Don Quichotte is a 1910 French opera by Jules Massenet, based on a play by Jacques de Lorraine which was in turn loosely based on Don Quixote.
The opera contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: As usual with Don Quixote adaptations, the titular character is a noble misunderstood dreamer who is so pure of heart that robbers refuse to kill him. His major jerkass tendencies from the novel are completely absent.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Aldonza from the original novel, who was pretty much just there to be turned into Don Quixote's Courtly Love ideal, becomes the manipulative and flirtatious Dulcinée.
- Cock Fight: Don Quichotte is attacked by Juan, another of Dulcinée's suitors, and they fight until Dulcinée puts a stop to it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Don Quichotte is overwhelmed by a crowd of robbers, he is predictably defeated pretty quickly.
- Downer Ending: Don Quichotte dies, and the noble age of chivalry dies with him.
- Dude Magnet: Apart from Don Quichotte, Dulcinée has at least four passionate admirers.
- Engagement Challenge: Dulcinée lets Don Quichotte think that returning her stolen necklace would be a case of the trope for him. In truth, though, she never intends to marry him at all.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Is Dulcinée genuinely remorseful about toying with Don Quichotte's feelings? Absolutely yes. Does it mean she will now marry him as characters of romance novels and occasionally operas are wont to do in such situations? Absolutely not. Heel–Face Turn or not, she doesn't love him, and a relationship between a twenty-year-old party girl and an elderly Born in the Wrong Century wandering knight won't work.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Tenebrun and his bandit gang have a change of heart, moved by the humble prayer of Don Quichotte, return Dulcinée's necklace to him, and let him leave unharmed while asking for his blessing.
- Dulcinée has a Heel Realization about her callous manipulation of Don Quichotte.
- May–December Romance: Don Quichotte is elderly but is in love with twenty-year-old Dulcinée. However, given how he is somewhat detached from reality, it's not even clear if he realizes the difference exists.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Dulcinée is remorseful after she sees how broken Don Quichotte is by her mocking, and apologizes for having manipulated him.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: When Don Quichotte asks Dulcinée to marry him in the third act, at first she rudely mocks him for even supposing she could accept. As she sees he is heartbroken (and realizes that she has manipulated him into thinking he had a chance), she apologizes and explains more gently why the two of them won't work.
- Stringing the Hopeless Suitor Along: Dulcinée has zero intentions of marrying Don Quichotte, but she finds his Old-School Chivalry amusing and flirts with him.
- Windmill Crusader: The signature scene from the novel of Don Quichotte mistaking windmills for giants is retained here.
