THE BITE

We reach one of the highlights of the play: Aya, Gamzatti’s servant, gives Nikiya a flower crown assuring that it’s a present from Solor. But nothing is, again, what it seems. From its inside out comes, unseen, the deadly snake whose bite will finish with Nikita and her lover’s dreams on this world for good. Aw, the poor bayadère! Aw, evil Gamzatti! (Act I, scene III)