Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, also known simply
as Don Quixote, is arguably the most
famous work of Spanish literature in history. The first part was published in
1605 while the second part was published ten years later. The novel was
transformed into the French opera Don
Quichotte in 1910 by Jules Massenet. In this paper, I will be referring to
the opera, not the novel.
The first act takes place outside of Dulcinée’s house.
Her admirers are attempting to win her over, but she is not interested. Don
Quichotte enters the courtyard atop his horse, Rossinante, along with his
squire Sancho Panzo who rides a donkey. Don Quichotte serenades Dulcinée, but
he is the confronted by Juan, another admirer. The two men engage in a sword
fight, but Dulcinée intervenes. She is impressed by Don Quichotte and scolds
Juan. Dulcinée asks Don Quiochette to retrieve her pearl necklace which was
stolen by the bandit chief Ténébrun. Don Quiochette and Sancho then head out in
search of the bandits.
Act 2 takes place out in the countryside. Don Quiochette
is writing a love poem about Dulcinée. Sancho, on the other hand, is
complaining about essentially everything about their journey. In rolls a thick
mist. There are windmills in the distance, but Don Quichotte mistakes them for
giants. He attacks one of them, but is lifted into the air by the windmill’s
sail.
In the third act, Don Quichotte and Sancho set up camp in
the mountains. As night approaches, Don Quichotte takes the first watch while
Sancho sleeps. Bandits appear. Sancho escapes, but Don Quichotte is captured. He
is giving a beating and begins to pray. Ténébrun is moved by the prayer and
lets him go. Don Quichotte explains his mission, and Ténébrun returns the
necklace.
Don Quichotte and Sancho return the necklace to Dulcinée
in Act 4. Don Quiochotte asks Dulcinée for her hand in marriage. However,
everyone at the party erupts with laughter upon hearing this. Dulcinée refuses
because Don Quichotte and she lead different walks of life.
In the fifth and final act, Don Quichotte is dying. He
looks up into the starry night sky and is reminded of Dulcinée. He then
breathes his last breath. Sancho weeps over his body, and the opera comes to an
end.
If Don Quichotte
were a video game, I would give it a steampunk theme. The majority of the
action and gameplay would occur in the first three acts. The player would have
full control over Don Quichotte in the first act during his duel with Juan.
Each character would have a health bar. Depleting Juan’s health would trigger a
cutscene in which Dulcinée intervenes.
After the cutscene, the player gains control over Don
Quichotte again. Sancho would be a CPU character that follows and works with
the player. Here is where I take artistic license. The mist that Don Quichotte
and Sancho experience in the countryside has some sort of hallucinogenic power.
It cause the characters to see giants in the distance. In this instance, the
player must fight one of the giants. After the giant is defeated, a cutscene
explains that our heroes were hallucinating due to the mist, and they were
really just attacking a windmill.
Before being captured by the bandits in the third act,
the player must fend off as may combatants as possible. However, since Don
Quichotte is to be captured, the player will eventually be overwhelmed. But yet
again, in comes the artistic license. Sancho would, instead of running away,
free Don Quichotte from the bandits. Now, the player must defeat Ténébrun. The
rest of the opera is essentially without action. Therefore, the game would end
with a cutscene of the fourth and fifth acts.
