Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (Don Quixote at the Duchess) is a "comic ballet" (comédie lyrique) by the French baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Although it is described as a ballet, it is sung throughout with a libretto by Charles Simon Favart.
Performance history
It was first performed on 12 February 1743 at the Académie Royale de Musique et de Dance in Paris.
Roles
- Don Quichotte, haute-contre Jean-Antoine Bérard
- Sancho Pança, taille (baritenor) Louis-Antoine Cuvilliers
- Altisidore, soprano Marie Fel
- Peasant girl, soprano Mlle Bourbonnois
- Woman, soprano
- Duke, bass
- Merlin, basse-taille (bass-baritone) Person
- Montésinos, basse-taille Albert
- Japanese man, basse-taille Person
- Japanese woman, soprano Marie Fel
- Enchanted lovers, sopranos Mlles Clairon and Gondré
- Ballerinas, Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo and Mimi Dallemand
- Male dancers, David Dumoulin, Louis Dupré and Jean-Barthélemy Lany
Synopsis
The opera is based upon an episode in the Cervantes novel Don Quixote, in which a Duke and Duchess amuse themselves by creating an elaborate ruse to fool the title character.
Discography
- Don Quichotte chez la la Duchesse (Comic Ballet in Three Acts), by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Hervé Niquet (conductor) and the ensemble Le Concert Spirituel; Naxos 8.553647 (1996).
See also
References
- Pitou, Spire, The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815, Greenwood Press, Westport/London, 1985 (article: "Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse", p. 168), ISBN 0-313-24394-8
- Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
- Le magazine de l'opéra baroque, accessed 2 April 2010
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