Don Quixote - Bolshoi Ballet (1978)

By Etta | Jul 31, 2008

While reorganizing my DVD collection last night, I realize I’ve been collecting quite a number of ballet DVDs in the past few years.

As I’m waiting to receive a copy of the most recent release of Don Quijote from the National Ballet of Cuba, I decide to re-familiarize myself by watching an older production of ballet performance of Don Quixote.

The DVD that I have is a 1978 production by the Bolshoi Ballet. (Audio: Mono, Picture Quality: OK)

It’s a ballet in four Acts:

Choreographer: Alexander Gorsky, after Marius Petipa

Cast:
Kitri/Dulcinea: Nadezhda Pavlova
Basil: Vyacheslav Gordeev
Don Quixote: Vladimir Levachov
Sancho Panza: Vasiliy Vorokhobko

Background History:

Don Quixote is a ballet first performed in Moscow in 1869, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa with music by Ludwig Minkus. It’s the first ballet Minkus composed for Petipa.

Synopsis:

Don Quixote is an old man who is always fascinated by stories in the medieval times. Because he’s so taken with stories of medieval knights, he begins to believe he is a real knight himself. In search of exciting adventures, he travels around with his servant, Sancho Panza.

In one of his adventures, Don Quixote arrives in a market square where people are dancing and having a great time.

Kitri, a daughter of an innkeeper, is in love with Basil, a barber in the market square. However, her father has other plan in mind and has offered her hand in marriage to a rich and pretentious man named Gamache.

When Don Quixote meeets Kitri, he believes she is his beloved Dulcinea, a beautiful princess in his fantasy, and therefore supposes his duty to protect Kitri from any forms of harm and mistreatment.

Meanwhile, Basil comes up with an idea to marry Kitri. Pretending he is devastated by the upcoming marriage of Kitri and Gamache, he stuns everyone in the market square and stabs himself with a knife. Because he appears dying, he manages to trick Kitri’s father into granting him the permission to marry his beloved.

The ballet concludes with a happy ending where Kitri and Basil celebrate their wedding with Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and the villagers.