Les indes galantes

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Work data
Title: Les indes galantes
Original title: Les indes galantes
Frontispiece of the 1736 edition

Frontispiece of the 1736 edition

Shape: Ballet opera
Original language: French
Music: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Libretto : Louis Fuzelier
Premiere: August 23, 1735
Place of premiere: Académie royale de musique , Paris
Playing time: about 3 hours
people
  • Huascar (bass)
  • Phani (soprano)
  • Don Carlos (Haute-Contre)
  • Tacmas (Haute-Contre)
  • Ali (baritone)
  • Zaïre (soprano)
  • Fatima (soprano)
  • Adario ( tenor )
  • Damon (Haute-Contre)
  • Don Alvaro (bass)
  • Zima (soprano)

Priests, officers, soldiers, overseers, guards, traders, prisoners, slaves, people

Les Indes galantes is the first of a total of six ballet operas ( opéra-ballet ) by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau . It contains a prologue and four entrées (elevators). The libretto is by Louis Fuzelier (1672–1752). The opera was almost completely forgotten in the 19th century, but is today again considered to be the composer's most famous stage work.

history

The premiere of Les Indes galantes took place on August 23, 1735 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris. At that time the work only contained the first two acts, after which a third part was added to the third performance and a fourth part to a further performance on March 10, 1736. This relative freedom in structure is based on the character of the ballet opera. In contrast to an ordinary opera, the focus here is less on a coherent plot than on a spectacular staging with sumptuous costumes, surprising effects of the stage machinery and above all on the dances .

Within French opera , the genre of ballet opera was invented by André Campra , whose work L'Europe galante (“The galant Europe”), with love stories from France, Spain, Italy and Turkey, premiered in 1697. Rameau extends the horizon in his work, whereby "Les Indes" does not mean today's India. Rather, different forms of gallant love are demonstrated in “ exotic ” countries. Rameau's ballet opera takes audiences to Turkey , Peru , Persia and the Indians of North America .

The work was initially successful, was valued by contemporaries such as Montéclair and saw numerous performances in the 18th century. But soon after the death of Louis XV. it fell into oblivion for centuries. It was not until 1925 that it was partially performed in the Opéra-Comique , edited by Paul Dukas . From 1952 the work was performed in the Opéra Garnier , was performed in the Royal Opera in the Palace of Versailles in 1957 and has been staged several times since then. By Gérard Souzay , there is a recording of the Canticle of Huascar from the third lift.

content

An extensive French overture in G major in the style of Jean-Baptiste Lully is followed by a prologue . An idyllic musette under the guidance of Hebe (soprano), the goddess of youth, is interrupted by trumpet fanfares announcing the appearance of the goddess of war Bellone (bass, travesty role ). Amor (soprano, trouser role ) sends the choir and ballet to distant countries to explore the forms of love there.

In the first act, “The Magnanimous Turk” ( Le Turc généreux ), the Christian Emilie resists the advances of Pasha Osman, since her heart belongs to Valère. In a sea storm, he washes ashore and enslaved. There is a dramatic encounter between him and Osman, but the latter renounces Emilie and gives his rival freedom.

The second act "The Incas in Peru" ( Les Incas au Pérou ) is set in a Peruvian desert, with an initially calm volcano in the background. Huascar (bass), Inka - High Priest of the Sun, secretly coveted the princess Phani (soprano), but she is the lover of the Spanish officer and conquistador Don Carlos (Haute-contre). The musical and dramatic climax is the great festival of the sun, in which Huascar initially laments the destruction of the sun temples by the Spanish conquistadors: "Soleil, on a détruit tes superbes asiles" ( sun, your noble sanctuaries have been destroyed ). The lively middle section “Brillant soleil” ( Radiant sun ) is followed by “Clair flambeau du monde” ( Light torch of the world ). Rameau composes this moving sun song as a slow rondeau , which Huascar intoned in A major and repeated as a refrain by the choir . But the high priest is doomed to humiliation and death: he loses the princess to his rival and is killed by a boulder after an earthquake and a volcanic eruption.

The third act again offers a story of jealousy, this time in Persia, between Prince Tacmas (haute-contre), his favorite Ali (baritone) and the two sopranos Zaïre and Fatima. Everything dissolves into love, however, and this part ends with songs and dances on the occasion of a flower festival in Ali's garden.

The fourth act takes place in the forests of the New World and shows the clashes between French-Spanish troops and North American Indians, who are referred to here as "The Wild" ( Les Sauvages ). Here, too, a happy ending is planned: after a lively peace dance “Forêts paisibles” ( Peaceful Forests ), the music of which is taken from Rameau's Pièces de clavecin from 1728, and two minuets , the work closes with a chaconne .

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ The others are Les Fêtes d'Hébé , Les Fêtes de Polymnie , Le Temple de la Gloire , Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour , Les Surprises de l'Amour .
  2. ↑ François-René tranche Fort: L'Opéra , Editions du Seuil, 1983, ISBN 2-02-006574-6 ), p 68
  3. ↑ a b Les Indes Galantes on operabaroque.fr (French), accessed on January 22, 2015.

literature

  • François-René Tranchefort: L'opéra , Volume 1: D'Orfeo à Tristan, Paris, Seuil, collection “Points Musique”, 1978, ISBN 2-02-005020-X , pp. 90–92

Web links