Customer Reviews

Rameau - Les Indes Galantes / Petibon, Croft, Hartelius, Agnew, Rivenq, Berg, Strehl, Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Les Indes Galantes was Rameau's second theatrical work. This opéra-ballett was first given on August 1735. This enchanting and exotic piece consists of a prologue and four entrées (acts).

Opus Arte released this month a DVD version of This performance was recorded at the Opera de Paris - Palais Garnier in 2004. William Christie conducted the Les Arts Florissants chorus and orchestra. The director was Andrei Serban. Décor and costumes: Marina Draghici Choreography: Blanca Li. This proves to be the A team!!

In the prologue the stage is crowded with people representing various mythological figures. The dancers are dressed in colorful Rococo styled costumes. The dancing is full with humor charm and imagination. From the singers, I liked Danielle de Niese as Hébé with a bright soprano. There is action all the time on stage. Never a dull moment!

In the first entrée, we are near the sea and the sea waves are shaped beautifully. The blue color dominates. I was very impressed with the singing of Anne-Maria Panzarella as Emilie. She has a beautiful voice and really knows how to sing this kind of music, as is evident from numerous recordings of Lully and Rameau she had made. Nicolas Cavallier is very good as Osman and Paul Agnew is an effective Valère. The sailor's dance is amusing and exotic and has a more modern character.

The second entrée, Incas of Peru is dominated by warm colors: red, yellow and orange. Nathan Berg is impressive in the role of Huascar. After the very effective earthquake where the mountains scenery is moving from side to side, comes the finale of this act, which is ending the first DVD, with the chorus praising the sun and this leaves a great impression.

In the third entrée, we meet two couples, which are playing disguising games: A mini Cosi fan tutte. The four singers are very good: Richard Croft, Nathan Berg, Gaële Le Roi and Malin Hartelius. In the middle of the act, the four are singing a quartet: this is extremely tender music of overwhelming beauty and fragility. And then follows the biggest divertissement: it begins with a funny dance of flowerpots and that dances for the flowers. This is a brilliant dance sequence. Wonderful!!

And than the last entrée. Nicolas Rivenq and the amazing Patricia Petibon are the Indian lovers. Christoph Strehl and Christophe Fel are the French and Spanish suitors. More exquisite music and brilliant dances. The highlight of the act is the dance of the savages and then the splendid duet with chorus "Forets Paisibles" (Peaceful forests).

It was not a short evening. The opera lasts a little more than three hours. But I haven't felt its length. The wealth of colors, the charming dances, and above all, Rameau's beautiful music, makes it such an entertaining experience, that time is really flying.

The second DVD contains a 50 minutes long documentary. Christie says, "Rameau is the greatest dance composer before Stravinsky. You cannot listen to his music without performing some dance movements...". Christie is proving his case, during the final applauses when he sings and dances with the rest of the performers the "Forets Paisibles" from the final entrée.

Technical quality is first rate. I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough. Magnifique!!

Jean-Philippe Rameau would be proud of how his work shines on this DVD by Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera. Les Indes Galantes was popular after its 1735 premier, and one can see why while watching this widescreen version. Here you have the best seat in the house and a chance to see creative costuming that adds great beauty to what is already beautiful dance.

If there are tears in your eyes by the final curtain, they will be tears of joy. I love William Christie and this magnificent cast. Not only do they sing, dance and act well, but they also seem to have fun doing it. The joy of doing this work is apparent after the final curtain, when Christie strikes up the orchestra from the stage. The singers and dancers recapitulate a bit of the last entr'ee with Christie joining in the joyous dance. Christie's love of doing the dance is contagious. Their pleasure and that of the audience was complete. The house erupted after this encore.

An enjoyable bonus on this DVD is a film entitled: "Swinging Rameau." It consists of interviews with William Christie, Nicolas Rivenq, Blanca Li, Andrei Serban, Paul Agnew and Patricia Petibon. The French tradition of dance within opera has turned into a work of love for Christie.

This is far and away the best Rameau DVD out there. Though the production is modern, it stays within the Barouqe style and is not a distraction from the music. The tempi are lively and slow arias are touching. The premise of the opera is original by even today's standard and offers the viewer a good idea of what a baroque opera prouction would have looked like in the 1730's while making full use of modern technology. Good extras on the DVD and very exciting music, of course!

_Les indes galantes_ is atypical in Rameau's output -- instead of a lyric work with a single plot, we have an entertainment composed of four "entrees" with a prologue. It's a somewhat loose framework that Rameau invests with his customary vigor of invention. The music is sublime, with a nice handful of showstoppers. All in all, this is a superb performance and production that showcase Rameau's brilliance, wit, and refinement.

