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 "slug": "flower-duet-epzx07s12w",
 "title": "Flower Duet",
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 "excerpt": "The Flower Duet (\"Sous le dôme épais\") is the Act I duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano from Delibes's 1883 opera Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and Mallika gathering flowers by a river, and famous from British Airways advertising since the 1980s.",
 "snippet": "The Flower Duet (\"Sous le dôme épais\") is the Act I duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano from Delibes's 1883 opera Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and Mallika gathering flowers by a river, and famous from British Airways advertising since the 1980s.",
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 "markdown": "# Flower Duet\n\nThe **Flower Duet** (French: \"Sous le dôme épais\") is a soprano and mezzo-soprano duet from Act I of Léo Delibes's 1883 opera *Lakmé*, sung by the Brahmin priest's daughter Lakmé and her servant Mallika as they go down to a river to gather flowers. It is one of the most widely recognized pieces of French operatic music, known today less through the opera itself than through decades of use in advertising and film.\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Source | Act I, No. 2 of *Lakmé*, an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes, libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille after Pierre Loti's *Rarahu ou Le Mariage de Loti*<sup>[1](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)</sup> |\n| Voices | Lakmé, soprano, and Mallika, her slave/servant, mezzo-soprano<sup>[1](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)</sup> |\n| Premiere | 14 April 1883 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris<sup>[2](https://emf.regroupement-rcms.org/nhmf-1883/)</sup> |\n| Dramatic content | The two women go to gather flowers by the river and sing about jasmine, roses, and the white lotus on the water<sup>[3](https://www.cedillerecords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/181-Booklet.pdf)</sup> |\n| Best-known modern use | British Airways advertising from the 1980s onward; the airline also uses it as boarding music<sup>[4](https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/news/06052021/we-all-have-something-that-makes-us-fly.-for-us-its-you)</sup> |\n\n## The music\n\nThe duet is a number from the first act of *Lakmé*, set in British-ruled India in the mid-nineteenth century. Lakmé and Mallika prepare to bathe in a river, paying homage to the white jasmine, roses, and other flowers along the bank<sup>[3](https://www.cedillerecords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/181-Booklet.pdf)</sup>. The text, sung in French, opens with Lakmé calling \"Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleurs jettent déjà leur ombre sur le ruisseau sacré\" (\"Come, Mallika, the flowering vines already cast their shadow on the sacred stream\")<sup>[3](https://www.cedillerecords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/181-Booklet.pdf)</sup>. Nothing dramatic happens during the number; the two voices sing about the beauty of the river, the flowers, and their friendship<sup>[5](https://www.iamla.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IAMLA-Opera-Cirricula-Rev-04-24.pdf)</sup>.\n\nMusically, the duet is written for two female voices moving mostly in parallel thirds and sixths over a regularly arpeggiated accompaniment<sup>[6](https://pianostax.com/es/partituras/delibes-blumenduett)</sup>. The Classic Note describes the texture as a soprano and a mezzo-soprano in parallel thirds over a gentle 6/8 in [B major](https://www.edgepedia.org/b-major), with the full duet running about six minutes<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup>. The opening refrain, the section advertisers actually use, is the stretch where the harmony barely moves: the voices double each other a third apart while the orchestra rocks underneath<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup>.\n\nThe composer and arranger Howard Blake recorded it with his own orchestra for the film, and it was Scott who then brought it to [British Airways](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-airways)<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup>.\n\n**British Airways.