Ludwig Minkus
Don Quixote
Kamil Pavelka · Christoph Wenzel · Maria Yakovleva · Denys Cherevychko
Conducted by Kevin Rhodes · Choreography by Rudolf Nureyev
Ludwig Minkus
Don Quixote
Ballet in a prologue and three acts by Marius Petipa
after episodes from the novel of the same name
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Kamil Pavelka
Christoph Wenzel
Maria Yakovleva
Denys Cherevychko
Gabor Oberegger
Andrey Kaydanovskiy
Alice Firenze
Nina Tonoli
A Street Dancer Ketevan Papava
Espada Roman Lazik
Gipsies Mihail Sosnovschi
Don Quixote
Sancho Pansa
Kitri/Dulcinea
Basil
Lorenzo
Gamache
Kitri’s Friends
Rebecca Horner
Erika Kováčová
Amor Kiyoka Hashimoto
The Queen of the Dryads Olga Esina
Three Dryads Gala Jovanovic
Oxana Kiyanenko
Laura Nistor
et al.
Based on Miguel de Cervantes’ mock-chivalric romance about a crazy old man
who believes himself to be a heroic knight-errant, and offering a flamboyant
fiesta of vibrant Spanish colour and classical Russian dance, Don Quixote was
originally created by the master choreographer Marius Petipa, together with the
composer Ludwig Minkus, for the Imperial Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 1869.
Almost a century later, in 1966, five years after fleeing to the West, the
legendary Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev created a new version for the Wiener
Staatsballett.
Marking the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’s death, Don Quixote is here seen
in the revised version by Nureyev which the French choreographer Manuel
Legris – once a noted Basil himself in his days as an “étoile” in Nureyev’s Paris
troupe – devised for the Wiener Staatsballett, next to the other two Nureyev’s
originals Swan Lake and The Nutcracker during his first season as its new director.
Denys Cherevychko playes the penniless young barber Basil, whose ultimately
successful attempt to marry Kitri, the rich innkeeper’s beautiful daughter,
provides a background to the comical adventures of the delusional Don
Quixote, not least his famous attack on a windmill which he thinks is a giant.
“A Don Quixote to love … Legris and company can count the evening a total
success” (Die Presse); “the Staatsballett carried it off with huge élan and
theatrical talent” (Kleine Zeitung); “a must-see for all our ballet fans”
(Kronen Zeitung). As for the two principals, Maria Yakovleva and
Denys Cherevychko as Kitri and Basil, no praise was high enough:
“both are technically brilliant” (Wiener Zeitung); “they dance,
leap, balance, spin and act in sparkling style all evening,
displaying their technical bravura right through to the great
wedding pas de deux” (Kurier); “one didn’t want the
dream to end” (Merker Online).
Video Director Michael Beyer
Length: 122'
Shot in HDTV 1080/50i
Cat. no. A 040 50064
A co-production of
ORF and UNITEL
in cooperation with Wiener Staatsoper
World Sales:
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Unitel GmbH & Co. KG, Germany · Tel. +49.89.673469-630 · [email protected] www.unitel.de
All rights reserved · credits not contractual · Different territories · Photos: © Michael Poehn / Ashley Taylor · Flyer: luebbeke.com
Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Manuel Legris
Ballet Company Wiener Staatsballett
Orchestra Students of the Ballettakademie
der Wiener Staatsoper
Conductor Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper
Stage Director Kevin Rhodes