Catel/ Santon/ Solamente Naturali/ Musica Flore - Les Bayaderes

A Mozart admirer and music education reformer at the recently opened Paris Conservatoire (1795), Charles-Simon Catel's Les Bayadères (1810), set in India, is an operatic masterpiece that competed successfully with Spontini's La Vestale, then at the height of it's popularity. Tinged with orientalism, it turns the page on Classicism, using new musical and dramatic structures to create emotion. Full of action and excitement, the heroine of the opera, the bayadère Laméa - a 'star' role (then a new concept) - shows remarkable presence. Hector Berlioz was filled with enthusiasm by this work.