Organization

Bregenzer Festspiele

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Anna Goryachova

The Beautiful Dulcinée

Bass

Gábor Bretz

Don Quichotte

Bass-baritone

David Stout

Sancho Panza

Soprano

Léonie Renaud

Pédro

Vera Maria Bitter

Garcías

Tenor

Paul Schweinester

Rodriguez

Patrik Reiter

Juan

Conductor

Daniel Cohen

Stage director

Mariame Clément

Set designer

Julia Hansen

Lighting designer

Ulrik Gad

Don Quichotte -  (Don Quixote)

Bregenz

Austria

Bregenzer Festspielhaus

Werkstattbühne

The "Knight of the Sad Figure" has been one of the most fascinating figures in world literature for centuries. His generosity, his morality, but also his imagination impresses and inspires artists of all kinds. Don Quixote's fight against the windmills, in which he sees terrible giants, became a symbol of his identity.

On the opera stage, the French composer Jules Massenet turned him into a passionate lover. He sings a beautiful serenade to Dulcinée and brings back her stolen jewelry from the hands of dangerous robbers, yet she rejects his proposal of marriage. In Massenet's opera based on Jacques Le Lorrain's play, Don Quixote's beloved becomes a real stage character, unlike in Miguel de Cervantes' model. Massenet was enthusiastic about this idea: »It brought the element of feminine beauty into our play, and at the same time gave our Don Quixote a powerful poetic stimulus, for in this case he died out of genuine love for the beautiful Dulcinea, who had such a passion to a great extent justified.« In the opera, the knight's love becomes the driving force behind his actions. He puts his life in danger for her, as Dulcinée promised him her love if he stole her jewelry from the robbers. When they want to kill him, he touches them so much with his farewell prayer that they give him his life and jewelry.

In his music, Massenet traces the interplay of fantasy and reality. The composer skilfully lends the various dramatic situations their own musical style. With castanets and concise rhythms he illustrates Spanish village life. Dulcinée's admirers sing of her beauty in a madrigal-like tone, shimmering colors in the orchestra accompany Don Quixote's declaration of love.

The Parisian director Mariame Clément has attracted attention in recent years with productions at the Theater an der Wien, the Opéra national du Rhin Strasbourg, Oper Graz, the Opéra national de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne Festival made.

Don Quichotte Massenet

Don Quixote

Approved

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