Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse

Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (Don Quixote at the Duchess) is a "comic ballet" (comédie lyrique) by the French baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Although it is described as a ballet, it is sung throughout with a libretto by Charles Simon Favart.

Performance history
It was first performed on 12 February 1743 at the Académie Royale de Musique et de Dance in Paris.

Roles

 * Don Quichotte, haute-contre Jean-Antoine Bérard
 * Sancho Pança, taille (baritenor) Louis-Antoine Cuvilliers
 * Altisidore, soprano Marie Fel
 * Peasant girl, soprano Mlle Bourbonnois
 * Woman, soprano
 * Duke, bass
 * Merlin, basse-taille (bass-baritone) Person
 * Montésinos, basse-taille Albert
 * Japanese man, basse-taille Person
 * Japanese woman, soprano Marie Fel
 * Enchanted lovers, sopranos Mlles Clairon and Gondré
 * Ballerinas, Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo and Mimi Dallemand
 * Male dancers, David Dumoulin, Louis Dupré and Jean-Barthélemy Lany

Synopsis
The opera is based upon an episode in the Cervantes novel Don Quixote, in which a Duke and Duchess amuse themselves by creating an elaborate ruse to fool the title character.

Discography

 * Don Quichotte chez la la Duchesse (Comic Ballet in Three Acts), by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Hervé Niquet (conductor) and the ensemble Le Concert Spirituel; Naxos 8.553647 (1996).