Don Quixote

Violinist, kapellmeister and composer from Austria Ludwig Minkus arrived in Russia in 1850, and resided in Moscow and Saint Petersburg composing music for ballets. He soon became the music composer of the Directorate of the Imperial Theatres of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. L. Minkus established a very successful collaboration with choreographer Marius Petipa; together they created two immortal ballets "La Bayadère" and "Don Quixote". The latter ballet premiered in 1869 and was first produced in Lithuania in 1936. Later theatregoers witnessed many other productions of this masterpiece.

Choreographer of current "Don Quixote", Vasilij Medvedev from Saint Petersburg, set out on a mission to bring this ballet back to its authentic form and recreate the original version by M. Petipa. Relying on the production that was presented in 1871 in Saint Petersburg, he omitted many of the elements that were included in the ballet over the years. On the other hand, choreographer brought back the Prologue, which had disappeared from the earlier versions of "Don Quixote". This Prologue, in which we see Knight of the Sad Countenance, fully justifies the title of this ballet.