Don Quixote in Canada

The evening began at Torito, a tapas bar on Toronto's Augusta Avenue. A glass of bone-dry Txakoli set up the lamb's lettuce and balsamic vinaigrette of the apple and pear salad with burata cheese. The Spanish omelet was perfection, with tasty, tender potatoes in a nicely seasoned soufflé, accompanied by a slow-roasted aioli dipping sauce. The meatballs were a savory balance of peppered lamb, tomato preserves and mint sauce. A thimble of Manzanilla, with the metallic saltiness of Spain's ocean climate, capped the dinner.

The evening's entertainment was the Canadian Opera Company's production of Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte. The opera is based not so much on Cervantes's vast novel, but on Jacques Le Lorrain's stage adaptation. This allowed five compact acts that ran two and a half hours with one intermission. 

At the top of Act One we met Dulcinée, the object of Don Quixote's passion. Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili had a plummy voice and a voluptuous stage presence that suited the role perfectly. You could imagine her Dulcinée as an ancestor of Bizet's Carmen. 

Enter Don Quixote on his scrawny horse, Rosinante. Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, now sixty-five years old, still has the voice to carry to the top balcony. With a lifetime of stage experience behind him, he knows how to maximize dramatic effect with ecomomic means. 

Sancho Panza followed on his donkey. Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey comically portrayed the bumptious sidekick, yet was sympathetic in his steadfast devotion to his misguided master.

The set was a shifting configuration of gigantic tomes, representing the tales of chivalry that unhinged Quixote's grip on reality. Gigantic quills in gigantic ink pots became the windmills that the hero mistook for menacing giants. Lighting effects set the stage spinning, and Furlanetto gamely climbed a stack of volumes to end up sprawled on the ledge of a gigantic book spine.

A quintet of flamenco dancers augmented the chorus to give movement and a sense of specific location to the crowd scenes. The orchestra was sure-footed in the score's Franco-Hispanic idiom, and the musical interludes drew particular applause. The entire evening went so smoothly that you would never have guessed that Derek Bate was just the fill-in conductor for this one performance. Bravo!