We didn’t know what to expect, but we did know it would be a nice night out, and so Saturday evening proved. The Royal Opera House in London was the host for the evening, while Don Quixote was the ballet performance that played out on the Covent Garden stage. Danced by the Bolshoi company, if Geoff hadn’t explained the – simple yet strangely complicated – love story of Kitri and Basil and Kitri’s other potential suitors, then I’m not sure Nik and I would have followed quite what was going on.
We would still have enjoyed the dancing, though. You don’t need a story to be in watch in amazement and wonder at the endless pirouettes, leaping and choreographed movements going on under the red velvet curtains. The costumes and dancing were spectacular, and the three acts and two intervals whizzed by. We were up in the Amphitheatre’s fourth-floor tiered seats mixing it with the arty, posh types and opera buffs, and arguably got a bigger sense of grandeur than those sitting on the floors below.
None of the 19th century spectacle of the Royal Opera House has been lost at all in the most recent renovations at the end of the 20th century, and it really is a place to visit should you get the opportunity. It certainly made up for the Paris ballet miss (we had aimed to go to a performance at the Palais Garnier earlier in the year but were unable to get tickets), and seems to be a never-ending maze of corridors, halls, and bars. The terrace balcony gives the best view of the Covent Garden Piazza, too.
