According to Felix's friend Eduard Devrient, who was to sing the role of Camacho, "motherly fondness yearned to witness the son's great success".

[2] The music to Camacho indicates that he had carefully studied the operas of Carl Maria von Weber and of Mozart.

Despite Mendelssohn's youth, there are some striking features, including what is in effect a leitmotif played on the brass to characterise Don Quixote, which is also heard in the opening bars of the overture and in the opera's final cadence.

According to Devrient: The score was criticised with pitying deprecation, winding up with the following admonition – as Spontini led the young man to the window which was opposite to the dome of the Jewish church [synagogue] – 'Mon ami, il vous faut des idées grandes, grandes comme cette coupole'.

Devrient comments, "the house was crowded with well-wishers, and the applause was profuse and enthusiastic; the music however did not give genuine pleasure".

Rosmarie Hofmann (Quiteria), Andrea Ulbrich (Lucinda), Scot Weir (Basilio), Huw Rhys-Evans (Vivaldo), Nico van der Meel (Camacho), Waldemar Wild (Carrasco), Urban Malmberg (Sancho Panza), Ulrik Cold (Don Quixote).