SINGERS - THE PROLOGUE --
The musical company is quite lavish, with no doubling of roles between entrees, except for Nathan Berg who excels in his two roles. In the prologue, I rather relished the buffoonish travesti portrayal of the goddess of war Bellone, and Valerie Gabail is sweet-voiced and puckish as Cupid. Danielle de Niese has the important role of Hebe, goddess of youth, here employed as something of the mistress of ceremonies. Ms. de Niese's physical allure and (often overplayed) stage charm fail to compensate for her deficiencies as a singer. Her voice is simply too broad, too coarse in texture, too unrefined in technique to do service to the music. (To my sensibilities, she was the one great liability in the DVD of Giulio Cesare under Christie, her Glyndebourne acclaim notwithstanding.)

SINGERS - FIRST AND LAST ENTREES--
The first entree has in Anna Maria Panzarella and Paul Agnew two protagonists ideally suited to each other -- temperamentally, physically, and vocally. The last entree has the admirable Nicolas Rivenq as the native hero Adario, and the two European suitors are well played and sung. But Patricia Petibon, whom I normally adore in this repertoire, was downright irritating. Her characterization of Zima is tediously coy ... she minces around coquettishly while singing of the simple unaffected virtues and pure love of the natives. Perhaps she intended to come off as unself-conscious, but it doesn't work and seriously hinders enjoyment of her fine voice. The big "production number" in this entree, "la danse du grand calumet," comes off splendidly; it features those dancing bison and an enormous golden turkey dominating the stage. I do wonder, though, why the choreographer had the chorus and principles dancing the "Egyptian" ... !? Perhaps this touch was done in the naive spirit of the general production design, i.e., to underscore that what we are seeing is a not-always-informed European notion of certain faraway places, which can devolve into a generalized exoticism.

SECOND ENTREE - NATHAN BERG'S TOUR DE FORCE--
It was the second and third entrees, however, that impressed me most in this performance ... The second entree is titled "Les Incas du Perou" and has a plot involving a high priest of the sun who is in love with Phani and wants to compel her to serve in his cult. She however is in love with a conquistador, Don Carlos. On the surface, the high priest Huascar seems a transplanted representation of the abuses of Church leadership. But given that the libretto has Don Carlos making reference to the superior faith of the Christians, any identification of Huascar with the Church must be considered ambiguous. Furthermore, Huascar is clearly the protagonist, the tragic hero of the piece -- with about 80 percent of the vocal music in the entree, he is no mere villain. His conflict, his torment are contrasted with the bold arrogance of Don Carlos.

All three parts are expertly sung. As Phani, Jael Azzaretti doesn't have the most distinctive timbre, but she delivers her big aria, "Viens, hymen," with considerable fervor and poise. Her characterization is a strong one, convincingly balanced between trepidation and determination. The tenor Francois Piolino has a ping to his voice that distinguishes his moments in the small part of Don Carlos, and his sense for Rameau's nuanced but alert recitative is truly a marvel. His portrayal is an odd mix of heroic and effete that is just right in bringing out the tensions in the plot. Nathan Berg as the high priest Huascar delivers a tour de force that electrified me. His bass-baritone voice has a grainy texture that gives it a rare warmth and emotional flexibility. He is also a superb actor. He allows us to see flashes of Huascar's brutishness, but he also reveals a man consumed by love and religious duty, pride, cultural identity, and sense of moral order. He has two hymns to the sun: "Soleil, on a detruit tes superbes asiles" is almost devastating in the depth of its melancholy, and "Clair flambeau du monde" is a tender air shared with the chorus. His confrontations with Phani are impressively forceful. The trio where the lovers' contentedness is sung in counterpoint to Huascar's torment was particularly vivid. From there, Huascar plummets headlong into tragedy. Berg's voice loses some steam at this point, as might befit a man at the end of his rope. The stage effects and dancing for this entrée are quite successful, although the Gavottes and Rondeau are not well-integrated, disrupting the dramatic flow. _Les indes galantes_ is thought of as light fare, but I found this entree to be gripping and disturbing.

THIRD ENTREE - LOVE SWEETLY COMIC, MUSIC SUBLIME--
What's amazing is that after this intense performance, Berg returns to sing a romantic-comedy role in the next entrée, "Les Fleurs," which has a Cosi-like plot involving two couples, romantic suspicions, and cross-dressing disguises. Three of the four singers are just splendid: Richard Croft has a vibrant high tenor with rather more substance than the haut-contre voice you might typically find in this role (much as I like haut-contres). Berg's deep voice adapts with ease to the completely different musical and expressive demands imposed in this entrée: He (and the others) bring warmth and elegance of tone; and, with a light touch, he delivers the copious plot-advancing recitatives with apt comic timing. Malin Hartelius as Berg's love interest is another poised singer and actress. Only Gaele Le Roi as Croft's paramour is less than wholly satisfying--thanks chiefly to her tortured-looking facial tics. Still, the romantic pairings are convincing and fun to watch. The quartet "Tendre amour" is for me the high point of the opera. It is a miracle of vocal ensemble writing, as delicious as the Three Women and Three Spirits in Mozart's Magic Flute. Rameau, without resorting to a round, manages to give each singer a vocal line worthy of solo performance. The bass voice here doesn't underpin the other singers but buoys them. This is one of my favorite pieces of music in all the world.

