Don Quixote
- Robert Beale
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Carlos Acosta, after Petipa and Gorsky, and Minkus
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Lowry, Salford
March 5-7, 2026: 2 hrs 55 mins
It’s a treat for Lowry audiences to see classical ballet done as well, and as lavishly, as it is by Birmingham Royal Ballet. This revival of Carlos Acosta’s production of Don Quixote of 2022 is really everything a fan could wish for.
The company’s array of virtuoso talent is gobsmacking: it has a big corps who perform almost impeccably; there are sets and costumes that would be the envy of any other touring troupe, and – in contrast to a number of often highly-rated visitors in the dance world, including Matthew Bourne’s outfit – it brings a top-quality live orchestra. There is just no comparison between the experience of classical dance with a real orchestra and a specialist maestro in the pit (as here with Thomas Jung) and seeing it done to recorded scores.
And Don Quixote is a comedy – a romantic one, so a real rom-com – full of fun, sunshine and brilliance. Acosta based his BRB production on one he did in 2013 for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, with an emphasis on its Spanish-ness. It shows the Don on his quest to track down his true love, with his loyal friend and servant Sancho Panza, but with a major role for Kitri, the village girl whom Don Quixote conflates with his imaginary lady Dulcinea, and a magnificent show-off piece for Basilio, her true love.
Acosta says Basilio is a role in which all the heroes of the ballet world have proved themselves (and he’s one of them): our Basilio last night was the extraordinary young talent of Enrique Beharano Vidal, Cuban-trained and only last year raised to First Soloist with BRB. His Kitri was Beatrice Parma, and they are well matched and suited to each other’s warmly lyrical and graceful style. Her perfect pirouettes and flying arabesques are a delight.
There’s ample opportunity for comedy from the character artists in the company, too. Not just the Don himself, admirably represented last night by the company’s assistant director, Dominic Antonucci, but also the roles of Kitri’s innkeeper dad Lorenzo, taken by Rory MacKay, Gamache (her wealthy and unattractive would-be suitor), taken by Jonathan Payn, and of course Sancho Panza, the Don’s humble sidekick. In this performance, that was taken by Alfie Lee-Hall, Warrington-born and Elmhurst-trained, who holds the position of BRB Apprentice, and he made a fine job of it – comic, but not over-clownish as the Russian-influenced companies can lean towards.
Samara Downs was Mercedes, working nicely with Lachlan Monaghan as the secondary couple in the story; Daria Stanciulescu was the ghostly Dulcinea, the ideal lady of Quixote’s imagination, and Riku Ito made a virtuosic impact as Amour, the Cupid figure in the magic garden scene.
The Spanish flavour of Acosta’s ideas is audible not just in the music but in a great deal of ensemble hand-clapping and shouting (in, I assume, real Spanish), particularly in the gypsy encampment scene, which brings a novel aspect to the production, based on Acosta’s London interpretation. There are live, non-dancing, guitarists on stage, and the music itself has been reshaped and added to by Hans Vercauteren, who has reorchestrated much elsewhere, aiming to get back to the sound of the original (very much part of the tradition with this ballet, which has almost always been adapted and added to, not least musically).
Minkus’ music is fluent and very danceable, but often instantly forgettable – what it does need is a conductor who can inspire players to treat it as a masterwork, as well as constantly adapting pace to suit the choreography: Thomas Jung is all of this.
In the end, it’s probably the much-excerpted Grand Pas de Deux, Basilio and Kitri each throwing themselves around the stage in their solo variations, that remains in the memory. It wasn’t just a showpiece here though - more a climax and outcome of all the brilliance that had gone before.
More info and tickets here
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