New casting in Friday evening's performance:

Kitri/Basilio - Cojocaru/Putrov
Don Q/Sancho Panza - Tuckett/Howells
Kitri's friends - Revie
Street Dancer - Yanowsky
Gypsy Boy - Meissner
Amour - Morera
Fandango - Rosato

Cojocaru was much the sparkiest of the 3 Kitris so far; Putrov did well but looked at the limit of technique and stamina - lots of time ahead for him to build on this though. Meissner got a round of applause during his solo - good for him! Only the matinee audience applauded the horse, though.

That's my last one for the time being - I look forward to reading others' comments on Yoshida/Cope!

Don Q looked like a completely different ballet last night and this afternoon from the first night. I was very impressed with the cast this afternoon. Jonathan made partnering look the the easiest job in the world and both he and Miyako looked as though they were having a great time.

This was the best overall performance I have seen so far.

What a pity the critics missed this afternoon's performance! Jonathan & Miyako were fantastic and the chemistry behind every inspirational partnership was glaringly evident. The response from the auditorium was the best so far. I too thought Martin Harvey was wonderful. Zenaida clearly evidenced her recent promotion to principal and Jamie Tapper gave a brilliant & committed performance as indeed she has done throughout this production -astounding!
Can it get any better??!!

The following transcript, heavily abridged, gives a flavour. It is worth listening to in full.

Philip Hensher:
This is such a depressing statement of intent. This awful piece is so dreary. It's full of the most idiotic miming. It's just such an old-fashioned awful thing, with the most awful score. I can't believe that they couldn't find anything more exciting to start with. The orchestra just plainly couldn't be bothered, and I don't blame them. The designs could have been executed 50 years ago. This was one of the most depressing, boring evenings I could have imagined spending. It gives ballet a bad name. It is very difficult to see the cultural merit of this.

Natasha Walter:
I'm pretty much with Philip. Some of the dancing here is brilliant, but there's something sad about seeing all this technical training, this virtuosity, with no art really to spring it into life. In the end, it's very hard to take this kind of thing seriously, to see it as high culture. There is something pantomime about it, and then in comes the pantomime horse.

John Carey:
One thing that ballet can't do is narrative. Why should it? It is a ludicrous way to tell stories, by jumping around. Don Quixote is a narrative of lots of short stories joined together. That said, though I think it was a failure, at least this ballet was a little less objectionable than Don Quixote, which is my least favourite classic book. At least this was just sweetness, a nonsense.

Kirsty Wark:
Was there any emotion in it for you?

John Carey:
None whatsoever, nor any intellectual content. That's the trouble. Here's this glittering audience, paying a great deal for their seats, and the intellectual content is less than a first-class football match. Much the same skills are used, and this is thought to be high culture.

Philip Hensher:
I think it's the piece, not the genre. Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Nutcracker - those are grand, serious, intelligent pieces.

Kirsty Wark:
Why would you want to have Don Quixote in your repertoire?

Philip Hensher:
This is a famously demanding part for the dancers. It is a showpiece for dancers. No-one's going to listen to the music or look at the backdrop or discuss whether she meant it when she said� You know, it's nonsense.

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