Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança is a one-act 'tableau grotesque' or 'grotesque scene' with music by Hervé after Cervantes,[1] first produced in 1847, which has been dubbed ‘the first French operetta’, and a precursor of the opéra bouffe.
[1] Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança was conceived as a vehicle for Desiré, a friend of Hervé, who had requested a piece for a benefit performance.
Desiré, short and plump as Sancho, was pitted against the tall and thin Quichotte of Hervé.
The piece was staged the following year on 6 March 1848 at Adolphe Adam's Opéra-National at the Cirque Olympique (with Hervé again playing Quichotte, and Joseph Kelm as Sancho), in a double-bill with Les barricades de 1848.
[2] Hervé recalled that the success of his piece led to the tunes becoming very popular in the vaudevilles of Paris and hummed all around the city.