Don Quichotte

Who doesn't know him: Don Quixote, or in French, Don Quichotte, the melancholy hero of La Mancha, who tilts at windmills on an old plow horse to win the heart of his beautiful Dulcinea? With his fantastical twist on reality, the knight is one of the most important figures in literary history. Images, adaptations, and parodies of his character have persisted through the centuries.

In Jules Massenet's opera, first performed in Monte Carlo in 1910, Cervantes's mad knight becomes a tragic hero destined to be broken by the cruelty of the world. For Dulcinée, Quixote sets out to find a necklace supposedly stolen from the beauty by a band of robbers: a cruel joke at the hero's expense. But, thank goodness for imagination! Don Quixote bravely battles giants and other fantastical creatures, redeems the robbers, and even recovers the imaginary pearl necklace. Despite all his efforts, Dulcinée does not reciprocate his desires. His illusions are shattered by the harsh realities of life.

With French elegance and delicate melancholy, illusion and reality intertwine in this late Romantic classic, where Quixote emerges as a brilliant dreamer. Directed by Julia Burbach, the dance and music theatre ensemble of the Tyrolean State Theatre presents an evening full of love, wit, and sadness, which speaks subtly of the difficulty of believing in beauty, goodness, and truth even where they are not.

Recommended for ages 12 and up

program

Don Quichotte
Comédie-héroïque in fünf Akten von Jules Massenet
Libretto von Henri Cain
In französischer Sprache mit deutschen Übertiteln

Place

Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck (English: Tyrolean State Theatre) is the state theatre in Innsbruck, Austria, located near the historic Altstadt (Old Town) section of the city. The theatre is surrounded by Imperial Hofburg, the Hofgarten, and SOWI Faculty of the University of Innsbruck. The main theatre has about 800 seats and the studio theatre in the basement has around 250. Plays, operas, operettas, musicals and dance theatre are performed at the theatre.