Don Quixote - Act I finale (Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta, The Royal Ballet)

Carlos Acosta as Basilio, Marianela Nuñez as Kitri, Yuhui Choe and Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Kitri’s friends, Luca Acri, Paul Kay, Kenta Kura and Michael Stojko as the Rascals, Philip Mosley as Sancho Panza, Gary Avis as Lorenzo and Bennet Gartside as Gamache in Carlos Acosta’s production of Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote, with music by Ludwig Minkus. Don Quixote is available to watch now – along with over 60 other extraordinary productions – on Royal Opera House Stream. Watch the whole performance now at Carlos Acosta, Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet, created his first work for the Company in 2013. He chose one of his favourite ballets – Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote, a joyful adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’s classic novel. Acosta’s production has proved itself a firm audience favourite, acclaimed for its breathtakingly virtuoso dancing, eye-popping designs by Tim Hatley and the sheer energy and exuberance of the production as a whole. The adventures of the bumbling knight Don Quixote and his ever-faithful squire Sancho Panza have been the inspiration for countless ballets, of which Petipa’s is one of the best loved. Acosta has danced the virtuoso role of Basilio many times, and brings that experience to his unique and vibrant vision of the story. Ludwig Minkus’s score, created for Petipa, is full of Spanish flair and atmosphere. Don Quixote, with its famously bravura Act III pas de deux and infectious ebullience, is wonderfully entertaining.