Chantal Santon-Jeffrey, Katherine Watson, Véronique Gens, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Jean-Sebastien Bou, Thomas Dolie
Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi

With Les Indes galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, György Vashegyi – along with his Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir – makes a further dazzling addition to their Glossa series of French dramatic masterpieces from the Baroque and in the company of a luxurious line-up of vocal soloists.

The version of this ballet heroïque – supplied with an anti-colonial, anti-clerical manifesto by librettist Louis Fuzelier – selected by Vashegyi is the 1761 revision, a mere decade or so before the irruption onto the Parisian musical scene of the likes of Gluck and Grétry.

Rameau’s score had undergone frequent adjustments and improvements since its première a quarter of a century earlier and the performing edition for this recording, prepared for the Rameau Opera omnia by Sylvie Bouissou (who also provides a booklet essay here), offers a vision of this work which is more theatrical, fluid and concise than hitherto.