today’s class was Couperin & Rameau and i found myself feeling a little, idk, iffy about a discussion of Les Indes Galantes only bc it was ancillary to my larger point about Rameau generally.

I showed the ONP 2019(?) production w the krump dancing & the 2004 ONP production

while my students didn’t speak up i saw visible frustration re to the 2004 production () i was hesitant to show it bc they can envision a world without it, you know? in any case, it seemed they liked the 2019 production more but what’s interesting was why

the dancing in the 2019 prod really reflects the metric intensity of Rameau’s writing & that dance style nature that is so embed in French Baroque opera…it just made more cohesive sense than the other one. & i get that, i felt more connected to the music bc of that strong pulse

anyway, the point was that Rameau didn’t write Les Indes just on a whim & to be prepared for more works like this as we move through the 18th c — its relationship to Enlightenment goals as well as how it reflects the geopolitical moment of the time.

i think they got the gist