Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote is reviewed through today’s lens: could the Royal Ballet dance any better?

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Minkus (arr. and orch. Martin Yates), Don Quixote: Dancers of The Royal Ballet, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Valery Ovsyanikov (conductor). Recorded live (directed by Ross MacGibbon) at the Royal Opera House, London, 7.11.2023 and seen at Everyman Cinema, Chelmsford, Essex. 13.11.2023. (JPr)

Matthew Ball as Basilio in Don Quixote © Andrej Uspenski

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Jerome Robbins evening at the Paris Opera Ballet: can it ever be better than this?

FranceFrance Jerome Robbins: Paris Opera Ballet, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris / Maria Seletskaja (conductor). Palais Garnier, Paris, 25.10.2023. (JO’D)

Jerome Robbins’s The Concert: Vessela Pelovska (piano), Hannah O’Neill and Pauline Verdusen © Julien Benhamou/OnP

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Our Voices finds English National Ballet performing with what looks like a new, or renewed, energy.

United KingdomUnited Kingdom English National Ballet’s Our Voices: Dancers of English National Ballet, English National Ballet Philharmonic / Gavin Sutherland (conductor). Sadler’s Wells, London, 21.9.2023. (JO’D)

Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations © Laurent Liotardo

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Vienna State Ballet’s season opener Don Quixote revival does Rudolf Nureyev proud

AustriaAustria Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote: Dancers of Vienna State Ballet, Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera / Robert Reimer (conductor). Transmitted live (directed by Balázs Delbó) from the Vienna State Opera, 16.9.2023. (JPr)

Zsolt Török (l, Don Quixote), Liudmila Konovalova (centre, Dulcinea) and Olga Esina (r, The Queen of the Dryads) © Wiener Staatsballett/Ashley Taylor

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Phaedra / Minotaur in Edinburgh tried to say some profound things but ended saying not very much at all

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Edinburgh International Festival 2023 [11] – Phaedra / Minotaur: Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano), Richard Hetherington (musical director and piano). Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 19.8.2023. (SRT)

Kim Brandstrup’s Minotaur © Jess Shurte

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