Don Quichotte hasn't found its way into the repertoire with Massenet's most popular operas, but it's musically one of his most attractive works. It's unabashedly melodic and evokes a strong sense of locale, which Massenet was so consistently skillful at creating. It's admittedly foolhardy to try to reduce Cervantes' sprawling chronicle into an evening's entertainment, but if the listener can put the source out of mind, it's possible to admire the economy of the libretto by Henri Cain, based on the popular and successful ...
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Don Quichotte hasn't found its way into the repertoire with Massenet's most popular operas, but it's musically one of his most attractive works. It's unabashedly melodic and evokes a strong sense of locale, which Massenet was so consistently skillful at creating. It's admittedly foolhardy to try to reduce Cervantes' sprawling chronicle into an evening's entertainment, but if the listener can put the source out of mind, it's possible to admire the economy of the libretto by Henri Cain, based on the popular and successful 1904 play by Jacques Le Lorrain, which wisely limits itself to one incident with Dulcinea and the Don's subsequent death. Massenet called his opera a "heroic comedy," an apt description; he is able to maintain a tone that acknowledges both the humor of the situation and the nobility of the Don's character. The sound quality of this live, Italian-language Milan performance in 1957 is mediocre, but it's never distractingly bad, and the quality of the individual performances transcends the...
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