Acosta's Spirited Don

A new production of a 19th-century Russian classic is a major landmark in any ballet company's life. And Carlos Acosta has provided a happy and spirited milestone for The Royal Ballet with his new Don Quixote. It is superbly danced and the costumes and lighting are spot on, though some of the structural and design choices may need a second look if Acosta's storybook Spain is really going to zing.

Don Quixote will never be a searingly intellectual night at the ballet, yet it has great energy and charm, which Acosta keeps at fiesta pitch throughout the first act. He frames the whole action with appearances from the eponymous knight errant, dreaming of his Dulcinea. Even if these moments somewhat impede the otherwise cracking pace, they at least make sense of the drama. And once we're in Kitri and Basilio's hometown, it's a riot of fandangos, habaneras and matadors. Pity, then, that it begins with an oddly flat design.

Although gussied up with balconies and flowers, Tim Hatley's village feels a little two-dimensional. Hugh Vanstone's lighting provides requisite depth, though the set lacks the freshness of Mark Thompson's scorched designs for Anthony Dowell's 1993 production. More fanciful and decidedly more impressive are Hatley's costumes and his vision for the Gypsy encampment and dream sequence in Act 2, with giant windmills, triffid-like flowers and more gorgeous lighting states.

But it's in Act 2 that Acosta's grip slackens. New flamenco inserts here – complete with onstage band – are largely superfluous to requirement. They may add more local colour, but they impede the pace and provide little opportunity for opera-house-filling dance. And I wonder whether Gamache, Kitri's intended, should be dispatched quite so quickly. But when the Don dreams, we're treated to a delicious 'white act' before the decidedly fun and generally more clear-headed third act. Here Acosta deals swiftly with the denouement before providing a terrific dance-off. Drenched in sunlight, Kitri and Basilio's wedding really warms an Autumn evening.

It's helped no end by the fun-loving company, who make this is a keenly felt Don Quixote. Reared on MacMillan's ballets, these crowds move, react and heckle, bringing the whole village alive. And with local favourites such as Sarah Lamb and Federico Bonelli, it's little wonder they're so geed up. The couple's broad grins and playful, flirty touch, combine with vertiginous leaps and holds to create a pair you root for. Christopher Saunders touchingly wistful Don and Thomas Whitehead's foppish Gamache ultimately provide little genuine threat to Kitri and Basilio's happily-ever-after, but it's all enormous fun, played to the absolute hilt by the company. With a slightly revised look for the village and a bit more jeopardy in the second act, this could be a production to cherish. The final performance this season is on Wednesday.

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