** The airline's 2021 press release for its \"You Make Us Fly\" campaign states that the Flower Duet first featured in British Airways advertising over 40 years earlier and is still used as the airline's boarding music<sup>[4](https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/news/06052021/we-all-have-something-that-makes-us-fly.-for-us-its-you)</sup>. Sources differ on the first date: a study of BA's commercials states the piece has been the airline's theme tune since 1983<sup>[8](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/464265/1/770857.pdf)</sup>, London Air Travel's history series dates the first use to 1984<sup>[9](https://londonairtravel.com/category/british-airways/ba100/)</sup>, and Classic FM dates it to the 1989 advert<sup>[10](https://www.classicfm.com/composers/delibes/music/lakme/)</sup>. The Classic Note traces the first BA use to Howard Blake's arrangement recorded at CTS Studios on 31 March 1984 for the \"Wider Seats\" commercial, sung by sopranos Elaine Barry and Judith Pearce<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup>.\n\nThe 1989 \"Face\" advert, in which a crowd on a salt flat forms a winking face, used an adaptation called \"Aria\" by Yanni and [Malcolm McLaren](https://www.edgepedia.org/malcolm-mclaren), sung by Monalisa Young<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup>. When BA revealed a revised corporate identity in June 1997, the Flower Duet survived the redesign with only a handful of visual signifiers changed<sup>[8](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/464265/1/770857.pdf)</sup>; Dave Stewart remixed it for that year's \"The world is closer than you think\" campaign<sup>[9](https://londonairtravel.com/category/british-airways/ba100/)</sup>. BA's own press release for the 6 May 2021 campaign described the piece as still the boarding music<sup>[4](https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/news/06052021/we-all-have-something-that-makes-us-fly.-for-us-its-you)</sup>. Musicologists studying the commercials note that BA's agency commissioned new arrangements repeatedly, so what identifies the brand is not one fixed recording but the melodic features that remain constant through the transformations<sup>[8](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/464265/1/770857.pdf)</sup>.\n\n**Broader popular culture.** Beyond the airline, the duet has been heard in films including *True Romance*, *Carlito's Way*, and *Meet the Parents*, and in television shows including *The Simpsons*<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[10](https://www.classicfm.com/composers/delibes/music/lakme/)</sup>. Advertisers have used it well outside its original context; one study notes that a jam commercial set to \"Viens, Mallika!\" could not coherently reference the opera's plot, since in the opera Lakmé ultimately kills herself by eating a poisonous flower<sup>[11](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-62312-7_12)</sup>. The duet's reach can change lives: the South African soprano Pretty Yende, at age 16, heard the British Airways commercial, asked her teacher what the music was, and decided on the spot to become an opera singer<sup>[12](https://www.stereophile.com/content/dreaming-pretty-yende)</sup>.\n\n## Notable recordings\n\n [Joan Sutherland](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-sutherland)'s 1967 Decca recording with Jane Berbié, under Richard Bonynge with the orchestra of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, is frequently cited as the big-voiced reference<sup>[13](https://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2009/Sept09/Duets_4802594.htm)</sup>. The Classic Note recommends the 1998 EMI complete *Lakmé* with Natalie Dessay and Delphine Haidan under Michel Plasson for the whole opera, and Sabine Devieilhe and Marianne Crebassa with Les Siècles on the 2017 Erato album *Mirages* as the recording closest to an 1883 sound<sup>[7](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[14](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/16/sabine-devieilhe-mirages-cd-review-tharaud-les-siecles-roth-erato)</sup>. Pairings such as [Sutherland](https://www.edgepedia.org/sutherland) and Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, Anna Netrebko and Elīna Garanča, and Devieilhe and Crebassa have kept the duet in the concert repertoire<sup>[15](https://cdn.epoch.cloud/editions/2023/WEEK_25/2023_W25_ArtsAndCulture.pdf)</sup>.