US Edition 
Don Quichotte, Grange Park Opera, review: 'lacks drama'
If you're not a Massenet fan, you'll probably find this new production of his opera Don Quichotte a bit short on thrills, says Rupert Christiansen
Nearing the end of his life and career, Massenet wrote this gentle adaptation of Cervantes’ novel in 1910 as a vehicle for the great Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin, who wanted to prove that he could milk tear-ducts as well as shiver timbers. The result is an autumnal, elegiac score of considerable charm but not much oomph, in which the note of lachrymose sentiment teeters on maudlin self-pity.
Directing and designing, Charles Edwards has produced a staging framed by a historically valid but rather over-ingenious conceit which probably didn’t mean much to those in the audience who hadn’t done their homework.
Don Quichotte is incarnated as Massenet himself, taking the role in a dream performance in a private theatre when the lead singer falls ill. Old and tired, he clings to his romantic delusions and chivalric sensibility in the face of the ascendancy of a tougher new musical culture – embodied in the figures of the impresarios Astruc and Diaghilev, who become the kidnapping bandits of the piece, and Igor Stravinsky, who makes a monstrous appearance in the brilliant tilting-at-windmills scene.
Edwards is on to something here, and there is both wit and perception in his attractive recreation of Belle Époque taste: this is an affectionate and sensitive interpretation which does no violence to Massenet’s intentions.
But the storytelling gets knotted up in itself, especially in relation to Dulcinée, presented rather clumsily by a miscast Sara Fulgoni as a tempestuous diva hiding a heart of gold. She’s fruity rather than flighty, and her French is indistinct: a lighter touch and brighter timbre is required.
The other two principals are ideal. That masterly singing actor Clive Bayley gives a beautifully judged performance as the creakingly superannuated but indomitably honourable Quichotte, and I found his fifth-act determination to go down with the sinking ship very touching. David Stout is also first-rate as the doggedly loyal Sancho Panza. The remainder of the cast is pretty ropy in comparison.
The other pleasures of the evening are the shapely conducting of Renato Balsadonna, on leave from his job as the Royal Opera’s chorus master, and the expert playing of the BBC Concert Orchestra, which captured all the different moods of this fragrant if shallow score.
It’s one that Massenet fans like myself will be delighted to catch; others might leave feeling short-changed of high romance or thrilling drama.
Until July 9. Tickets: 01962 737373; grangeparkopera.co.uk