Don Quixote
Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera House, 15th August 2019
Don Who? It’s best to forget Cervantes when it comes to the ballet version of Don Quixote, especially in Alexei Fadeyechev’s three-year old Bolshoi production, last seen here at Covent Garden in 2016, a few months after its Moscow premiere. The Don is reduced to a minor character in his own story, a feeble framing device who is too often forgotten. Instead, go for a fiesta of fiery dancing as Kitri defies her innkeeper father to marry the man of her dreams, penniless barber Basilio (aided by the hapless Don).
Igor Tsvirko (Basilio) and Margarita Shrainer (Kitri)
© Natalia Voronova
Click here to read the full review – including a Russian translation – on Bachtrack.