RAMEAU: Les Indes galantes

• Published in: Fanfare (Tenafly, N.J.) Vol. 43; no. 4; pp. 356 - 358
• Main Author: Brenesal, Barry
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tenafly Fanfare, Inc 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Ballet; Composers; Deities; Opera
• ISSN: 0148-9364

RAMEAU Les Indes galantes György Vashegyi, cond; Chantel Santon-Jeffrey (Hébé, Zima); Katherine Watson (Émilie); Véronique Gens (Phani); Reinoud van Mechelen (Dom Carlos, Valere, Damon); Thommas Dollé (Osman, Adario); Jean-Sébastien (Bellone, Huascar, Dom Alvar); Purcell Ch; Orfeo O GLOSSA 924005 (2 CDs: 123:01 Ш) Rameau was not merely a composer of extremely inventive harpsichord works, a leading opera composer of his day, and a renowned theorist on the relationship between harmonies and acoustics; he was also an inveterate musical tinkerer. In many respects it is a typical example, offering a prologue with Roman deities who provide a central theme, followed by a series of acts-each self-contained with its own plot, scenery, many dances, and special effects. What we do know, thanks to surviving manuscripts (and even to pages that were in part glued over, only to be carefully peeled back in more recent times to see the composer's older thoughts) is that Rameau repeatedly returned to this opera of his for changes that would grow in number until the Royal Academy management decided it was time to stage this popular work once more. (The laudable aim of historical accuracy in their DVD resulted in one of those out-of-sync affairs whose visuals featured both modern costuming and nudity, and a lot of wriggling, jumping, and running around-all literally-in place of dancing.) Hugo Reyne and Nicolas Sceaux in turn prepared their own edition in 2014, restoring the original orchestration based on sources of 1735 extant in the Paris Opéra's library, and adding the Les Sauvages act from 1736.