Ballet review: Don Quixote
Performance date: 7.30pm, Tuesday 25 November 2014
Run date: 25 November 2014 – 22 January 2015
Royal Opera House – map
Bow Street, Covent Garden
London WC2E 9DD
Review by: Alexa Williamson
Rating: ***** (out of 5)
Credits: Choreography – Carlos Acosta, Original Choreography – Marius Petipa, Production – Carlos Acosta, Original Music – Ludwig Minkus. Cast: Kitri – Marianela Nuñez, Basilio – Carlos Acosta, Don Quixote – Christopher Saunders, Sancho Panza – Philip Mosley
So, I came and saw opening night! Wow! I was sooooo lucky! Acosta and Nuñez are in top form for this comic ballet.
This is the story of Don Quixote – an old, Spanish, country gentleman who has dreams about a fantasy woman in white and decides he must go on an adventure with his friend Sancho. On their adventure they come to a village where a poor barber named Basilio wants to marry an innkeeper’s daughter named Kitri. Her father is opposed to this marriage so she and Basilio run away to marry. Don Quixote and Sancho then goes after them to help them and smooth things over between Kitri, Basilio and Kitri’s father.
This is an amazing and fun production. Acosta has made it very lively and the dancing is energetic and intricate. I also don’t think we could ask for a better duo than Nuñez and Acosta. Not only is she amazingly, physically beautiful, she is also extremely graceful and smiled alot while dancing. That was great as it showed her as positive, which was what the role needed. She also put just the right amount of emotion into everything. The older dancers, not the ones in their teens and early twenties seem, so far, to be the best as they not only dance the role, they tend to understand and present the character better. Yes, ballet is dancing, but this isn’t a dance competition. This is a story and the performers also have to be able to act as well as dance. And, fortunately, both Nuñez and Acosta interpret and present their characters very well.
I have also never seen Acosta so lively! He is jumping and twirling left and right in this production. I think he loves the role and not only that he got to direct and produce the production.
At the end of the production, during the bows, Nuñez received at least a dozen bouquets of flowers and one was huge – at least five dozen long-stem red roses. So, I think that sums up perfectly how exciting, well-performed, creative, unique and beautiful this production was without having to use grandiose terms and imagery. Bottom line, this is much fun. If you like an old-world European ballet with wonderful costumes and fine sets, then go see it!
The London Reviewer 