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FERRUCCIO FURLANETTO: THE WORLD'S GREATEST BASS IN HIS SIGNATURE ROLE
REMIERE COC P
C
ervantes’ iconic novel about the idealistic dreamer, Don Quixote, inspired Massenet’s autumnal outpouring of lush melody and Spanish dance rhythms in his opera Don Quichotte. Ferruccio Furlanetto, the world’s pre-eminent bass, makes his COC debut in the intensely moving title role. Fellow Met star, mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, debuts as Dulcinée while baritone Quinn Kelsey, a sensational Rigoletto in 2011, returns as Sancho Panza. Don Quichotte is permeated with a world-weary, nostalgic air which touchingly evokes the title character’s growing awareness of his encroaching mortality. Without neglecting the story’s comic episodes, Massenet imbues his wandering knight with a resigned insight which he uses to teach the younger people around him a few sad, but vital life lessons. A product of the composer’s final decade, this heroic comedy not only represents Massenet’s tribute to the last days of chivalry, but also his own poignant farewell to a soon-tobe-lost golden age of French Romanticism. Don Quichotte, Sancho Panza, Dulcinée and a donkey spring from book to stage in this charming adaptation of Cervantes’ masterpiece.
Prelude Magazine 25