Les Indes galantes
Opéra-ballet in a prologue and four entrées
Libretto by Louis Fuzelier
First performance: Académie Royale de Musique et Danse, Paris, August 23, 1735
Cast
Prologue
Hébé, soprano
Bellone, baritone
L'Amour, soprano
1e Entrée - Le turc généreux (The Generous Turk)
Osman, baritone
Émilie, soprano
Valère, haute-contre
2e Entrée - Les Incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru)
Huascar, baritone
Phani, soprano
Don Carlos, haute-contre
3e Entrée - Les fleurs (The Flowers)
Tacmas, haute-contre
Ali, baritone
Zaire, soprano
Fatime, soprano
4e Entrée - Les sauvages (The Savages)
Adario, tenor/baritone
Damon, haute-contre
Don Alvar, baritone
Zima, soprano
Orchestra
2 flutes (double on piccolos), 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, timpani, 2 musettes, strings, continuo
(percussion ad libitum)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Rameau's second opera, the opera-ballet Les Indes galante, was premiered in 1735, two years after he had astonished the musical world of Paris with his first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie. For a man who was best known at the time as a music theorist -- much music theory that is taught in conservatories today is based on Rameau -- this was a startling debut. Connoisseurs realized that this newcomer to the opera scene might well prove to be the greatest French opera composer since Lully more than a half century earlier. One leading composer of the day, André Campra, remarked that "this man will eclipse us all" and that the profusion and density of Rameau's musical ideas made enough music for ten operas.
But for the public, the music was difficult. Rameau's inventive harmonies and many novelties were criticized as being noisy and jarring. One critic wrote that "Nature has no share in it . . . It is a road of constant jolts." But, like a great deal of shockingly modern music, it came to be accepted as it became more familiar. Louis de Cahusac, who would later become Rameau's librettist, wrote that most of the audience simply could not understand the music of Les Indes galantes at first and that many were angry at having to listen to music that was so complex and that had no tunes that they could remember afterwards. But "six months later," Cahusac wrote, "every tune from the overture to the last gavotte . . . was well known by everyone."
Today we are still struck with the astonishing beauty and dramatic power of so much of Rameau's music. The heart-stopping vocal quartet in the third entrée can still bring tears to a listener's eyes, and the extended scene at the end of the second entrée, in which a volcano erupts, is one of the most dramatic scenes in all of Baroque opera. But the complexity of the music, its richness of detail, and its unexpected twists and turns are still surprising today.
Rameau's extraordinary music, however, was written in the service of a very unusual and sometimes problematic libretto. Louis Fuzelier's libretto consists of a prologue and what are essentially four different short stories illustrating love in exotic parts of the world: Turkey, Peru of the Incas, Persia, and North America. The first production had a prologue and only three entrées, ending with Les Fleurs, a festival of flowers which takes place in Persia. But the story of Les Fleurs, which was largely an excuse for the dances at the end, was too thin and far-fetched for Rameau's audiences, who particularly objected to the unconvincing disguises worn by some of the characters. After only three performances, Rameau and Fuzelier felt they needed to rewrite that entrée, and after eight performances, they rewrote it again, rearranging, cutting and occasionally adding music.
Then for a second production of the opera in the following year, they added a fourth entrée, Les Sauvages, which takes place among the natives in the forests of North America and which created a more dramatic and musically satisfying ending. The most famous number in this new final entrée was adapted from Rameau's earlier harpsichord piece Les Sauvages, onto which he superimposed vocal soloists and chorus singing "Forêts paisibles" ("Peaceful forests"). The entrée and the entire opera end with a famous chaconne for orchestra. The choreographer for the premiere, the celebrated Louis Dupré, is said to have been at a loss for what do with this lengthy chaconne, until Rameau outlined for him what he expected. It was narrative dance, rather than dance in the old traditional forms. Rameau, a revolutionary in dance, as well as in music, was pointing the way to the type of ballet that we would see soon afterwards in the operas of Gluck.
Synopsis
Prologue:
Hébé, goddess of youth, laments that the young men of Europe are forsaking the pleasures of love and being lured away by Bellone, goddess of war, and her promises of martial glory. Cupid and his troop descend from the clouds, as Hébé urges the youths to go abroad to exotic, faraway lands in search of love.
First entrée, Le turc généreux (The Generous Turk):
The Turkish pasha Osman loves Emilie, who was captured by pirates and sold into slavery. She rebuffs him, remaining true to her lost lover, Valère, who has been shipwrecked and soon appears as another prisoner of Osman. The men recognize each other, for once their roles were once reversed: Osman was the prisoner and Valère set him free. Broken-hearted and envious of their love, Osman returns the favor and generously gives them freedom, sailing ships, and gifts. Joyfully reunited, Emilie and Valère brave the stormy seas to return home.
Second entrée, Les Incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru):
The Inca Princess Phani and the Spaniard Don Carlos are in love, but she is afraid that her people, though conquered by the Spanish conquistadors, will not take kindly to their love. In particular, the Inca High Priest Huascar is in love with Phani and appeals to her national pride and her fear of the gods to accept him. The Incas gather near a volcano to celebrate the Festival of the Sun, where Huascar continues to pursue Phani, invoking the sun god and causing the volcano to erupt. Don Carlos arrives to rescue the terrified Phani. Foiled and enraged, Huascar calls forth the volcano and dies beneath the molten rocks and lava.
Third entrée, Les fleurs - fête Persane (The Flowers - Persian Festival):
Prince Tacmas, though engaged to Fatima, is really in love with Zaïre, a slave of his advisor Ali. Ali, in turn, is in love with Fatima. As the entrée begins, Tacmas appears disguised as a merchant woman to spy on Zaïre during the Festival of the Flowers, to see if she returns his affection. Unknowingly, she reveals that she does. Fatima, in turn, appears disguised as a man to spy on Ali, the man she loves. The two couples sort themselves out, sing a beautiful love quartet, and celebrate the Festival of the Flowers with song and dance.
Fourth entrée, Les sauvages (The Savages):
This humorous story takes place in a forest grove in North America near the French and Spanish colonies. Adario, an Indian brave, is in love with Zima, the chief’s daughter, but she is also pursued by the Spaniard Don Alvar and the Frenchman Damon. The two colonists compete with each other to woo Zima, but she ultimately rejects the Spaniard as too ardent and the Frenchman as too fickle. Her choice is one of her own people, the noble Adario. Damon tells Don Alvar not to take it too hard, and all come together to celebrate the Great Peace Pipe ceremony.
Boston Baroque Performances
Les Indes Galantes
May 6 & 7, 2011
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Sam Helfrich, stage director
Soloists:
Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Nathalie Paulin, soprano
Aaron Sheehan, tenor
Daniel Auchincloss, tenor
Sumner Thompson, baritone
Nathaniel Watson, baritone