"Don Quichotte"

            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.