Indes Templatea

Jean-Philippe Rameau's opéra-ballet Les Indes Galantes premiered in Paris in 1735 but was not a critical success, so the composer prepared a revised version that included an additional act. The five suites the composer extracted are derived from the prologue and four acts, and the brief movements include orchestral arrangements of vocal numbers as well as instrumental pieces. The work displays Rameau's flair for creating evocative and compelling music for the wide variety of the opéra-ballet's dramatic situations, as well as his ear for imaginative orchestration. Familiarity with the plot is not required for appreciating the charms of these colorful miniatures.

Le 20 mai 1498, trois vaisseaux portugais, après avoir doublé le cap de Bonne-Espérance, atteignent les côtes des Indes orientales. Cet événement majeur dans l'histoire du monde inaugure une longue période d'échanges entre Occidentaux et Orientaux.
Chaque grande nation européenne, désireuse de disposer de sa propre Compagnie des Indes, met en place de puissantes institutions qui bénéficient du monopole des relations commerciales et maritimes. …

"La lecture d'Histoire des Indes de Michel Angot donne immanquablement le vertige. L'écriture d'un tel ouvrage, un défi en soi monumental, est relevée avec brio, l'auteur réussissant à "faire l'histoire de peuples et de pays qui jusqu'au 18e siècle ont tout ignoré de l'Inde et des Indes, et dont beaucoup ont ignoré l'idée même de l'histoire". Source: L'Echo Published On: 2017-08-24…

The Baroque music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, under Christophe Rousset's baton, performs Rameau's Les Indes galantes at the Opéra National de Bordeaux in a sensual and politically engaged production directed by Laura Scozzi, on the occasion of the festivities organized to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Jean-Philippe Rameau's death.

For musicians of today, Rameau is often associated with the study of music theory.а His Traitщ de l'harmonie (1722) was incredibly influential Ч and controversial Ч in its new conception of the triad as an invertible entity.а While his critics often cited his theoretical background as making him unfit for composition, his considerable success as a composer of keyboard music and, later, opera called this accusation into question.
Jonathan Rohr

I know of no Rameau work more colourful, more melodious, more replete with inventive vitality, wrote Gramophone in reviewing this 1973 premiere recording of the French Baroque masters 1735 heroic ballet Les Indes galantes. There is immense enthusiasm and spirit in this performance [and] some excellent singing Among the array of sopranos I was specially impressed by the full, bright ring of Rachel Yakar Anne-Marie Rodde: a good stylist and a clean, accurate voice, coping well with Rameaus florid detail The tenor Bruce Brewer is a real find for the lyrical French roles: his voice is very smooth and graceful In all, a set which no Rameau admirer should miss. Conducted by Rameau specialist Jean-Claude Malgoire, it is now being issued for the first time on CD.