Don Quixote: Ballet in Three Acts

Don Quixote was first staged at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 26 December 1869, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Ludwig Minkus, then in the first year of his appointment as ballet composer to the Imperial Theatres. Cervantes supplies the frame, but the plot follows the lovers Kitri and Basilio, with the knight reduced to a bystander. Alexander Gorsky's Moscow revision of 1900 reshaped the work substantially, and it is Gorsky's version, further edited, that stands behind almost every staging today. Minkus wrote to order, with tempo and bar counts dictated by the choreographer.