19

Don Quichotte

opéra

projected

Libretto: after Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616).

Project: 1859, probably as part of his second envoi from Rome. Bizet seems to have abandoned the idea on learning (incorrectly) that Gounod was planning something similar. There had been Don Quixote operas by Clapisson (1847) and Hervé (1848). Barbier and Carré’s libretto for Ernest Boulanger (1869) may have originally been intended for Gounod.

Letter:
24-10-1859 Bizet to his mother:
'A propos, je caressais depuis quelque temps l’idée d’un Don Quichotte tragi-héroï-comique, et je lis dans un journal que Gounod y travaille. Il paraît que mes idées ne sont pas trop mauvaises.'
Ganderax, p. 200
Bibliography: