THE SUN GOES OUT

Act I is about to end. We have left our dejected Nikiya fleeing from Gamzatti, and Solor imprisoned by doubts. It is the moment of a necessary pause with this invitation to the poet Kalidasa’s own hope:

For yesterday is but a dream.
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived,
Makes yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day…
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

(Look to this day)