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Bob’s
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Reviews — The New York Times
From the New York Times - January 1, 1911
‘DON QUICHOTTE’ APPLAUDED
Massenet’s Opera Delights Paris,
Where It is at Last Presented.
Paris, Dec. 31. - Massenet’s “Don Quichotte” has at last been presented in Paris. The first performance, at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, on Thursday night, fully sustained the reputation which had preceded it from its production in the Riviera many months ago.
Henri Cain, the librettist, has happily portrayed the chief characteristics of the Knight of melancholy countenance and his faithful, but pusillanimous follower Sancho Panza. Massenet’s score is equally successful in its gay, emotional movement. The tableaux in the opera are exceedingly picturesque and were as much acclaimed as were the music and the singers.
The attack on the windmill reminds one of Gustave Dor‚’s famous illustration. In the fifth and last act, Don Quichotte, after the marriage, dies in the forest while addressing to Sancho Panza sublime word of kindness, hope, and faith. The curtain falls with Sancho Panza in tears.
The words put in the mouth of Dulcin‚e give the key to the spirit of the opera. Courtiers and flatterers surrounding her deriding Don Quichotte as a fool. “Yes,” she murmurs, “a fool, maybe…but…with the soul of an angel!”*
* Last quote taken from the score, microfilm too dark to read.
Last updated December 30, 2006