Customer Reviews

Rameau - Les Indes galantes / Les Arts Florissants, Christie

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

 

 

The music of Les Indes Galantes is absolutely beautiful, although the libretto is a bit under par. The plot of the opera consists of a prologue (predictably, with a cupid), followed by four discrete scenes. Each of these scenes is dealing with characters who, in the view of a medieval Frenchman, were exotic and even "savage." In the sequence of appearance, these include Turks, Peruvian Incas, Persians and the American Indians (the latter are referred to merely as "savages" but the geographic location gives some idea as to who they are). The stories are implausible, but they were not intended to be taken literally; rather, they were intended as something of an esopian fable, illustrating the victory of love over force and discord. The best known scene in the opera is the Festival of the Sun in the second Entree, with the famous aria of Huascar (sung by Bernard Deletre). There are recordings of this aria by various operatic greats such as Gerard Souzay, but Deletre's version is really definitive. It is hard to even take some of the earlier recordings seriously in light of everything we now know about the authentic baroque practice. Christie is in the forefront of the movement toward historically informed period performances of baroque. As a result, his recordings are almost invariably the best. Everyone should get acquainted with Christie's work. I can't think of any other conductor who would be as capable of capturing your heart and turning you into a baroque afficionado as William Christie. If you are a novice, reluctant to spend money on unfamiliar music, there is a collection entitled "The most beautiful scenes of baroque opera," which may be a cheap way for you to "test waters." That collection contains, among other things, several excerpts from Christie's recordings, including a duet "Forets paisibles" from the 4th Entree of Les Indes Galantes.

I cannot speak too highly of this magnificent recording of one of Jean-Philippe Rameau's most delightful operas.

The music is gorgeous and full of rhythm and colour and the singing in this performance is excellent. Many seasoned Baroque performers appear on this disc - Sandrine Piau, Isabelle Poulenard, Howard Crook, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Bernard Delétré, Claron McFadden, Nicolas Rivenq and Noémi Rime. Christophe Rousset plays the harpsichord continuo - he had not yet made a career for himself as a conductor at this time.

Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie, are in top form on this recording, which I believe is one of the highlights of Christie's career.

I bought this recording when it came out in 1991 and I have loved it ever since.

The Les Arts Florissants / William Christie DVD of this opera is well worth investigating, too. However, this original recording is enchanting.

I agree with all the other reviewers overwhelmingly positive comments about this set, but I just wanted to object to the pervasive opinion that the libretto is somewhat unstructured and only unified by the idea of the triumph of love: modern scholarship actually sees each of the four acts as reflecting the four main types of French baroque theatre prevalent in Rameau's day--i.e. sentimental melodrama (act 1), tragedy (act 2), comedy (act 3), and the idyllic pastoral (act 4).

This is a wonderful opera on many levels, and while I have a few (minor) problems with the DVD that is available, I have none about this set. Another masterpiece from Christie.

A lovely production of Rameau's opera-ballet. The form is set of essentially independent scenes united by a common theme, in this case the triumph of love. Rameau and his librettist capitalized on the Enlightenment fascination with exotic cultures, setting the stories in Ottoman Turkey, Inca Peru, Persia, and North America. To be sure, these are highly Europeanized versions of the settings. Much lovely music performed beautifully by the remarkable William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

After a rather uninspired prologue as opening section according to Lully's five-part tradition, Rameau's ballet opera offers four different stories, each set in a different exotic locale. We get some idea of how Frenchmen conceived of the non-European world in the 1730s. The first story, "The Noble Turk," falls in line with Montesquieu's Persian Letters (1721) by suggesting that good character is more important than religious differences. This theme, alien to my own viewpoint and synonymous with the Enlightenment, led to an ideal of the Brotherhood of Man that dominated idealistic thinking for two centuries to come. The most remarkable of the four stories is the second, set in Peru at the time of the Spanish Conquest of the 1530s. A conquistador wins out as a love rival over a native priest of the Sun. This scene includes a striking hymn to the Sun and a musical volcanic eruption of the sort that offended traditional devotees of Lully's style. Actually Rameau's basic style adheres pretty closely to Lully's. These two composers, together, define French Baroque opera. As a ballet opera, Les Indes galantes presents as much instrumental music as singing.

Pop it in and crank it if you're going for a long drive, this CD has shows off Rameau's superb orchestrations, walking-on-air dances, and it's played & sung so well! There are a couple beautiful soprano-with-flute arias, the very last aria in the piece is a mind-blower, the good stuff just keeps coming and coming.