Les Indes galantes

Opera ballet by Jean Philippe Rameau

Les Indes galantes is a ballet héroïque, a type of French Baroque opera ballet, by Jean Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. In its final form it comprised an allegorical prologue and four entrées, or acts, each set in an exotic place, the whole being unified around the theme of love. The work dates from 1735 except for the last entrée, which was added the following year. In 1761, however, Rameau dropped the relatively short and mildly contrasted third entrée so as to leave what is now considered the work's definitive form: Prologue; Le turc généreux (The Generous Turk); Les incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru); and Les sauvages (The Savages of North America). The dropped entrée was Les fleurs (The Flowers of Persia). Famous pieces from Les Indes galantes include the Dance of the Peace Pipe and the Chaconne, both from The Savages of North America.

The premiere, including only the prologue and the first two entrées, was staged by the Académie Royale de Musique (today's Paris Opera) at its theatre in the Palais Royal on 23 August 1735. The leading artists of the company performed: dancers Marie Sallé and Louis Dupré and the singers Marie Antier, Marie Pélissier, Mlle Errémans, Mlle Petitpas, Denis François Tribou, Pierre Jélyotte and Claude Louis Dominique Chassé de Chinais. Michel Blondy provided the choreography.

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. 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 so well known for his extreme generosity. His story can be read in the Mercure de France from January 1734." The story of Osman's generosity "was apparently based on a story published in the Mercure de Suisse in September 1734 concerning a Marseillais merchant, Vincent Arniaud, who saved a young Ottoman notable from slavery in Malta, and the unstinting gratitude and generosity returned by this young man, who later became Grand Vizier Topal Osman Pasha."

The premiere met with a lukewarm reception from the audience and, at the third performance, a new entrée was added under the title Les Fleurs. However, this caused further discontent because it showed the hero disguised as a woman, which was viewed either as an absurdity when, however, only 281 livres were grossed, the lowest amount ever collected at the box office by Les Indes galantes. The entrée des Fleurs was "replaced with a version in which the plot and all the music except the divertissement was new", the opera enjoyed six performances in March and was then mounted again as of 27 December. The prologue, Les Incas and Les Sauvages were last given respectively in 1771 (starring Rosalie Levasseur, Gluck's future favourite soprano, in the role of Hebé), 1772 and 1773 (also starring Levasseur as Zima).

The work's first minuet was used in the soundtrack of the 2006 film Marie Antoinette.