Class 3: Reclaiming Rameau

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3. Reclaiming Rameau. Rameau’s 1736 Opera-Ballet Les Indes Galantes (the Amorous Indes) was intended to celebrate the wide sphere of French influence under Louis XIV, notably in the Americas and Middle East, and to promote the proto-Enlightenment idea that, no matter the color of their skin, human beings everywhere could still feel love, and would mostly end up doing the right thing. Were it not for the quality of the music, it would be hard to see such a piece of blatant colonial puffery having any place in the repertoire today. But Rameau’s score is a masterpiece and audiences want to hear it, so what is the poor stage director to do?

We will sample excerpts from three 21st-century productions. The earliest, from 2003 by Andrei Serban (1943– ), treats the piece as a comic rococo confection, in which the strange ways of other races need be taken no more seriously than the colorful design or antique music. A 2014 production in Bordeaux by Laura Scozzi (1964– ) ignores the colonial and racial themes completely, to replace them with other issues of the day, such as environmental destruction, mass migration, objectification of women, and rampant consumerism. Finally, a remarkable 2019 production in Paris by Clément Cogitore (1983– ) and Bintou Dembélé (1975– ) acknowledges a French colonial history that has left pockets of people of color in housing estates and suburbs all over the city, and addresses it by bringing the people of the streets and their virtuoso dances—break, hip hop, krump—directly onto the venerable stage of the Opéra. Paradoxically, it may also be the one that respects Rameau the most. rb.

The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.

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Q AND A

Which Indes galantes production was the most authentic?
This is not a question I would have considered until Uri rather surprisingly praised the first Paris production (by André Serban) as being "the most grounded." But that got me thinking...

In many ways, the Serban production that we glimpsed briefly was indeed the most authentic to the original spirit of the work as an entertaining divertissement featuring various exotic peoples and customs. Authentic to the real nature of these cultures, no way—but then neither was the original.

The Cogitore/Dembélé production is not authentic in this sense at all, but it is the most grounded in the music, and that for me is authenticity of a deeper sort. In addition, by looking beyond the racial stereotypes at the multiracial diaspora living in the Paris suburbs, it attains a totally different kind of authenticity: truth to the colonial debris of the modern age. The miracle is how well the directors balance the two; a piece about the racial realities in Paris that was merely imposed on the music wouldn’t work, but it is a strength of this pair that they share a poetic spirit. They know when to leave the music unadorned, and the more spectacular elements like the Krump dance in the "Fôrets paisibles" number arise from the music rather than being set to it (and incidentally bringing out the tamed-savagery inherent in Rameau’s title).

Having said that, I guess I am deprecating the Scozzi production where, in the "Fôrets paisibles" section at least, the action is definitely imposed on the music rather than arising naturally from it. But she too has a kind of authenticity in refusing to pin inauthentic stereotypes on the foreign people, and choosing a different route entirely. And in that she takes genuine contemporary concerns for her targets, I suppose there is an authenticity there too. Yes, she can be rather heavy-handed, but she is so darned clever!

VIDEO LINKS

There are a lot of clips from Les Indes galantes on YouTube, including numerous versions of Les Sauvages and numerous trailers and other brief excerpts. But trailers and excerpts are all we get of the two main productions we watched: Laura Scozzi in Bordeaux, and the team of Clément Cogitore and Bintou Dembélé in Paris; the Scozzi, though, might still be found as a DVD on Amazon.

The section marked "Opening Sequence" is slightly different from the one we saw in class. The Jean Rondeau harpsichord peformance (longer) and the Serban clip are the same. But the Cogitore version is the film he made as his "audition," not the final stage version (which can be found below). And I also added a rather scholarly version by Ars Musica Houston that shows a period-appropriate rendering of the dance as part of a concert rather than a theatrical experience.

Against this, we have two performances of the opera available complete! The one I would most recommend is the 2016 production from Munich by director/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui; it is another politically-themed approach, but totally different from the others, plus it has English titles; It is also very satisfying musically; check out the link below to the "Viens, Hymen" aria for a mesmerizing sample. The first minute or so of the complete video is effectively a trailer; give it a try to see if you want to dive deeper. The Geneva trailer is also worth watching; I only wish I could have posted the whole thing. However, the other complete performance that I do have is the 2003 Paris production by Andrei Serban that we glimpsed in class; these titles, though, are in French.

*Asterisks indicate items we have seen in class.

OPENING SEQUENCE
	Rameau: Air des sauvages	* harpsichord original (Jean Rondeau) * as a formal dance (Ars Musica Houston) * in Les Indes galantes (Andrei Serban, Paris 2003) * film with street dancers (Clément Cogitore)
SCOZZI PRODUCTION (BORDEAUX 2014)
	Trailers	* Bordeaux * Same production in Nuremberg (more scenes, narrated in German)
	Excerpts	* Act I opening * Act II finale * Act IV, Air des sauvages (the "consumer wedding" spoof!)
COGITORE/DEMBÉLÉ PRODUCTION (PARIS 2019)
	Trailer	* Trailer/documentary
	Excerpts	* Act II, "Viens, Hymen" (Sabine Devieilhe, Calvin Hunt) * Act IV opening * Act IV, Air des sauvages * Act IV finale (a sort of danced curtain call)
OTHER PRODUCTIONS
	Paris 2003 (Andrei Serban)	* Complete opera (French titles)
	Munich 2016 (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui)	* Complete opera (English titles, excellent) * — cued to "Fôrets paisibles" section * Act II, "Viens, Hymen" (Anna Prohaska, standlone video)
	Geneva 2019 (Lidia Steier)	* Trailer * Act II, "Viens, Hymen" (Claire de Sévigné)


IMAGES
The thumbnails below cover the slides shown in class, though there may be a few small discrepancies. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image. Click on the right or left of the larger picture to go forward or back, or outside it to close.