THE PRODUCTION--
The sets, costumes, and dancing all have a naive flavor that works well here. The occasional deliberate peek at the stage machinery, behind the curtain as it were, adds to this effect. (The costumes work best when they are in the same bold strokes as the sets, but some of the wardrobe comes off as cheesy.) The production is crowded but somehow not as cumbersome as a more garish, baroque design sensibility would have rendered it. There is a lot of superfluous business, but it is deliberately being staged as a grand entertainment so the over-the-top goings-on didn't get in the way for me.

THE DANCING--
Two other Christie-Rameau DVDs, _Les Boreades_ and _Les Paladins_, are afflicted by precious or excessively high-concept dancing. After that, it is a relief to report that Bianca Li's choreography is a consistent asset -- we are treated to dancing flowerpots, dancing bison, acrobatics and balancing acts. It falls short of the seamless inspiration of the choreography in Minkowski's DVD of _Platee_, but it works well within this production design.

THE DVD PRODUCTION VALUES--
The camerawork is only slightly too jumpy for my taste, but at least we are spared rapid-fire MTV-style editing. The "interview" extras are fairly routine, but at least the designer and choreographer are likable and helpful in explaining what the music brings out in them -- In most other opera DVDs the designers are so pretentious you just want to pack them off to an arteest gulag.

FUTURE ROLES FOR BERG?--
This is a beautiful set, presented on two DVDs to optimize quality. Nathan Berg is a performer I will be paying attention to. I could see him in some choice modern roles as well as baroque repertoire: as Golaud, Wozzeck, Claggart, or Jochanaan; as Christ in the St. Matthew Passion; and in Bach's comic secular cantatas (Coffee and Peasant).

In which moment of life "the opera" concept took away the DANCE?
Seven years ago, in Cancun, a french friend recomended me to enjoy this opera, he was in a live performance in Paris. Now I can say it is one of my favorites operas. The production is espectacular, the music just wonderfull.

This is one of the most enjoyable DVD's I have ever owned. The voices and orchestra are superb, with some outstanding acting thrown in. The sets and costumes are over the top, as happens occasionally at the paris Opera. This time it is a Masterwork!

I saw a clip from this production on YouTube and knew I just had to get the DVD, which I found here on Amazon at a very good price.

The DVD is excellent, clear and sharp and the menus (in French) get you around the disc pretty easily. All of the content is in French, but the subtitles cover it nicely for those who don't understand the language.

Pros:

Fantastic performances and production
The Extras sections are very helpful in understanding the opera


Cons:
None to speak of, except two-line subtitles are hard to read when the white type appears over an orange or yellow background.


Review:

Baroque Opera is something of an acquired taste to be sure. Often, these operas are performed in an historical perspective, with singers used as they were originally intended (counter-tenors or female singers for "castrati", etc.) While this may be accurate to the history, it is difficult for our modern tastes.

"Les Indes" as presented here takes a more modern approach. The orchestration is rich and full, the singers are strong, and there is a lot of wonderful choreography. Although the pacing is a tad slow, the music of course, sustains it, and the set designs, costuming, make-up, choreography, and performers make up for the pacing.

Anyone new to this DVD of the production (or the opera itself) would get a lot out of the Extras section, especially the bonus film called "Swinging Rameau". This explains the synopsis of the opera (which is made up of four separate love stories), the approach taken in the production, and answers all questions about why they did what they did. You see, they are focusing on the imagination here, the imagination of the composer in telling the stories in music, and the imagination of the company in bringing the composer's vision to life.

While this approach may not be to everyone's tastes, I certainly found it inventive and intriguing.

A lot of historical Baroque Opera involves people standing around on stage, either singing or waiting to sing. This can get very tedious. In this production, the choreographer keeps things moving -- both the principles and extras in the cast -- so we don't get bored. There is a lot to see at every turn. It is thought provoking.

This performance also has a lot of whimsy to it. It's good humored fun, reflective of the opera (it's not a comic opera, but it is certainly "light" compared to the more common "tragic" operas of the time) and while it is always professional, it takes a light hearted approach that is engaging and makes the opera much more accessible.

I have read some reviews that claim this performance is more like a circus than an opera. Certainly, I can see the reference, as many of the dancers are acrobatic, the make up and costuming is bold and engaging, and the props are big and bold.

