After Cendrillon, Jules Massenet's music returns to the fore with Don Quichotte, his last opera - created in 1910 for the Russian bass Shaliapin - an opera that had not been performed at the Opéra Bastille for over twenty years. The composer preserved only some of the main emblematic episodes of Cervantes' sumptuous novel: Don Quixote's love for Dulcinea, his chivalrous ways that lead him to chase the brigands to recover her necklace, his battle with the windmills and his death as he lies exhausted on the ground. Alongside Don Quixote, eternal emblem of the dreaming hero, we find his even more famous servant Sancho Panza. Inspired by this refined and moving music, director Damiano Michieletto's new production seeks to reveal the poetry of Don Quixote, but also his suffering. That of a profoundly lonely man, haunted by memories, and ineffably condemned to chase his dreams and encounter his ghosts along the way.
