Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Indes Galantes» - Castor et Pollux - Suiten / Orchestra Of The 18th Century, Frans Brüggen / Audior / Decca Audio CD 2011 / 480 4830

UPC 0028948048304

Les Indes galantes (French: "The Amorous Indies") is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It takes the form of an opéra-ballet with a prologue and (in its final form) four entrées (acts). Following an allegorical prologue, the four entrées have distinct and separate plots, but are unified by the theme of love in exotic places (The Ottoman Empire, Peru, Persia, and North America). The most famous pieces from the work, Danse des Sauvages and the final Chaconne, come from the final entrée (Les sauvages).

The premiere, including only the prologue and the first two of its four entrées (acts), was staged by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on 23 August 1735, starring the leading singers of the Opéra: Marie Antier, Marie Pélissier, Mlle Errémans, Mlle Petitpas, Denis-François Tribou, Pierre Jélyotte, and Claude-Louis-Dominique Chassé de Chinais, and the dancers Marie Sallé and Louis Dupré. Michel Blondy provided the choreography. The ballet's Premier Menuet was used in the soundtrack of the 2006 film Marie Antoinette.

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