"Die Bajadere" is one of Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...

's polkas, Op. 351. A bajadere was a temple dancer in the European vision of legendary India being popularized by the first translations of Indian classic literature into European languages. The European view melded all the world east of Suez into an exotic locale. The themes of "Die Bajadere" were drawn from the score of Strauss's first operetta, Indigo und die Vierzig Räuber

Indigo und die vierzig Räuber

Indigo und die vierzig Räuber is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II, with a German libretto by Maximilian Steiner based on the tale "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights....

("Indigo and the Forty Thieves"), loosely based on the Arabian Nights, which premiered in 1871 at the Theater an der Wien

Theater an der Wien

The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

'Die Bajadere' begins in the key of A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

 and has two complete sections in the same key before a brief Intrada heralds the Trio section of the work. The Trio section, in D major

D major

D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....

 is heavily accented in the 1st part but is more lyrical in the second. After a general repeat of the same A major 1st part and its successive 2nd one, the polka proceeds into a frenzy, heavily-chorded phrase with an abrupt conclusion, all in the home key.

The work has been performed at the Neujahrskonzert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

The Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra in Austria, regularly considered one of the finest in the world....

 as recently as for the 2005 edition conducted by Lorin Maazel

Lorin Maazel

Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...

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Marius Petipa

Marius Petipa

Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....

's ballet La Bayadère premiered at the Maryinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg,February 4, 1877.