In a scene about a shipwreck, they use props for the waves to great effect, in another scene there are mountains that move and shake, and there is a giant golden chicken or turkey brought in at the end -- why I have not figured out, nor why they turn it so the audience is looking at its backside... may be an "in" joke! Yet, the sets are minimal and bright, giving the whole thing a "circus" and entertaining atmosphere to be sure. But this opera is no joke or parody. It is serious and genuine to itself with a charm that is hard to describe. I think this approach makes it fun, and when was the last time a Baroque Opera was fun to watch?

The cast is superb -- no other way to describe them. The singers -- principles as well as chorus -- are clear, on pitch and on time, and they move about and use facial expressions to engage the audience. The dancers are excellent, well timed, at times absolutely thrilling to watch. The choreography is a mix of traditional baroque ballet with modern interpretative dance, and it works! This again is a modern approach to historical "set singing", and I think a good one. The camera work is also quite good, with plenty of close-ups as well ensemble shots.

Perhaps the best part of the opera is the end, with a fully orchestrated and choreographed performance of "Les Sauvages" (also the name of that story in the opera). This started life as a harpsichord piece which Ramaeau re-worked into the opera. As a harpsichord piece, it was -- and is -- one of the "top 10", and as an orchestral and choral piece, Rameau gave it even more life and excitement, as does this performance. It is the highlight of a show filled with highlights -- so much so that when they roll the credits, the conductor and cast reprise the music in a dance of joy. Very moving stuff.

In short this DVD and performance celebrates Rameau and his music.

I would recommend this opera DVD to anyone who loves good music. It has great re-play value, and you do have to watch it more than once to get all the inside jokes, the subtleties, the nuances. That makes it a good value for the money.

A+++ for this wonderful production and technically excellent DVD!

I have been checking out library opera DVDs for over a year with the hope that I can find another production of equal quality to this one. So far only a few have come close. Most have serious staging problems often called Eurotrash.

If I was not a fan of one of the singers (Malin Hartelius) I might have missed out on this wonderful production as Rameau is not a composer that I collect.

To all those people who wished that the dance was Baroque, let me say that most people would be bored by baroque dance, after a few minutes. This is a brilliant blending of modern dance and baroque music.

as is the case with many opera lovers I welcome updated productions, (Rameau's Les Paladins by Christie and Les Arts Florissants is an excellent example): but hopefully the updating has a point: in this case there's no such thing, so, if you can somehow shut out most of the visual nonsense, the orchestra and nearly all the onstage performances can be praised unreservedly, and after all this is the only DVD of the "Les Indes Gallants" currently available

orchestra - 5 stars
singing - 5 stars
acting - 3 stars
dancers - 5 stars plus
choreography - 5 stars plus
lighting, especially during the dancing - 5 stars
design for the dancers - 4 stars
design for the principals and chorus - 1 star (by a designer who seems to pay little attention to the bodies being dressed, and has little regard for the female leads)
staging of the action - 0 stars

Andre Serban has earned a magnificent reputation for his body of work in the theatre - unfortunately on the evidence of the production it hasn't been carried over into the world of opera: clumsy, excessive, never still, too much commentary and not enough revelation or trust in his singers: when he stops fussing as in the glorious 'Tendre Amour' time stops and Rameau's glory is revealed - unfortunately this is for less than three minutes in a performance of more than two and a half hours: as for the rest one movement will never suffice when ten extras are possible and visually the final result proves more is less, especially in the essentially offensive final entree 'Les Sauvages': if only choreographer Blanca Li had taken over the whole thing

as it is, coupled with the costume travesties, it's amazing that the work of Nathan Berg, Richard Croft, Malin Hartelius and Christophe Sel can survive unscathed, but elsewhere the fine singing of other excellent performers is visually undermined with vapid and inappropriate costumes for their physiques (notably Paul Agnew, Nicolas Cavalier, Anna Maria Panzarella, Jaerl Azzaretti)

and most unforunately other fine singers are allowed to indulge in their habits of unnecessary preening and posturing (Danielle de Niese, whose work at Glyndebourne is much more restrained, is all show and tell; Patricia Petibon, a superb Despina in the 2009 Salzburg 'Cosi" seems to be sending everything up throughout; Francois Piolino postures so badly that one wonders why on earth Phani would prefer this jackanapes to the imposing Huascar)

in my next visitation cutting out most of the staging excesses and simply moving onto some of the arias and the ballets will be the goal

The magnificent Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie perform this fabulous French Baroque opera with enchanting intensity. As in Rameau's Les Boreades, Paul Agnew is excellent here as well. Danielle de Niese, Patricia Petibon and Nicolas Rivenq are stunning. The marvelous combination of ultra-modern dance and Baroque music doesn't distract from the original premise of the opera, and imbues this gripping drama with vigor and spectacular excitement. As a total artistic experience and grand entertainment, this production is outstanding. Utterly exciting and highly entertaining, this is truly the best Rameau DVD out there !