Cristóbal Halffter
Don Quijote
Short instrumentation: 4 4 4 4 - 6 4 4 1 - perc(4), hp, cemb, str, tape; on stage: tpt(3), tbn(3)
Duration: 115'
Übersetzer: Sieglinde Oehrlein
Dedication: a Sebastian Battaner, con mi amistad y gratitud
Choir: SATB, 3 speakers
Roles:
Dulcinea
soprano Aldonza
soprano Sancho
tenor Cervantes
baritone Don Quijote
baritone Moza 1 - Sobrina
soprano Moza 2 - Moza
mezzo-soprano Moza 3 - Ama
alto Ventero - Barbero
tenor Mozo 1 - Licenciado
baritone Mozo 2 - Cura
bass
Instrumentation details:
1st flute
2nd flute (+picc)
3rd flute (+picc)
4th flute (+picc)
1st oboe
2nd oboe
3rd oboe
cor anglais
1st clarinet in Bb
2nd clarinet in Bb
3rd clarinet in Bb (+cl(Eb))
4th clarinet in Bb (+bass cl(Bb))
1st bassoon
2nd bassoon
3rd bassoon
4th bassoon (+cbsn)
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
3rd horn in F
4th horn in F
5th horn in F
6th horn in F
1st trumpet in C (+picc.tpt)
2nd trumpet in C
3rd trumpet in C
4th trumpet in C
1st trombone
2nd trombone
3rd trombone
4th trombone (+bass tuba)
bass tuba
1st percussion
2nd percussion
3rd percussion
4th percussion
harp
hpsd (+e.pno, slightly amplified)
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
contrabass
on stage: 1st trumpet in C
2nd trumpet in C
3rd trumpet in C
1st trombone
2nd trombone
3rd trombone
Halffter - Don Quijote
Audio preview
Work introduction
To look into Cristóbal Halffter’s music is always to peer into his life as well. This becomes clear enough when one considers his opera Don Quijote. Halffter chose material by an author who, like himself, always worked in the area of conflict between artistic freedom and political tyranny. Yet in their art both these figures committed themselves exclusively to humanity. With his Don Quijote Cervantes became a Spanish national hero; Halffter, through his artistic autonomy under Franco’s dictatorship, grew into a moral authority, a role model for a new Spain committed to humanist values. Halffter’s opera is based on the essential scenes of his literary source but, not least in its fictitious conversations between Cervantes and his knightly hero, develops into a grandiose discussion on the political meaning of mythic dreaming. Halffter cloaks this utopian subject matter in a powerful musical language that runs the gamut of almost all the emotions, from the ethereal amorous whispers of Dulcinea and Aldonza, to the brutal passion of the fanatic crowd which believes that it has destroyed the works of the West’s greatest spirits by fire.