Last Updated on September 14, 2025
Baroque meets Hip-Hop in this UK premiere at The Grange Festival:
3.5 out of 5.0 starsA rarely seen duo has pitched up at The Grange Festival this summer. Baroque opera meets Hip-Hop choreography in the first full staging of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes in the UK. Presented here as a ‘choreographed concert’, complete with four soloists, a 25-piece orchestra, choir, and a team of at least 20 dancers, the overall result transforms Rameau’s exploration of Cupid’s unexpected sting into a fascinating display of movement in devotion to music. Undoubtedly difficult to stage, this production manages to walk the line between brilliant and bonkers.
Part madness, part excellence, this production is initially set up like a regular concert. Still, with the addition of one dancer, and then another, the stage soon comes to life with expressive movement. Split into a prologue and four distinct movements, each depicting its own story, this ballet héroïque underwent several revisions before Rameau finalised it in 1761, over 25 years after its initial iteration. Transporting its audience across the world, the opera is a testament to the 18th century’s excitement in imagining far-flung lands, and that compelling emotion – love.
Director and choreographer Bintou Dembélé doesn’t get bogged down in plot or even place, but finds her brilliance when connecting the gyrations and passions of movement to Rameau’s deeply layered and complex score. Famous for her work across the French Hip-Hop scene, the beat, or pulse of Rameau’s score, is what drives Dembélé’s exploration of the four stories that comprise the production.
From the outset, the only constant on stage is the – largely barefoot – orchestra and conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón, a famed Baroque specialist with a flair for the dramatic. Present throughout the whole production, García-Alarcón is not only tasked with conducting, but with expressively driving the emotion and controlling the all-important beat. With only a minimal set, characterised mainly by a circular lighting rig that shifts only slightly between acts, the musicians themselves become a living, breathing scenery, a significant part of how this production has created its distinctive synergy.
The result created between the musicians and Dembélé’s company Structure Rualité doesn’t dedicate itself to the stories, but is instead a reflection of how meaning is created through performance and repetition. The dancers twist and turn with the music, but every stomp and thrust is articulated with purpose and always comes in squarely on the beat. Like a patchwork being stitched together, the created scenes are of varying quality, but some moments are, undoubtedly, remarkable. The famous Chaconne in the Les Sauvages is particularly captivating, as are the final moments of Act II when Huascar, sung by the exceptional bass-baritone Andreas Wolf, as he casts himself into a volcano.
One of the many challenges facing a director of Les Indes Galantes is that for each of the four acts, there is a complete set of cast members, often resulting in performers being required to double up on roles. Despite possessing varying levels of chemistry with one another, all four soloists were strong. Soprano Ana Quintas made a perfect Hébé and a wonderful Émilie, particularly when paired with tenor Alasdair Kent’s turn as Valére.
Needless to say, the music is sublime from the outset, with every trill pronounced with a delightful precision. The stage at the Grange Festival is on the smaller side, leaving the music with less room to swell, making some passages, particularly from the wind instruments, feel a little tinny. The intimacy of their space easily makes up for this. Utilising this to its full potential, the soloists, chorus members and dancers traverse across the theatre, from the circle to the stalls. Although this is occasionally distracting, the chorus moments totally envelop the audience at The Grange in sound.
Needless to say, performances like this tend to divide the operatic world. There is an equal measure of enthusiasm and disdain for performances that mix media, particularly in the UK, where experimental productions are often marginalised in favour of more traditional approaches. Although this production may not be to everyone’s taste, it is undoubtedly powerful. It deftly reimagines the essence of Rameau’s ballet-opera, while still remaining true to the heart and soul of Rameau’s music. You will certainly be left feeling moved, even if that is accompanied by an inkling that there might still be more to explore here.
Les Indes Galantes
The Grange festival
The Grange,
Alresford,
SO24 9TZ
Run time: 3 hours 40 minutes, including an interval
Box office: +44 (0)1962 791020
Also at The Grange – check our review of Die Fledermaus
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