Language: French
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

The exoticism of the 18th century, which takes pleasure in reducing distant worlds to porcelain trinkets as naive as they are charming, and which considers the foreigner with the ironic gaze of Montesquieu is strongly shaken by the comparison with the actuality of the 21st century. Today's frequent travelers are not Persian travelers surprised by Parisian mores, but rather the millions of people displaced by the extreme constraints of wars and famines.

Les Indes galantes ("The Amorous Indies") is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It takes the form of an opéra-ballet with a prologue and Four Acts. Following an allegorical prologue, the Four Acts have distinct and separate plots, but are unified by the theme of love in exotic places (The Ottoman Empire, Peru, Persia, and North America).

Hebe, goddess of youth, summons her followers to take part in a festival. Young French, Spanish, Italians and Poles rush to celebrate with a series of dances, including a musette. The ballet is interrupted by the noise of drums and trumpets. It is Bellona, goddess of war, who arrives on the stage accompanied by warriors bearing flags. Bellona calls on the youths to seek out military glory (Air and chorus: La Gloire vous appelle). Hebe prays to Cupid (L'Amour) to use his power to hold them back. Cupid descends on a cloud with his followers. He decides to abandon Europe in favour of the "Indies", where love is more welcome.

Director: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Director and Choreography), Ivor Bolton (Music Conductor)
Cast: Lisette Oropesa (Hebe / Zima), Goran Jurić (Bellona), Ana Quintans (L’Amour / Zaire), Tareq Nazmi (Osman, Ali), Elsa Benoit (Émilie), Cyril Auvity (Valère / Tacmas), François Lis (Huascar / Alvar), Anna Prohaska (Phani / Fatime), Mathias Vidal (Carlos / Damon), John Moore (Adario), Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Münchner Festspielorchester