“Love is such a great power that it could be surpassed only by flying” – Miguel de Cervantes
On 11 and 13 March with the ballet “Don Quixote” we invite you to immerge yourselves in one bright and colourful atmosphere from the time of Renaissance Spain. Cervantes’s literature classic is recreated in a unique way in a ballet work to Ludwig Minkus’s music and Marius Petipa’s choreography. Artistry and brilliant performance of the ballet artists, temperamental music, choreography, in which are interweaved classical, as well as characteristic dances – all this is “Don Quixote” on the stage of Sofia Opera and Ballet!
The plot of the ballet overlaps not at all with the one of the novel, but it carries the spirit of the age and Cervantes’s characters. Don Quixote himself, who is main character in the novel of the same name, is a secondary one in the ballet. As one of the most romantic and pure literature characters, Don Quixote here too doesn’t compromise his principles of life – knightly honour, dignity and unreserved love to the lady of the heart. Namely the love of two young lovers – Kitri and Basilio, is at the base of the plot, and the valiant knight will help them to cope with the obstacles on the way to it.
Petipa staged “Don Quixote” twice. The first staging was for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1869) and it was in 4 acts. The second one was in the capital Petersburg (1871) and in it Petipa added one more act, which became third in the row – “Don Quixote's dream”. Curious is the fact that the ballet “Don Quixote” is Marius Petipa’s only work of art, created especially for the Moscow troupe, and not a transferred spectacle from another theatre, and that one year after the premiere of the ballet in Petersburg, the author of the music Minkus was invited to the post composer in the Direction of the Imperial Theatres.
Colourful and varied choreography, with dances different in character, music, which makes you start dancing, a plot, full of humoristic situations, which lead to celebration of love – all this streams from the ballet “Don Quixote” and with certitude this spectacle won’t leave you indifferent!