\n\n## The opera behind the duet\n\n*Lakmé* was composed between 1881 and 1883 in Paris and premiered on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra-Comique, where it was an immediate success<sup>[1](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[16](https://www.opera-comique.com/fr/spectacles/lakme)</sup>. The opera was created for the American soprano Marie Van Zandt, whose success as Mignon led the director Léon Carvalho to offer Delibes and his librettists a role written for her<sup>[16](https://www.opera-comique.com/fr/spectacles/lakme)</sup>. The story combines [Pierre Loti](https://www.edgepedia.org/pierre-loti)'s novel *Le Mariage de Loti* (1880) with Théodore Pavie's tale *Les Babouches du Brahmane*, about a Brahmin humiliated by an Englishman<sup>[16](https://www.opera-comique.com/fr/spectacles/lakme)</sup>.\n\nIn the plot, Lakmé's love for the English officer Gérald is doomed; when she realizes he may leave to rejoin his regiment, she poisons herself by eating a poisonous flower and dies in his arms<sup>[1](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://www.iamla.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IAMLA-Opera-Cirricula-Rev-04-24.pdf)</sup>. The opera's other famous number, the virtuosic \"Air des clochettes\" (Bell Song), is sung by Lakmé in Act II<sup>[1](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)</sup>. *Lakmé* ranks among the most performed French operas worldwide<sup>[16](https://www.opera-comique.com/fr/spectacles/lakme)</sup>, though its popular standing owes much to the Flower Duet: before its advertising career, much of Delibes's score was described as having been virtually forgotten apart from the Bell Song<sup>[17](https://gsmd.academia.edu/Departments/Production_Arts/Documents)</sup>.\n\n## References\n\n1. [Lakmé de Léo Delibes, Edutheque, Philharmonie de Paris](https://edutheque.philharmoniedeparis.fr/0766955-lakme-de-leo-delibes.aspx?_lg=fr-FR)\n2. [Lakmé, genre et orientalisme (Steven Huebner), Nouvelle Histoire de la Musique en France 1870–1950](https://emf.regroupement-rcms.org/nhmf-1883/)\n3. [Cedille Records booklet: Flower Duet from Lakmé](https://www.cedillerecords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/181-Booklet.pdf)\n4. [British Airways press release, 6 May 2021](https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/news/06052021/we-all-have-something-that-makes-us-fly.-for-us-its-you)\n5. [What Is Opera? (featured opera: Lakmé), IAMLA](https://www.iamla.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IAMLA-Opera-Cirricula-Rev-04-24.pdf)\n6. [Flower Duet (Lakmé): piano score page, pianostax](https://pianostax.com/es/partituras/delibes-blumenduett)\n7. [Classical Music Used in British Airways Adverts, Traced to 1984, The Classic Note](https://theclassicnote.com/classical-music-used-in-british-airways-advert/)\n8. [Music and Meaning in the British Airways Commercials, University of Southampton eprints](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/464265/1/770857.pdf)\n9. [BA100: 10. \"The Flower Duet\" Léo Delibes, London Air Travel](https://londonairtravel.com/category/british-airways/ba100/)\n10. [Léo Delibes: Lakmé, Classic FM](https://www.classicfm.com/composers/delibes/music/lakme/)\n11. [Advertising chapter (Darbo jam / \"Viens, Mallika!\"), Springer](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-62312-7_12)\n12. [Dreaming with Pretty Yende, Stereophone/Stereophile](https://www.stereophile.com/content/dreaming-pretty-yende)\n13. [Review: Duets 4802594, MusicWeb International](https://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2009/Sept09/Duets_4802594.htm)\n14. [Sabine Devieilhe: Mirages CD review, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/16/sabine-devieilhe-mirages-cd-review-tharaud-les-siecles-roth-erato)\n15. [The 'Flower Duet' from the opera 'Lakmé', Epoch Week 25 2023 Arts and Culture](https://cdn.epoch.cloud/editions/2023/WEEK_25/2023_W25_ArtsAndCulture.pdf)\n16. [Lakmé à l'Opéra-Comique, program note by Agnès Terrier](https://www.opera-comique.com/fr/spectacles/lakme)\n17. [Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Production Arts documents](https://gsmd.academia.edu/Departments/Production_Arts/Documents)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Art song, lieder, and song cycles*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "The Flower Duet is the Act I duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano from Delibes's 1883 opera Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and Mallika gathering flowers by a river, and famous from British Airways advertising since the 1980s."
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