This spectacular film of Don Quixote, choregraphed after Petipa and directed for the screen by Russian ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev, is recognised as one of the finest ballet performances ever caught on camera and a cinematic triumph in its own right.

Filmed in Melbourne with the Australian Ballet in 1973, the cast includes Nureyev as Basilio, Sir Robert Helpmann as the deluded knight and Lucette Aldous as Kitri. This timeless story of love, gallantry and misadventure – all unfolding with Minkus’s exhilarating Spanishflavoured music – has stood the test of time as one of the world’s most popular ballets.

Lovingly restored from the original 35mm film, and to be heard for the first time in full surround sound digital stereo created for the DVD and Blu-ray release, this is finally, how Nureyev intended his Don Quixote to be seen and heard.

“One of the best ballet films we’ve had to date.”

(New York Magazine)

“Something more than cinema, greater than dance. It was like a moving painting by a great artist.”

(Atlantic Herald)

Choreography Carlos Acosta after Marius Petipa

Carlos Acosta’s first venture directing one of ballet’s 19th century classics was eagerly anticipated, as was his own starring role in the production (as Basilio), opposite the Argentinian Royal Ballet principal Marianela Nuñez (Kitri). Packed cinemas for the live relay, as well as sold-out houses for his performances, testified to the draw the great Cuban dancer still exerts – and the audiences were not disappointed. Still built on Petipa’s original choreography, Acosta’s clear dramatic structure and vivid stage action gave the ‘boy gets girl despite her father’ story a more convincing air than usual, with Don Quixote’s parallel obsession with Dulcinea-Kitri coherently woven into the plot. Acosta’s and Nuñez’s performances were peerless, Tim Hatley’s stage designs vivid and apposite, and this production is surely destined to be a perennial Royal Ballet favourite.

Extra features: Introduction to Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote and a cast gallery.