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Cast
Davide Garattini Raimondi — Stage director
Paolo Vitale — Set designer, lighting
Giada Masi — Costumes
Barbara Palumbo — Choreographer
Jodie Devos — Lakmé
Philippe Talbot — Gérald
Lionel Lhote — Nilakantha
Pierre Doyen — Frédéric
Marion Lebègue — Mallika
Julie Mossay — Ellen
Caroline de Mahieu — Rose
Sarah Laulan — Mistress Bentson
Pierre Romainville — Hadji
Benoît Delvaux — Le Kouravar
Xavier Petithan — Chinese merchant
Benoît Scheuren — Fortune teller
Program notes
Delibes's legendary opera like you've never seen it before—and for the first time on medici.tv! Marvel at the first act's sublimely beautiful "Flower Duet" performed by Jodie Devos as Lakmé and Marion Lebègue as Mallika, and the iconic "Bell Song" in the second act, a longtime favorite aria for coloratura sopranos like Devos—all in a vividly colorful staging by Davide Garattini Raimondi at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège. Though Delibes, like many of his contemporaries, has been criticized for trafficking in exoticism, his score remains as lush and irresistible as ever—and Raimondi's 2022 staging grapples with the complex and troubling legacy of colonialism in India through striking imagery and the use of excerpts from speeches by Mahatma Gandhi. Frédéric Chaslin leads the world-class house orchestra and chorus, while Devos and Lebègue join an all-star vocal cast that includes baritone Lionel Lhote as Lakmé's father, the Brahmin priest Nilakantha, and tenor Philippe Talbot as British officer Gérald, who falls in love with Lakmé.
