Name: Don Quichotte
Start: 2022-02-26
End: 2022-02-26
Location: National Theatre

Organization

Singer

Spoken

Gavrilo Rabrenović

Four bandits

Conductor

Đorđe Stanković

Stage director

Ivana Dragutinović Maričić

Set designer

Miraš Vuksanović

Choir Chief

Assistant Conductor

Dijana Cvetković

Music Associates

Nevena Živković

Gleb Gorbunov

Pianist

Guitarist

Predrag Gligorić

Light Operator

Miodrag Milivojević

Mezzo-soprano

Aleksandra Angelov

The Beautiful Dulcinée

Željka Zdjelar

Jana Cvetković

Bass

Ivan Tomašev

Don Quichotte

Miodrag D Jovanović

Stefan Pavlović

Bass-baritone

Aleksandar Stamatović

Sancho Panza

Mihailo Šljivić

Soprano

Milica Damjanac

Pédro

Tenor

Stefan Jovanovic

Rodriguez

Siniša Radin

Darko Đorđević

Juan

Le chef des bandits

Ivan Debeljak

Slobodan Živković

Un valet

Vuk Radonjić

Ranko Jović

National Theatre Belgrade

Others

National Theater in Belgrade

Orchestra

Belgrade National Theatre Orchestra

Don Quichotte -  (Don Quixote)

Belgrade

Serbia

National Theatre

Main Stage

Don Quichotte Massenet

Public

Don Quixote

Approved

Born in the hamlet of Montaud, near Saint-Étienne, in the Loire region. Massenet entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 11, subsequently studying composition under the noted opera composer Ambroise Thomas. In 1863 he won the Prix de Rome with his cantata David Rizzio. With the production in 1867 of his opera La Grand’ Tante (The Great Aunt), he embarked on a career as a composer of operas and incidental music. His 24 operas are characterized by a graceful, thoroughly French melodic style. Among his less successful and lesser-known operas, he also composed the following operas : “Don César de Bazan” (1872), “Hérodiade” (1881), “Manon” (1884), “Le Cid” (1885), “Esclarmonde” (1889), “Werther” (1893), “Thais” (1894), “Sappho” (1872), “Don Quixote” (1910). A prolific composer, with inexhaustible melodic invention and solid theatrical instinct, we can say that Massenet feminised the musical language of opera, giving it charm, grace, softness, passion and unusual flexibility. This remarkable musical painter of “Eternal Femininity” (titles of his fourteen operas have female names!), Massenet created, as one of his students related, a musical language of tenderness and had a great influence both on the audience, and the musicians of his generation alike and on those who followed. At the time when verismo began to conquer the opera scene, Massenet managed to defend French music from the dangers that came from the other side of the Alps. Massenet was skilled in the psychological portrayal of character and he knew how to pace his works: precious gifts in one dedicated to the composition of operas. He was also a fine melodist, charming audiences with his subtle harmony and refined orchestration, always appropriate to the dramatic situation. Massenet composed piano pieces, sacred works and art songs (mélodies), and he also contributed to the revival of symphonic music in France through works such as his six orchestral suites entitled Scènes. As a teacher of composition at the Paris Conservatoire from 1878, Massenet was highly influential. 

A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

Who is Don Quixote today? What are “his windmills”? What is he fighting against? What and whom is he fighting for? How pointless and futile is this struggle? What trace does it leave? ...
These are all questions that I asked myself as a director, but also as an ordinary human being, a woman, a mother, while I thought about the concept and identity of the play. I did not find it challenging for the audience to watch, God knows for how many a time, a somewhat funny and silly old man in an armour, riding a skinny horse, with a long beard and dishevelled hair, holding a spear in his hand tilting at windmills, thinking he was fighting giants and monsters for the love and honour of his loved one, the sublime Dulcinea, all with the help and occasional astonishment of his faithful servant and friend Sancho Panza.
How to intrigue a today’s viewer, offer him something new and bring the whole project to a close, especially in this difficult time for all of us, in time of pandemic, increased precautionary measures, while concerned for the wellbeing of others and ourselves, for the sake of others ...? Many questions arose in the process of creating and working on this play. Each of us has experienced many difficult moments and painful losses, and yet, the only thing I felt as a necessity and the main “guiding star” from the start was his incorrigible optimism and a desire for the Good to triumph in the end and that no honest fight be declared futile.
Our Don Quixote represents a man who lived to be a displaced person in his old age, thrown out of his home, his precious library shattered, things scattered, however, he does not give up and finds in himself and in the world around him only beauty and love. He fights as a true knight and overcomes many hardships, thanks to his embellished image of reality, looking through “pink glasses”. In the end, when those pink glasses come off, his health declining, yet his soul still pure and innocent, he experiences enlightenment and enters eternity, continuing to tremble among the stars and to create the most beautiful love verses in honour of his Dulcinea, in honour of Beauty. His faith in love, chivalry, sincerity, kindness, his thrill about the nature’s perfection and the search for a God within us, is recognized by his friend and faithful companion Sancho, who represents Quixote’s link to reality, often neither pretty nor easy. 
Sancho defends Quixote in his inspired aria in the fourth act, comparing him to Jesus. The world around him does not understand that at this point, but Quixote’s spirit continues to live on even after his earthly death. The colours he sees spread among people, the force of nature triumphs, beauty conquers all, true love is indestructible...
Dedicated to my Don Quixote

English

Don Quixote by Massenet, la 26 helmi 2022, Alkaen (2022/2022), Ohjannut Ivana Dragutinović Maričić,, Musiikinjohto Đorđe Stanković, National Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia

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