Director - Askar Abdrazakov
Production designer, director - Ivan Skladchikov
Musical director - Artem Makarov
Choirmaster - Alexander Alekseev
Choreographer - Irina Filippova
Lighting designer - Irina Tuesday
Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre production
Synopsis
Act 1
In the square of a small Spanish town, people are having fun and dancing. Visitors to the tavern glorify the beautiful Dulcinea, four admirers - Pedro, Garcia, Rodriguez and Juan - gather under her balcony. However, the beautiful Dulcinea, despite universal adoration, feels a strange dissatisfaction - she longs to meet a real knight.
Laughter and exclamations are heard as the crowd greets Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Juan mocks the knight's ridiculous appearance and his glorification of the Beautiful Lady. Rodriguez, on the other hand, admires the beauty of the soul and the courage with which he protects widows and orphans. Don Quixote is unperturbed. The knight orders his squire Sancho Panse to distribute money to the poor and crippled. The crowd disperses. Sancho goes to the tavern. The night is coming.
A knight in love sings a serenade to Dulcinea. Jealous Juan interrupts him and challenges him to a duel. Appearing Dulcinea stops the fight that has begun. Don Quixote announces to the beauty that from now on he will serve her. She, laughing, asks him to return the necklace stolen from her by the robbers as proof of loyalty. Don Quixote immediately sets out on the road.
The morning dawn finds Don Quixote and Sancho on their way. Windmills are barely visible in the dawn fog. Don Quixote chooses rhymes for a song in honor of Dulcinea.
Sancho is dissatisfied with this extravagant campaign, confident that the beauty laughed at them. Outraged by his master's naivety, Sancho bursts into an angry tirade against all women on earth. The fog clears, and Don Quixote takes the mills for giants trying to stop him. To Sancho's horror, he fights them.
Act 2
Don Quixote is chasing robbers. When he stops to rest - standing, in armor and weapons, as befits a knight - the robbers appear. Don Quixote sends Sancho away and enters into battle with the robbers, but he is defeated and tied up. The bandits laugh at him and are ready to hang him. However, Don Quixote's “deathbed” prayer and the eloquent story of the errant knight's mission are so touching that the stone hearts of hardened criminals soften, and their leader not only frees Don Quixote, but also returns Dulcinea's necklace. Don Quixote blesses the robbers and goes home victorious.
Act 3
There is a celebration in the garden of Dulcinea. However, the admirers are tired of the beauty. She thinks about how short-lived love is. But then her mood changes and Dulcinea sings a song praising the joys of short hours of real passion. As the guests go to feast in the dining room, Sancho Panza appears and pompously announces the arrival of Don Quixote.
Don Quixote, anticipating that his wanderings are coming to an end, promises Sancho an island or a castle as a reward for his faithful service. In the presence of the guests returning to the garden, he gives Dulcinea her necklace and asks to become his wife. Dulcinea is pleased with the necklace but refuses the marriage proposal. Sending away the guests, she consoles Don Quixote, who has fallen into despair, with the fact that she feels affection and tenderness for him, but is unworthy of his love. The guests return again and laugh at the poor knight. But then Sancho stands up for his master, overwhelmed by Dulcinea's refusal, and takes him away.
On a mountain path, Don Quixote is resting, leaning on a tree trunk. Sancho tries to comfort him as best he can. Feeling the approach of death, the old knight recalls his promise to reward Sancho with an island - the island of dreams.
Thinking about Dulcinea, Don Quixote dies. Sancho Panza sobs inconsolably.