Beschrijving

The opera ‘Don Quichotte’ by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was premiered in 1910 and was based on the play by Jacques La Lorrain. It is placed in the Spanish Middle Ages. The aria ‘Riez ,allez, riez du pauvre idéologue’ is sung by Sancho Pancha at the end of the fourth act: Don Quichotte brings back to Dulcinee her stolen necklace and expects that she now will become his beloved. He entreats her to marry him at once, but she disillusions him as to the kind of woman she is, much to the amusement of her guests who mock the Knight of the Mournful Countenance. But Sancho Pancha turns on them and rebukes them fiercely for their insensitivity, before leading his crestfallen master away.