Aurélie Dupont (Kitri)
Manuel Legris (Basile)
Jean-Guillaume Bart (Espada)
Marie-Agnès Gillot (La Danseuse de rue)
Delphine Moussin (La Reine des Dryades)
Clairemarie Osta (Cupidon)
Mélanie Hurel & Véronique Doisneau (Les deux amies)
Jean-Marie Didière (Don Quichotte)
Fabien Roques (Sancho)
Laurent Queval (Gamache)
Alexis Saramite (Lorenzo)
Karl Paquette (Le gitan)
Fanny Fiat (La demoiselle d’honneur)
   
Corps de Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris
 
  Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris,   ERMANNO FLORIO
 
  Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev (after Marius Petipa)

The immortal figure of the knight errant, ‘Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha’ of the novel of the same name, created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605, has always inspired a number of opera and ballet composers and even more choreographers.

Fascinated by the knight with the unfortunate physique who goes out into the world with his servant Sancho Pansa to crusade against the deplorable state of society and to perform heroic deeds, Ludwig Minkus (1826-1917) created a ballet which had a very successful premiere in the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 14 December 1869.

Our DVD presents the version choreographed by Rudolf Nurejev, which was performed in a new production by the Paris opera in April 2002 with an outstanding cast, among whom were Aurélie Dupont as Kitri and Manuel Legris as Basile.

The composer John Lanchberry arranged Ludwig Minkus’ music for this version. Nurejev treated the group dance in the spirit of the Commedia dell’Arte; the set designer Alexandre Beliaev took inspiration for the decor and the scenery from ‘Pastoral Scenes’ by Francisco Goya and from motives from the Gothic-Moorish Spain. For the dream scene they chose a reproduction of the gardens of Granada; the Gate of Barcelona was reproduced to conform to the demands for realism prevailing towards the end of the 19th century. The costumes by Elena Rivkina totally fulfil the aesthetic norms of the ballet at the end of the 19th century and have at the same time been adapted to fit the Spanish subject.