Don Quichotte

Of Jules Massenet’s some 25 operas, Don Quichotte is one of his few to be still produced – and yet until now never in Australia.  

With the name role of Cervantes’ legendary old knight, tilting at windmills, the opera is a star vehicle, so it was a shock on opening night when Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto was announced as ill, and replaced by the young Australian understudy Shane Lowrencev.

Lowrencev began, of course, underpowered vocally, but held true to character as the thin, long legged eccentric, on his quest for moral revival and the love of Dulcinee. 

It’s a clear, psychologically rewarding story told across five richly set acts in this sumptuous if conventional production from San Diego Opera (set by Ralph Funicello, 17^th century costumes by Missy West).   

Massenet’s lyrical score is beautifully expressive of each setting and matched to the Henri Cain’s libretto: ever shifting, halting melodies, from triumphant to whispering – if the whole, arguably, lacks a dramatic drive to sweep along our emotional involvement.  Long musical interludes between acts don’t help.

Elena Maximova finely captures the melancholic ennui of Dulcinee, here in the opera elevated from Cervantes’ serving wench to the town’s desirable heiress, chased by suitors but interested in none.   Bass Warwick Fyfe makes a splendidly witty Sancho, base and cowardly, but movingly assertive when singing back to those who mock his master.

With the two leads both basses, Massinet’s changeable score and a overly well-behaved chorus, it’s a stolid start for the opera.  But as we experience Quichotte’s power to dream, to inspire purity of purpose, the opera finally blossums into some stunning melodies and our conversion to this ancient, much-told story.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Prudence Upton