The Black Baroque Project Presents: Opera-Ballet Les Indes galantes
On the stage of Paris’s legendary Opéra Bastille, choreographer Bintou Dembélé brings together 30 dancers to reprise, remix, and subvert Jean-Philippe Rameau’s baroque opera Les Indes galantes (1735). A masterpiece of the Enlightenment, Les Indes galantes offers sparkling entertainment. Yet Rameau’s first opera‑ballet also testifies to the ambiguous view held by Europeans concerning other peoples: Turks, Incas, and Persians were deemed “Savages.” In 2017, director Clément Cogitore made an explosive and critically acclaimed film adaptation of an excerpt from Les Indes galantes in collaboration with Krump dancers. In 2019, with choreographer Bintou Dembélé, Cogitore takes up Rameau’s opera-ballet in its entirety to set it once more in an urban and political space and explore its frontiers.
Sponsored by the University of Chicago’s France in Chicago center, Department of Music and Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Free and open to the public. No reservations are required but capacity is limited to 250. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masks are required to attend.
Program sequence
- 12pm – 3:45pm: screening (including a 15-minute intermission)
- 15 minute break
- 4pm – 5pm: live Q&A with Bintou Dembélé