography by French balletmaster Marius Petipa to a libretto by Russian librettist Sergei Khudekov. It premiered at the Stone Theatre in St Petersburg on 23 January 1877.