The composer Cristóbal Halffter wrote his first opera when he was nearly 70 years old, so it is a completely mature musical piece.
To a libretto by Andrés Amorós, Halffter recreates the myth or archetype of Don Quixote based on the legendary novel by Miguel de Cervantes and on how other Spanish poets have dealt with it, too.
It is an opera in a single act, with a prologue, six scenes and a short finale. Halffter uses refined musical language, not experimental, alternating between highly expressive and intimist moments.
The idea in the opera is the need for a utopia in our world today. The dialectical tension between repression and freedom comes alive on stage, with a dialectical encounter between Cervantes and Don Quixote, where musical and poetic pieces by writers such as Juan del Encina, Jorge Manrique, Saint John of the Cross, Pedro Salinas and Antonio Machado appear sotto voce.
