An Exploration of Massenet's Don Quichotte by Warwick Fyfe

The Literary Masterpiece

Don Quixote (Don Quichotte), Miguel de Cervantes’ two-part novel published in 1605 and 1615, is regarded as the first modern novel and a key work of Western literature. It tells the story of Alonso Quixano, a nobleman so captivated by chivalric tales that he sets out as a knight-errant to restore the age of chivalry, accompanied by his loyal squire, Sancho Panza.

Jules Massenet's Opera

Don Quichotte is a five-act opera by Jules Massenet, with a French libretto by Henri Caïn, first performed in Montecarlo in 1910. Loosely based on Cervantes' classic and inspired by Jacques Le Lorrain’s Le chevalier de la longue figure, it reimagines the story with Dulcinée as a sophisticated local beauty who inspires Don Quichotte’s adventures.

The Speaker

Warwick Fyfe is an internationally acclaimed Australian heldenbaritone celebrated for his commanding Wagner performances. In 2015, he earned a Churchill Fellowship to study Wagnerian vocal technique across Germany, the US, and the UK.

He has performed with New Zealand Opera, English Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Finnish National Opera, and has appeared in Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, and China. Recent highlights include Sancho Panza in Opera Australia’s Don Quichotte, plus powerful roles such as Hans Sachs, Scarpia, Alberich, Wotan, the Speaker in Gurre-Lieder, and Vodnik in Rusalka.