Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new Don Quixote is a sunny winner

Birmingham Hippodrome
February 18, 2022

Back in 1990, Sir Peter Wright gave Birmingham Royal Ballet a superlative Nutcracker to celebrate his and the company’s arrival in the city. Thanks to the pandemic, it’s been a little delayed, but there are parallels in the way Carlos Acosta has now well and truly announced his directorship with a stunning Don Quixote. It’s a ballet that I reckon may well turn out to stay in the repertory as long as Wright’s festive favourite.

The Midlands may have got off relatively lightly with Storm Eunice but it was still a cold, grey, blustery evening. Inside the Hippodrome however all was warm sunshine and colour.

The story of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, an elderly minor noble who reads so many stories of chivalry that he dreams he is a knight errant on a quest to serve his imaginary Lady Dulcinea is all a bit silly. If we are being honest, when it comes to the ballet, it’s a bit thin too. But it scores on almost every other count with bags of memorable tunes from Ludwig Minkus, plenty of characters, lots of humour, and a truly serious amount of dance. At times, the solos and duets come so thick and fast it feels like a ballet riot.

Don Quixote is a ballet that demands not to be taken seriously. Probably even more than Le Corsaire, it’s the one big classic where you can (and probably should) dance it just a little bit over the top from the word go. The Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers not only did just that, but did it quite brilliantly. The company has come back from the pandemic completely revitalised, brimming with energy and looking as good as it has ever done.

It may be loaded with technical fireworks, but Don Quixote is also light comedy. Birmingham Royal Ballet have always been top class at this sort of acting and did not disappoint either. It’s all about looks, little gestures and timing; and all were spot on.

Tom Rogers was a perfect Don, stumbling amiably through each scene, ably looked after by Kit Hoder’s Sancho Panza. A special shout out here for designer Tim Hatley’s horse, cleverly constructed from a wine barrel and various other bits and bobs. More light relief came from Rory Mackay’s foppish Gamache, a garish vision in bright yellow with blue stockings and hair to match (no wonder Kitri doesn’t fancy him); and Valentin Olovyannikov as Kitri’s innkeeper father Lorenzo, who gives in to his daughter’s wishes in the end despite rather fancying getting his hands on some of Gamache’s money.

But while it may be called Don Quixote, the heart of the ballet is the love match between Kitri and Basilio. Momoko Hirata was as good as I’ve ever seen her. It looked like she was having the time of her life as she laughed and grinned her way through the ballet. In her vivid red dress, she stole every scene with her acting (her eyes especially spoke vividly) and dancing.

As Basilio, the ever-dependable Mathias Dingman particularly came to the fore in Act III, grabbing his chance to show off his technical prowess with both hands. Talking of hands, the second of the two big one-handed, overhead lifts was held for an insane length of time. You wouldn’t get away with it anywhere else. It would feel very wrong. In Don Quixote, it brings yet another smile.

The other soloists all shone too. Yu Kurihara was gorgeous as the vivacious street dancer Mercedes, while the elegant Brandon Lawrence dominated just about every scene he was in as the famous matador Espada. Sofia Liñares and Alexander Yap also stood out as the rather sexy Fandango Couple. Miki Mizutani and Yaoqian Shang surprisingly didn’t sparkle quite so much as Kitri’s friends however, although maybe their costumes, two of the less showy affairs, don’t help.

One of a number of Acosta’s changes has been to rechoreograph Amour for a man. It works a treat, Max Maslen dancing beautifully lightly, his batterie as fast and neat as it should be. The setting for that is stunning too. Apart from that horse, the rest of Tim Hatley sets and costumes (all 300 of them!) are winners but his silver-veined tree in the magic garden of the Act II dream scene tops the lot.

That act also features some stunningly clever projections by Nina Dunn, who manages to make windmills not only turn but their sails turn into the fingers of a dark monster (at least in the eyes of the Don).

It was quite an evening. I suspect Acosta, and Birmingham Royal Ballet, might just have a winner on their hands.

Don Quixote continues at the Birmingham Hippodrome to February 26, 2022 before heading off on tour to The Lowry, Salford, Sunderland Empire, Plymouth Theatre Royal and London’s Sadler’s Wells.

On February 22 and 23, the company is being joined by guest principals from The Royal Ballet, Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov, who will dance Kitri and Basilio, giving Birmingham audiences a rare opportunity to see London stars.