Don Quichotte

Who hasn’t heard of him: Don Quixote, or in French, Don Quichotte, the tragic hero of La Mancha, who rides an old plough horse into battle against windmills to win the favour of his beloved Dulcinée, also known as Dulcinea? With his imaginative detachment from reality, the knight ranks among the most significant figures in literary history. Images, adaptations and parodies of his character have spanned the centuries.

In Jules Massenet’s opera, which premiered in Monte Carlo in 1910, Cervantes’ mad knight becomes a tragic hero who is shattered by the cruelty of the world. For Dulcinée’s sake, Quichotte sets out in search of a necklace that was supposedly stolen from the beauty by a band of robbers: a cruel joke at the hero’s expense. Yet: thanks to his imagination! Don Quichotte bravely battles giants and other delusional figures, converts the robbers and even tracks down the imaginary pearl necklace. Despite all this, Dulcinée does not heed him. His illusions shatter against the reality of life as it is.

With French elegance and delicate melancholy, illusion and reality intertwine in this late Romantic classic, with Quixote emerging as a brilliant dreamer. Directed by Julia Burbach, the dance and music theatre ensemble of the Tyrolean State Theatre present an evening full of love, wit and sadness, which speaks lightly of the burden of believing in the beautiful, the good and the true even where they do not exist.