Sancho Panza becomes a member of the ruling class this Sunday night at 8 on the Lyric Stage, in the one act comic opera Sancho Panza, by Francois Philador. The French composer lived
from 1726 to 1795, and his musical legacy is based on the his 20 comic operas, eight of which he wrote between 1759 and 1765. One of these was his 1762 one act Sancho Panza. His librettist Antoine Poinsinet took an incident from Don Quixote in which Sancho becomes governor of the fictitious island Barataria, where he develops delusions of grandeur. A succession of characters plot to cure him of these delusions, and eventually he resigns, wanting only to return home to his wife and also his friend Don Quixote. The opera ends with all singing about how everyone should know their place in life.
Ryan Brown leads the soloists and orchestra of the always excellent Opera LaFayette company.