Cristóbal Halffter's opera is a philosophically earnest and sophisticated work that often succeeds on a purely musical level. However, as an opera based on the story of Don Quixote, it suffers from a severe lack of fun and adventure, and ultimately seems out of step with the optimistic spirit of its titular character. Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote is in essence a comedy, full of hilarious details in its plot, characterizations, and structure. Halffter, by contrast, uses Cervantes' own life, which certainly was no ...
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Cristóbal Halffter's opera is a philosophically earnest and sophisticated work that often succeeds on a purely musical level. However, as an opera based on the story of Don Quixote, it suffers from a severe lack of fun and adventure, and ultimately seems out of step with the optimistic spirit of its titular character. Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote is in essence a comedy, full of hilarious details in its plot, characterizations, and structure. Halffter, by contrast, uses Cervantes' own life, which certainly was no comedy, as the framework for the libretto, casting the opera as a story of the author's existential struggle to create a timeless myth. Fully the first quarter of the opera is devoted to Cervantes' attempts to get started writing the novel; the final scene, which takes up the last quarter of the opera, is largely cast as a debate between the author and his character, and culminates in Cervantes' death. The middle of the opera, which is the only section actually derived from the novel,...
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