Don Quixote: A Restricted Review

Last night to The Royal Opera House for Don Quixote; a ballet. In case you've never been, it's like a play with much less talking and more music, or a prom with tons more dancing. Pre-show snack was a jumbo sausage roll and a banana from the Sainsbury's opposite Holborn tube, £2:10. 

The story revolves around the titular Don, seemingly going off his trolley and onto a giant robot horse, followed by a tiny man in lots of padding called Sancho. Sancho drinks, gets beaten up by girls and is carried off by Dementors before making a triumphant return in time to see Don ride off into the sunset on his giant robot horse.

A curtain, yesterday.

That's a GIANT ROBOT HORSE. The ears twitch and everything.

There's also a soppy old love story with dad not letting daughter see the one she loves and wanting her to marry the fop instead. Only scene-changes and gypsy bullfighters can make sense prevail. A giant robot horse! It's all magical.

I lost count of how many were in the orchestra; it was at least 38. We had a good view of the brass section, dressed in dicky bows despite playing in a pit. They looked relaxed throughout, very much the orchestra in form. The conductor had as many curtain calls as the dancers which seemed a bit rich.

"It's not a real horse." "Sshh."

Paul Hogan was right about the trousers. I mean, what if there's an accident?

At one point one of the 'rinas dropped her fan - do you think they have little huddles before the show for such moments? The others could have thrown their fans to the ground in solidarity, but no. The final flourish of that section had the girls posing impossibly on one toe, waving their fans like no tomorrow. Our friend went for *hand on hip* which was a nice compromise.

Look at him milking it - didn't dance a single step!

At the end the story takes a rest while the stars do their final showing off floor exercise. These people are in the absolute peak of physical condition and deserve every "bravo". Go and see 'Don Quixote' at The Royal Opera House if you can.

See, they did all the work and have to sneak out the side of the curtain. There's no justice.

An enormous THANK YOU to @msmarchers for the chance to enjoy such a fantastic evening. x