Massenet: Don Quichotte (Live)

The works of Le Lorrain and Cain gave Massenet the element that differed more than any other from the original Don Quixote, the creation of an authentic Dulcinea del Toboso, a living and breathing woman instead of what was Cervantes’ most spectacular creation of fantasy, the transformation of a peasant woman, barely mentioned in the novel, into a lady who becomes the object of a not so imaginary love story. It was this ingenious invention of Le Lorrain that made Massenet decide to compose the opera: he substituted a crude wench, Cervantes’ Dulcinea, with ‘Bella Dulcinea’, an original, picturesque idea. This substantial variation touched a sensitive nerve in Massenet’s being, and no doubt he would have had trouble composing an opera without a female protagonist. But certainly the dramatic and musical heart of the opera was its male protagonist. Don Quichotte is the only figure present in all five scenes, obviously together with Sancho, his inseparable shadow: the vocality of the score is thus centred on two male voices, mostly in the low registers, against only one female one, moreover not always present. Three characters in all, against a collective background consisting of a full chorus and several minor roles (some of which are spoken). Even this parsimony of roles is functional to Don Quichotte’s protagonism: the two deuteragonists are functionally at his service, like pillars placed on each side to support a full three-dimensional figure. Stylistically, the emphasis is on the Spanish setting. From the beginning of the opera the phantom of Carmen seems to waft through the scene, evoked especially in the definition of Dulcinea’s character and her behaviour when confronted with Don Quichotte’s love, culminating in her need for liberty in the fourth act, decisive and irrevocable though mitigated by compassion.