Articles

The Enigma of the 1716 “Don Quixotte”

It all begins with an anomaly: in Uppsala, a dozen Italian arias are catalogued under the title of a German opera from 1690. Impossible. Years later, a libretto found in Copenhagen provides the key: these pieces belong to a “Don Quixotte” performed in 1716 to entertain Peter the Great. The next task was to shed light on the man associated with the work. Singer, composer, valet de chambre and even supplier of lemons to the Danish court, Theodorus Meyer gradually emerges from the shadows. A musical investigation with all the twists of a European treasure hunt, it also restores to view one of the few surviving traces of Italian opera at the court of Frederick IV.