Organization

Conductor

Music director (+3)

Ivor Bolton

Stage director

Choreographer (+3)

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Set designer

Set designer (+3)

Anna Viebrock

Costume designer

Costume designer (+1)

Greta Goiris

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+3)

Michael Bauer

Soprano (+2)

Lisette Oropesa

Hebe

Bass (+3)

Goran Jurić

Bellone

Soprano (+3)

Ana Quintans

Zima

Bass (+5)

Tareq Nazmi

Osman

Elsa Benoit

Emilie

Tenor (+8)

Cyril Auvity

Valère

Bass (+2)

François Lis

Huascar

Soprano (+5)

Anna Prohaska

Phani

Tenor (+7)

Mathias Vidal

Don Carlos

Damon

Baritone (+6)

John Moore

Adario

L'Amour

Orchestra

Munich Festival Orchestra

Choreographer

Chorusmaster

Conductor (+1)

Detlef Bratschke

Chorus

Balthasar Neumann Ensemble Choir

Ballet

Eastman - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Opernstudio der Bayerischen Staatsoper München

Bavarian State Opera

Very much in keeping with the spirit of his age, Jean-Philippe Rameau measures the European culture of being lucky or unlucky in love against the image of the noble savage and takes the audience on a journey to four exotic realms. Given that, in the mythical land of Arcadia, people are walking away from Love and choosing to follow the god of war, Amor encourages Love to seek new followers on other continents. Regardless of whether the portrayals of distant lands are accurate representations of reality as conveyed by geographers, or simply a propagation of colonial clichés, Europeans are reflected just as much in the sultan who declines to take advantage of the highly desirable prisoner; in the self-destructively jealous Inka priest; in the love games of Persian princes; and in the prairie Indians who love faithfully and peacefully, as Rameau's furiously portrayed storms and volcanic eruptions stand for their emotional turbulence.

French

Les indes galantes

Munich

Germany

From Turkish gardens to Peruvian deserts, from Arabian palaces to the forests of North America, Rameau’s Les Indes galantes explores the themes of love, jealousy, and redemption through the peoples of far-flung lands. In a recent production of the opéra-ballet as part of Munich’s 2016 Opera Festival, stage director and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui turns the composer’s original fascination with exotic cultures on its head, stripping the tales of their foreign trappings and in doing so transforming them into reflections on traditions, assumptions, and superstitions closer to home. Music Director and early music specialist Ivor Bolton leads the Münchner Festspielorchester in Rameau’s luscious score, while the talented vocal soloists are joined by the choir and dancers of Cherkaoui’s Antwerp-based Compagnie Eastman.

Production booklet

Further reading