DON QUIXOTE LECTURE
CERVANTES: A FREE PRE-PERFORMANCE DON QUIXOTE LECTURE
Join us on opening night of Don Quixote for an engaging presentation with Ignacio Navarrete, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. This special pre-performance lecture offers the opportunity to dive deep into the rich literary origins, vibrant characters, and enduring cultural legacy of Cervantes’ work and the ballet Don Quixote. Before the curtain rises on this joyful production, hear insights about the parallels between the novel and the ballet, and the important role of free will in the marriage of Kitri and Basilio.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
DATE
Thursday, March 19, 2026
TIME
6:30-6:55 PM
LOCATION
War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
COST
Free, but a valid ticket to the March 19th performance is required. Open seating in the orchestra level for the pre-performance lecture.
Tickets
Performance tickets start at $35 for seats; standing-room-only (SRO) tickets are $10.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Ignacio Navarrete was born in Cuba and grew up in New York, but has lived in California for nearly 40 years. He is the author of Orphans of Petrarch: Poetry and Theory in the Spanish Renaissance (University of California Press), and Sneaking into Print: Mouvance and Narrative Culture in Spain circa 1500 (University of Toronto Press, 2026), as well as many articles on Early Modern Spanish literature. He has been the recipient of fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and others, and was honored with the Order of Isabela la Católica by the Spanish government. He has been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley since 1987, where he served as department chair for nine years. During that time, he taught a work by Cervantes almost every year. This current semester, he is teaching an upper-division course on Don Quixote in Spanish.
Presented in collaboration with the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC, and the Consulate General of Spain in San Francisco.
PHOTO CREDIT: Wona Park and Joseph Walsh in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote // © Erik Tomasson
PHOTO CREDIT: Nathaniel Remez in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote // © Erik Tomasson