A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bayaderes

BAYADERES, dancing girls attached to the Hindoo temples. The nature of their profession may be inferred from Goethe's Ballad 'Der Gott und die Bajadere,' which forms the groundwork of Catel's opera 'Les Bayadères,'^[1] and of Auber's opera-ballet 'Le Dieu et la Bayadère.' They are a prominent feature in Spohr's 'Jessonda.'

1. For an amusing anecdote connected with this opera and with the dislike of Napoleon I to loud music see Clement, 'Dictionnaire Lyrique,' p. 376.