Director
Rudolf Nureyev

Performers
Solor : Laurent Hilaire
Nikiya : Isabelle Guérin
Gamzatti : Elizabeth Platel


This exceptional and critically acclaimed production of La Bayadere, recorded in high definition at the Palais Garnier, is the fully restored version of the ballet, under Rudolf Nureyev's marvellous leadership and choreography.

Exotic and mysterious India serves as the background to this story of doomed love between the warrior Solor (Laurent Hilaire) and the bayadere, Nikiya (Isabelle Guérin), who is killed by her jealous rival, Gamzatti (Elizabeth Platel).

For Nureyev's own version, his last work before his tragic death in 1993, he returned to Petipa's notes and Minkus's score. Breathtaking sets and costumes, inspired by the exotic east, are designed by Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino.

Here is the plot in brief.

The 'bayadère', or 'temple dancer', of the title is Nikiya. She is in love with Solor, a noble warrior, who (as ever in these things) is already betrothed - to Gamzatti, the daughter of the Rajah. After various triangular machinations, Nikiya dances at the betrothal celebrations of Gamzatti and Solor, and is bitten by a lethal snake hidden in a basket of flowers - sent by the Rajah and Gamzatti. Solor has a hallucinatory and elusive vision of Nikiya, repeated at his wedding ceremony. The gods, infuriated by the killing of Nikiya, destroy the temple and everyone in it, and the spirits of Nikiya and Solor are reunited in eternal love.