Blissful Serenity? Massenet's 'Don Quichotte' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON 'The Sofia pit has performed throughout with a rationality that appears only fitfully on stage.'

Don Quixote of 1910 is near the end of Massenet's more than thirty catalogued operas. It has always worried me that Cervantes' 'knight of the rueful countenance' is crazy almost from the outset. Richard Strauss managed to fuddle him by the subtlest orchestral means, and Massenet has him as just a mildly deluded old man, with a very touching Sancho Panza the faithful chum. Forget the supposed opening outside Dulcinea's house, and the Don's death in a mountain pass at night...

JULES MASSENET

DYNAMIC SRL

SOFIA

BULGARIA