About this book
Théophile Gautier’s Sacountala (1858) ballet-pantomime en deux actes, drawn from the Indian drama of Kalidasa, invites listeners into a lush Romantic vision where music, dance, and myth meet. Gautier’s libretto—set to the music of Ernest Reyer and first staged at the Paris Opéra in July 1858 with choreography by Lucien Petipa—retells the tale of Sacountalâ, the child of a sage and a nymph, raised in seclusion and destined to cross paths with King Douchmanta. The work blends pantomime’s expressive gesture with operatic orchestration, evoking themes of love, fate, memory, and the 19th-century European fascination with the exotic East.
As a piece of musical theatre and ballet, Sacountala showcases spectacle: priests, nymphs, apsaras and courtly tableaux unfold through dance passages, vivid stagecraft, and evocative scoring. The adaptation captures both the poetic source and the era’s aesthetic—romantic, theatrical, and richly ornamental—without compromising the mystery at its heart. Ideal for lovers of classical Music, ballet history, and Romantic literature, this audiobook offers a sensory immersion into a historic Parisian production and the timeless drama of destiny and desire.
