Les Indes galantes (The courteous Indians) is a 1735 ballet opera by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau based on a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It takes the form of an allegorical prologue and four entrées (acts), which 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 message also seems to be that true kindheartedness only exists amongst so-called barbarians and savages, not in France at the court of Louis XV.
The word "Indes" in the title of the work refers to
"Indians," which at the time was synonymous with inhabitants of every
conceivable non-European or exotic country. The most famous pieces from the work, Danse des Sauvages and the final Chaconne, come from the final entrée (Les sauvages).
[Indians and conquistadores.]
Some background: (1) In 1725, French settlers in Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of the Mitchigamea and five other chiefs to Paris. On 25 November 1725, they met with King Louis XV. Chicagou had a letter read pledging allegiance to the crown. They later danced three kinds of dances in the Théâtre-Italien, inspiring Rameau to compose his rondeau Les Sauvages. (2) In a preface to the printed libretto, Louis Fuzelier explains that the first entrée, "Le Turc généreux," is based on an illustrious character - Grand Vizier Topal Osman Pasha, who was well known for his extreme generosity. A Marseillais merchant, Vincent Arniaud, saved a young Ottoman notable from slavery in Malta, and thus earned the unstinting gratitude and generosity of this young man, who later became Grand Vizier Topal Osman Pasha. (3) Acts 2 and 3 are colored by travel accounts of Rameau's time. Thanks to these accounts, it was also known that the rose held special significance in Persia.
The opera consists of a prologue and four "entrées" (acts):
Prologue
Scene: The palace of Hebe in the background and her gardens in the wings.
Hebe, goddess of youth, summons her followers to take part in a festival (Air: Vous, qui d'Hébé suivez les lois). Young French, Spanish, Italians and Poles rush to celebrate with a series of dances, including a musette. The ballet is interrupted by the noise of drums and trumpets. It is Bellona, goddess of war, who arrives on the stage accompanied by warriors bearing flags. Bellona calls on the youths to seek out military glory (Air and chorus: La Gloire vous appelle). Hebe prays to Cupid (L'Amour) to use his power to hold them back. Cupid descends on a cloud with his followers. He decides to abandon Europe in favor of the "Indies", where love is more welcome.
1st act: Le Turc généreux (The Generous Turk)
Scene: The gardens of Osman Pasha bordering the sea.
Osman Pasha is in love with his slave, the young Émilie, but she rejects him, telling him she was about to be married when a group of brigands abducted her. Osman urges her to give up hope that her fiancé is still alive (Air: Il faut que l'amour s'envole) but Émilie refuses to believe this is true. The sky turns dark as a storm brews; Émilie sees the violent weather as an image of her despair (Air: Vaste empire des mers). A chorus of shipwrecked sailors is heard (Chorus: Ciel! de plus d'une mort). Émilie laments that they too will be taken captive. She recognizes one of the sailors as her fiancé Valère. Their joy at their reunion is tempered by sadness at the thought they are both slaves now. Osman enters and is furious to see the couple embracing. However, unexpectedly, he announces he will free them. He too has recognized Valère, who was once his master but magnanimously freed him. Osman loads Valère's surviving ships with gifts and the couple praise his generosity. They call on the winds to blow them back to France (Duet and chorus: Volez, Zéphyrs). The act ends with celebratory dances as Valère and Émilie prepare to set sail.
[Bahram Gur listens as Dilaram enchants the animals]
Act 2: Les Incas du Pérou (The Incas from Peru)
Scene: a desert in Peru with a volcano in the background
Carlos, a Spanish officer, is in love with the Inca princess Phani. He urges her to escape with him but she fears the anger of the Incas, who are preparing to celebrate the Festival of the Sun. Nevertheless, she is prepared to marry him (Air: Viens, Hymen). The Inca priest Huascar is also in love with Phani but suspects he has a rival and decides to resort to subterfuge. Huascar leads the ceremony of the adoration of the Sun, which is interrupted by a sudden earthquake. Huascar declares this means the gods want Phani to choose him as her husband. Carlos enters and tells Phani the earthquake was a trick, artificially created by Huascar. Carlos and Phani sing of their love while Huascar swears revenge (Trio: Pour jamais). Huascar provokes an eruption of the volcano and is crushed by its burning rocks.
Act 3: Les Fleurs (The Flowers)
Scene: The gardens of Ali's palace
Prince Tacmas is in love with Zaïre, a slave belonging to his favorite Ali, even though he has a slave girl of his own, Fatime. Tacmas appears at Ali's palace disguised as a merchant woman so he can slip into the harem unnoticed and test Zaïre's feelings for him. Zaïre enters and laments that she is unhappily in love (Air: Amour, Amour, quand du destin j'éprouve la rigueur). Tacmas overhears her and is determined to find out the name of his rival. Fatime now enters, disguised as a Polish slave, and Tacmas believes he has found Zaïre's secret lover. Enraged, he casts off his disguise and is about to stab Fatime when she too reveals her true identity. It turns out that Zaïre has been in love with Tacmas all along just as Fatime has been in love with Ali. The two couples rejoice in this happy resolution (Quartet: Tendre amour) and the act ends with the Persians celebrating the Festival of Flowers.
Act 4: Les Sauvages (The (American) Wilderness)
Scene: The stage shows a grove in a forest in America, on the borders of the French and Spanish colonies, where the ceremony of the Peace Pipe is about to be celebrated.
Adario, a Native American, is in love with Zima, daughter of a native chief, but he fears the rivalry of the Spaniard Don Alvar and the Frenchman Damon (Air: Rivaux des mes exploits, rivaux des mes amours). The Europeans plead with Zima for her love, but she says Damon is too fickle and Alvar is too jealous; she prefers the natural love shown by Adario (Air: Sur nos bords l'amour vole) and the couple vow to marry (Duet: Hymen, viens nous unir d'une chaîne éternelle). The act ends with the Europeans joining the natives in the ceremony of peace (Chorus: Forêts paisibles).
Rameau's treatment of Fuzelier's libretto elevated the lighter genre of ballet opera to new heights. In the Les Incas act, one hears an intensity not inferior to that of the great classical tragedy operas: from the start to the end of the entrée, an almost uninterrupted stream of music of 350 bars, in which the singing voices and orchestra interact, is heard in an extraordinarily fierce setting. The second act is dominated by Huascar, whose fanatical but entirely believable character is musically portrayed by Rameau with a sharpness and assurance rarely found in comparable ballet operas. In other acts, it is the grace and variety of the dances that stand out. Les sauvages, which became very popular, contains an adaptation of Rameau's harpsichord work of the same name Les sauvages, and was inspired by the dancing of two American Indians in Paris in 1725 as mentioned above.
French libretto.
I have seen the wonderful "swinging" performance by Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie with amongst others Patricia Petitbon as Zima and Nicolas Rivenq as Adario in the final act.
[This article borrows some text from the English Wikipedia about Les Indes galantes.]
Baroque & Classical Opera