Don Quixote

Uninventive and far too polite: BRB’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet reviewed

21 October 2023 9:00 am

Not being an aficionado of the heavy-metal genre, I snootily suspected that I would rather be standing in the rain…

Individual performers make their mark: Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd and Alasdair Elliott as Squeak

An abdication of interpretative responsibility: Royal Opera’s Billy Budd reviewed

4 May 2019 9:00 am

The climactic central scene of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd ends unexpectedly. The naval court has reached a verdict of death,…

Forget the Don – come for the Mataphwoar Ryoichi Hirano: Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote reviewed

23 February 2019 9:00 am

The trouble with Don Quixote is Don Quixote. Whenever the doddering, delusional Don is onstage, tilting at windmills, riding his…

Lee Evans in Pinter Three. Photo: Marc Brenner

Lee Evans’s acrobatic clowning is the best thing about Pinter Three

17 November 2018 9:00 am

Pinter Three appeals to opposite poles of the play-going spectrum. The birdbrains like me will enjoy the music-hall sketches while…

Trains in Spain

14 October 2017 9:00 am

The first railway line in Spain, from Barcelona to Mataro a few miles up the coast towards the French border,…

Mad about the boy

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Tall, handsome boys with long legs and beautifully arched feet do not grow on trees (if only). Every ballet director…

Carlos Acosta’s incoherent Carmen is a disaster

7 November 2015 9:00 am

The love that asks no questions, the love that pays the price… The amount of unconditional love sloshing about at…

Machado de Assis wasn’t the Dickens of Brazil— but he is one of the greats

15 August 2015 9:00 am

The surname is pronounced ‘M’shahdo j’Asseece’. There are also two Christian names — Joaquim Maria — which are usually dispensed…

Sensual but not thrilling: Carlos Acosta as Basilio

Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote: Carlos Acosta is too brainy with this no-brain ballet

13 December 2014 9:00 am

One feels the pang of impending failure whenever the Royal Ballet ventures like a deluded Don Quixote into a periodic…

Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote lacks the wow factor

5 October 2013 9:00 am

Superstar Carlos Acosta makes little or no reference to Don Quixote’s established history in his programme note about the genesis…