Rent Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse: Le Concert Spirituel (2015)

An 18th century comic opera - Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse: Le Concert Spirituel review by Chris Tew

This piece was recorded by the same group for Naxos in the 1990’s.However it gains considerably by being seen in the theatre in the palace of Versailles.There are 4 main characters;Don Quixote and Sancho Panza,The duchess and a narrator.The production is lovely.The music is a mixture of French recitative with short airs and dances.There is a scene towards the end where there is a march for a Japanese man who sings nonsense which is “translated” into French by a bass which is very good.There is spoken dialogue so the video is twice the length of the audio CD.there are two interludes.In one the conductor sings in a matador outfit what sounds like a Maurice Chevalier song in French and a lady in Spanish costume sings a Zarzeula song in Spanish.The audience enjoyed it as I did very much.