Don Quixote is one of the most outstanding works in the history of world ballet and the only one of the old classical ballets born at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Azure sky and mysterious forest bushes, sizzling smiles of women and fiery looks of men, scarlet muletas of bullfighters and black fans of ladies, minuets and seguidillas, great full circle jumps and 32 fouettes - all the ideas about Spain and classical ballet have merged in Don Quixote.
This cheerful and simple-hearted ballet to the music by Ludwig Minkus is so different from the famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes. The masterpiece, which is now going on practically in all major ballet venues of the world, began its grand journey from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. That is actually the only old classic ballet that was born at the Bolshoi Theatre.

The Austrian composer Ludwig Minkus, who worked for a long time in Russia, composed music for the stage production of Marius Petipa. The premiere of Don Quixote was held in the benefit of the ballet dancer Anna Sobieschanskaya on December 14, 1869. Don Quixote firmly established the talent of Alexander Gorsky, the reformer of Moscow ballet: his stage production of 1900 became a declaration of real-life truth in the Russian ballet.
Since then, Don Quixote has been repeatedly renewed, updated, restored, and amplified with a great number of inserted scenes. It starred Yekaterina Geltser and Mikhail Mordkin, Olga Lepeshinskaya and Asaf Messerer, Maya Plisetskaya and Gennady Ledyakh, Yekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev, Natalia Bessmertnova and Mikhail Lavrovsky, Lyudmila Semenyaka and Alexander Godunov.

A century later, the life of the ballet Don Quixote continues: in 1999, the famous dancer and choreographer Alexei Fadeyevich presented his own stage version, which is going to debut on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.
The ballet of Ludwig Minkus is not a verbatim repetition of the same-name novel by Cervantes. Don Quixote is a second-place hero in it, with the focus of attention shifted to the love story of Kitri and Basil. Sparkling joyful music and stylized Spanish dances create the atmosphere of life celebration, with the triumph of love, justice and beauty.
The brilliance and charm of this ballet magically attract new generations of ballet dancers of the magnificent Bolshoi Theatre.
The performance lasts for 2 hours 50 minutes with two intermissions.



Libretto by Marius Petipa after the same name novel by Miguel de Cervantes.
Choreography: Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky
New choreographic version: Alexei Fadeyechev
Music Director: Pavel Sorokin
Designer: Valery Leventhal
Costume Designer: Elena Zaitseva
Lighting Designer: Damir Ismagilov
Assistants to Choreographer: Tatiana Rastorgueva, Yuliana Malkhasyants
Executive Designer: Olga Medvedeva
When: on September 22 and 23, 2018
Where: Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre at the address 1, Teatralnaya Square, next to metro stations Okhotny Ryad and Teatralnaya, Moscow.