Opéra Bastille
from 10 May to 11 June 2024
After Cendrillon, Jules Massenet’s music is once again in the limelight with Don Quichotte, his last opera – created in 1910 for the Russian bass Shaliapin – a work that has not been performed at the Opéra Bastille for over 20 years. The composer retained only a few of the main emblematic episodes of Cervantes’ lavish novel: Don Quixote’s love for Dulcinea, his knightly ways that lead him to pursue brigands in order to recover her necklace, his battle with the windmills and his death as he lies beside his 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 deeply lonely man, haunted by his memories.