Christian Van Horn convincing as a depressive writer

Back on the Bastille stage after more than 20 years of absence, Jules Massenet’s latest opera, Damiano Michieletto version, is all about interiority and suffering. “Don Quixote”, a poetic opera about a lonely man, whom hope has abandoned.

The curtain opens onto a cold, bourgeois living room. A man drinks whiskey and angrily crumples up leaves before throwing them at his feet. Don QuixoteDamiano Michieletto version, given until June 11 at the Opéra Bastille, is a fifty-year-old, well-established writer in need of inspiration. All interiority, the character is deserted by flamboyance, madness. He is bored and dreams of love to come back to life.

Christian Van Horn does not fight against windmills but against his own demons. The American baritone plays a depressed contemporary Don Quixote who drowns his unhappiness in alcohol and barbiturates.

The equation is insoluble, and therefore the love between Don Quixote and Dulcinea is impossible. The first dreams of possession and marriage, the second of freedom and love. Gaëlle Arquez propels Dulcinée into a tragic dimension.

The mezzo-soprano, with an impressive stage presence, embodies a deep character beneath her air of lightness, a sincere and free woman. Dulcinea does not want to live in a castle but to continue to belong to herself.

And if Don Quixote, before being a love story, was a “bromance”, a very strong friendship between the exalted knight and his faithful squire Sancho Panza? Don Quixote is lonely, solitary, and without a family. His love for Dulcinea is a desperate attempt to move away from himself and toward others.

His servant Sancho, played by a subtle and sardonic Étienne Dupuis, is what connects him to the rest of humanity. The complicity between the two characters is striking. They have gone beyond the hierarchical relationship between a master and his servant. They are friends, brothers, who hide nothing from each other.

The trio Christian Van Horn, Gaëlle Arquez and Étienne Dupuis, supported by musical direction inspired by Patrick Fournillier, works perfectly. The conductor received numerous ovations from an enthusiastic audience.

Another important character in this opera created by Jules Massenet in 1910: the decor. The scenic finds are spectacular. Don Quixote’s demons cross the walls, come out of the sofa, the floor… And the settings embrace Don Quixote’s state of mind, from dejection to exaltation. The nuances are translated on stage.

THE Don Quixote by Damiano Michieletto is a vulnerable character, incurably human, fragile in his quest for an illusory absolute. Through his physique and his voice, Christian Van Horn accentuates this imbalance, this fight between the death drive and the desire to (sur)live. Don Quixote, a poetic work about a man whose hope has abandoned.

Title : Don Quixote

Gender : heroic comedy in five acts

According to Jacque Le Lorrain, inspired by the novel by Miguel Cervantes

Duration : 2h25, with an intermission

Music : Jules Massenet

Booklet: Henry Cain

Musical direction: Patrick Fournillier

Staging: Damiano Michieletto

Decors: Paolo Fantin

Suits: Agostino Cavalca

Lights: Alessandro Carletti

Distribution : Gaëlle Arquez, Christian Van Horn, Gàbor Bretz, Etienne Dupuis, Emy Gazeilles, Marine Chagnon, Samy Camps, Nicolas Jones

Place : Opéra Bastille, Place de la Bastille, 75012, Paris

Dates: Until June 11, 2024