Royal Ballet, Don Quixote: The Royal Opera House

Carlos Acostas, ballet's favourite leading man, restages of one of the most “hard-to-get-right” ballets in the traditional repertoire, Don Quixote. It returns to Covent Garden, where it premièred last season to general acclaim.
Set in the sun-drenched region of Castille in central Spain, the three-act ballet, (first choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1869) blends elements from the masterpiece of 17th century Spanish literature, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, with the travails of two young lovers, Kitri and the village barber, Basilio.
Don Quixote, perhaps best known for his propensity to tilt at windmills, interrupts his quest for grand acts of chivalry and the ideal woman, Dulcinea, to help Kitri and Basilio, whose love for each other clashes with the plans of the girl’s innkeeper father to marry his daughter to a rich, foppish nobleman.
Misunderstandings and much jollity ensue.
Acosta has danced the role of Basilio in several versions of the ballet, which has long been popular in his native Cuba . For his own production he mixes the traditional, bravura choreography (including Kitri’s 32 fouettés in Act III) with movement that is more contemporary .
The members of The Royal Ballet perform as toreadors, gypsies and flamenco dancers, while the ballet’s second act retains Petipa’ s original‘ vision scene’ in which the female dancers glide as dryads, in tutus and on pointe.
The music, a mostly upbeat and undemanding affair (though also capable of some lyricism) is by Ludwig Minkus; and the spectacular moving sets are by Tim Hatley (designer famed for Spamalot), who is also responsible for the eye-catching costumes.
This ‘feel good’ Don Quixote was Carlos Acosta’s first production for The Royal Ballet, and in the words of the dancer himself: "the most challenging thing I’ve done".  He is bound to have trimmed and rejigged a few things here and there since the ballet’s first outing; it will be interesting to see how it looks one year on.