Cast
Ana Quintans Hébé, Zima
Emmanuelle de Negri Emilie Phani
Julie Roset Amour
Philippe Talbot Valère, Carlos, Damon
Alexandre Duhamel Huascar
Edwin Crossley-Mercer Bellone, Don Alvar
Guillaume Andrieux Osman, Adario
La Chapelle Harmonique
Valentin Tournet Musical conductor
Presentation
If Rameau only gave the full measure of his talent for stage music in the second part of his life (his first opera was created when he was more than fifty!), he took the opera-ballet genre to unknown heights with his second composition Les Indes Galantes (1753). Campra introduced the opera-ballet format with Europa Galante; Rameau composed his work in four entrées or divertimentos, which take the spectator to Persia, to the Peru Incas, to Turkey and even to American natives, following the amorous adventures of these exotic nations… Of course, the creation was designed with an abundance of decors and machines, but above all it revealed Rameau’s remarkable talent for writing dance music, which is the very core of the composition, taking French tradition to new heights…with the Peace Pipe dance that has become as famous as the Turkish dance of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme.
When Queen Elisabeth II came to Versailles in 1957, she saw one of the first full revival of the work in the Opera Royal. There is little chance that the British sovereign will see young Valentin Touret making his debuts in “French style opera”; however, he will certainly put all his heart in Rameau as there is no doubt that the talent he has shown recently – in Bach notably – give all their colours and energy to these excellent Indes Galantes…
PROGRAMME
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
Les Indes Galantes
Opera-ballet in one prologue and five acts on a libretto by Louis Fuzelier, created in 1735 in Paris.
Version of 1761 with a prologue and three acts.
Show in French with surtitles in French and English
Royal Opera
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