A very particular form of reception of the Don Quijote de la Mancha is musical reception. In transcoding from narrative prose to the language of the Opera, the librettist shows his personal knowledge of the work of Miguel de Cervantes, read in the original text or in translation. Since the eighteenth century, in some librettos written in Italian, adherence to the hypotext, albeit interpreted in a new light, leads in some passages to an authentic rewriting of the play. The aim of this article is to show the processes of transcoding de Cervantes’ novels based on significant Italian librettists.

Don Quichotte, an opera by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Cain first performed in 1910, is one of the most suggestive examples of a transposition of a literary theme to musical theatre and of a creative adaptation of a literary source-text into an operatic libretto. This article explores the manner in which the opera creates a musical portrait of the main character and presents an interpretation of the opera’s narrative. The analysis is conducted on two levels, textual (the libretto) and musical (the score). The conclusion, apart from its summarizing function, offers an answer to the question about the attractiveness of the Don Quixote theme for musical adaptations.