Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (Boismortier) Versailles 2015 Niquet

Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles, France
December 2015

CAST

François-Nicolas Geslot – Don Quichotte
Marc Labonnette – Sancho Panza
Chantal Santon-Jeffery – Altisidore, la Japonaise
NN Montesinos – Merlin, le Duc, le Japonais
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Conductor: Herve Niquet
Orchestra: Le Concert Spirituel

Stage Director: Corinne Benizio alias Shirley, Gilles alias Dino
Daniel Bevan – Décors
Anaïs Heureaux, Charlotte Winter – Costumes
Jacques Rouveyrollis – Lumières
Philippe Lafeuille – Chorégraphie
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Don Quixote chez la Duchesse , Op. 97, is a Baroque opera (or opera-ballet or comedy-ballet )by the French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier with a libretto by Charles-Simon Favart , first performed in 1743 in Paris. The story is inspired by the novel of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes .

Historical
This opera was performed two years before the first performance of Platée by Jean-Philippe Rameau , which took place on March 31, 1745 in Versailles , another comic opera due to the burlesque character of its homonymous main character. At the same time, the librettist Charles-Simon Favart gave, a year earlier and at the Académie Royale de Musique, a parody of Hippolyte et Aricie also by this composer. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier and the librettist met at the Foire Saint-Laurent because the composer was hired there as sous-conduct and Charles-Simon Favart as director. They decided to join forces to write a comic opera. Don Quichotte is the first work in the opera genre written by the composer and the second libretto by Favart. It was composed for the Paris Carnival of 1743 to serve a royal commission.

The opera premiered on February 12, 1743 at the Académie Royale de Paris in the Grande Salle du Théâtre du Palais-Royal. During this first performance, the opera ballet was followed by a revival of Les Amours de Ragonde , by Mouret

Synopsis

Prologue
The Duke and Duchess, ardent readers of Miguel de Cervantes, recognize Don Quixote and Sancho entering their lands. They therefore organize a farce in the castle theater transformed into a fake forest to mock the knight’s naiveté.

Act I
A forest: the duke calls the hero for help, making him believe that the duchess is being attacked by a monster. To keep Quixote, the duchess pretends to love him, but he, in love with Dulcinea, rejects her and leaves. Sancho, who wants to stay in the castle, makes Quixote believe, with the complicity of the Duchess, that Dulcinea is hiding in the valley, transformed into a peasant by a spell. The Duke, disguised as Merlin, comes to tell Quixote that he must go to Montesinos and give Sancho a thousand blows with his stick so that Dulcinea becomes herself again.

Act II
Montesinos’ Cave: Sancho returns and claims to have beaten himself, when the Duchess presents herself as the Queen of Japan. She tries again to seduce Don Quixote; but, faced with another refusal, she lets her fury burst forth. Don Quixote then rushes to fight a giant guarding the entrance to Montesinos’ Cave. The latter announces the knight’s victory, but warns him that Dulcinea’s spell is not yet broken because Sancho has not received the blows. It is then that the Duchess, still angry, turns the hero and his servant into bears and monkeys.

Act III
The Duchess’s Gardens: The Duchess’s servants pretend to take Quixote and Sancho for animals. When Sancho tries to convince the knight to accept Altisidore’s love and riches, he remains unmoved. Merlin reappears and frees the two heroes from the spell, then offers the knight Dulcinea and the empire of Japan, and the squire the love of an infanta. The Japanese celebrate the hero’s courage.

Quoted from Wikipedia