Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Don Quichotte, Comédie héroïqe in Five Acts (1910)
Gábor Bretz (Don Quichotte),
David Stout (Sancho Panza),
Anna Goryachova (Dulcinée),
Léonie Renaud (Pedro)
Vera Maria Bitter (Garcias)
Paul Schweinester (Rodriguez)
Patrick Reiter (Juan)
Elie Chapus (Bandit Chief)
Wiener Symphoniker, Prague Philharmonic Choir/Daniel Cohen,
Mariame Clément (director); Julia Hansen (sets and costumes); Ulrik Gad (lighting): Felix Breisach (video director)
Rec. live at the 2019 Bregenz Festival, Austria.
Picture: 1080i, Sound: PCM stereo and DTS HD MA 5.1 (Reviewed in PCM)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Japanes , Korean
Region code: A, B, C
C MAJOR Blu-ray 754104 [125 mins]
Massenet’s Don Quichotte which premiered in Monte Carlo in 1910 was the last truly successful opera of his career. The opera stands up well today due to its mixture of autumnal sadness and the colourful Spanish tint of the music which never fully breaks away from the sentimental charm of the Massenet style. The role of Don Quichotte has long been a favorite of star Basses such as Feodor Chaliapin, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and José van Dam, to name only three.
Director Mariame Clément staged the piece for the 2019 Bregenz Festival. Her approach was to try to take Don Quichotte back to the disjointed chaos of the Cervantes novel. Her staging is driven by her decision to separate each act of the opera into an unrelated story to match the writing style of Cervantes. It is important to point out that Massenet was not actually trying to replicate Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Henri le Cain’s libretto was not an adaptation of the novel itself but rather of an already watered-down and romanticized play, Le Chevalier de Longue Figure, by Jacques Le Lorrain. While I recognize that she has put a great deal of thought into how to stay to true to the spirit of the opera yet find something novel and energetic to look at on stage, I don’t agree with most of her choices. The opera is staged in a theatre within a theatre concept, where some of the characters watch the proceedings from the mostly empty front row seats. The first Act is staged with traditional sets and costumes in the manner of the 1910 premiere. For Act Two we are brought into the present day and we are placed inside Quixote’s rather spacious bathroom, as he has a shower while Sanzo Panza chatters away to him and plays with his laptop computer. There is no windmill but rather an air exchange fan which grows into monstrous proportions in Quixote’s mind. He uses items such as a hair dryer and a tube of toothpaste to battle the giant fan. The Act Three bandits are, rather predictably, a group of street thugs who take justified objection to Quixote in his Spiderman superhero costume. Act Four brings us into a very modern office complex with Dulcinée as a powerful office manager. In Act Five we return to the past, where Quixote represents tradition and Sancho is in very modern garb. While nothing in this staging betrays the essence of the opera, much of it is not really a good fit. One major directorial mistake occurs in her staging of the battle with the windmill: Quixote does not get trapped by the giant fan, which leaves the audience with no sense of the very real danger of his delusions. Although I may not agree with much of the staging I did find the entire production extremely well executed and there is a great deal to enjoy in this director’s approach.
Gábor Bretz is a very successful Quichotte. His sings with warm tone and truly managed to emulate the French style that is required for this role. This is a fairly remarkable achievement for a non French singer. His ability of capture French style is all the more striking considering that I recently reviewed another Massenet opera on DVD where a native born French singer made no attempt to deliver that sort of nuance in his singing. Bretz’s delivery of the charming song to the star is as delicate and tender as one could ever wish to hear. David Stout is a totally endearing Sancho Panza. The different guises that he has to adopt in each of the acts do not manage to hide the warmth of his characterization and his singing is superb. In this staging he becomes even more important as he is the steady anchoring feature that brings some unity to the disparity from one act to the next. Anna Goryachova is an absolutely stunning Dulcinée. Her skills as a Rossini mezzo come to good use in this role which requires a certain degree of viruosity to come off as the composer intended. Her scenes simply crackle with excitement and allure. It is no wonder that Quichotte is so taken with her. Her striking vocal performance puts her generally ahead of both Régine Crespin and Teresa Berganza on the Decca and EMI audio recordings of this work. I would still suggest that Crespin should be heard for her mastery of nuance, even though her voice was beginning to decline when she recorded the opera. The rest of the cast of minor roles are all exceedingly well rendered with no one person sounding unsuited to their role. Daniel Cohen brings real panache to his reading of the score, and he receives accomplished support from the musicians of the Wiener Symphoniker. The Preludes to each scene are miniature scene paintings in themselves and Cohen captures their moods brilliantly. The sound and picture of this Blu-ray are absolutely top notch and quite equal to C Major’s high standards in this area.
Mike Parr
Previous review (DVD): Roy Westbrook
