If I had been languishing in obscurity for 250 years like Joseph Bodin de Boismortier I think I’d rather stay that way than be rescued by Hervé Niquet and the French “comedy” duo Dino and Shirley (Corinne and Gilles Benizio).  To be fair their take on Boismortier’s 1743 ballet-comédie Don Quichotte chez la duchesse isn’t nearly as bad as their previous brutal murder of Purcell’s King Arthur but it’s really weird and patchy.  It’s rather hard to describe in fact.  It’s a sort of mash up of farce, commedia, slapstick and pastiche in which bits of baroque opera occasionally break out.  It’s also staged as meta theatre with the stage interacting with the pit and Niquet himself ending up in the action.

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