Massenet: Don Quichotte

Berganza; Van Dam, Fondary; Capitole de Toulouse, Plasson. EMI CDCB7-54767 (2)

Composed for the Monte Carlo Opera, specifically for Feodor Chaliapin, who created the title role in 1910, Don Quichotte belies the popular notion that Massenet ran out of juice in his old age. Not only is the rich vein of romantic melody appealing, but Massenet and his librettist, Henri Cain, lent an edge of spice to the sweetness by emphasizing an underlying current of wry musical humor.

As the knight of the rueful countenance, José van Dam creates a character that springs to life in one's ears -- the elegant dryness his voice has developed of late adds to the immediacy of this recorded portrayal, and van Dam's mastery of word and musical phrasing remains at a peak of artistic accomplishment. Alain Fondary provides an equally well-defined Sancho, blustery, bemused, ultimately tender. Teresa Berganza's Dulcinée is the great surprise; although she was fifty-eight when this recording was made, in 1992, the youthful tone and suppleness of her voice make it seem as if time had stood still.

Having championed this repertory for over two decades onstage and in the studio, Michel Plasson reveals details of Massenet's orchestration without pedantry, for instance in the dawn music at the beginning of Act II, and he strikes the right balance between the composer's evocation of chivalric grandeur and the light, easy flexibility necessary to keep the pace going smoothly in conversational passages.

- BARRYMORE LAURENCE SCHERER