Carlos Acosta has tweaked the classic Petipa choreography and seeing it so soon after Mikhailovsky Ballet’s performance of the original gave me a good chance to spot the improvements he has made. A new prologue helps the story make a little more sense but the main change has been to loosen up the choreography, allowing a smoother more naturalistic feel. Minkus’s music has also been arranged and re-orchestrated by Martin Yates. It was a great improvement on the earlier performance, although I am not sure whether that was down to the new arrangement or the superb playing of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under Vasko Vassilev. Either way, there was more humour in the music where appropriate and more passion when required. I saw the matinee performance so didn’t see the star casting led by Acosta himself. Still, Alexander Campbell and Roberta Marquez were excellent as the leads, although the latter was almost outclassed by Laura Morera’s superb performance as the street dancer.
Grandpa's reviews
Short reviews and bits and pieces: a (sort of) cultural diary.
Grandpa's reviews 
hi chris, I thank you very much that you’ve made the effort to leave a comment and I thank you for your encouragement. as you can see, I work every day to make it to the blog back to what it once was. you people like you I will succeed. I thank you.
I just wanted to say that I loved the production, but you haven’t quite got the fact right. Martin Yates, who orchestrated and arranged the music also conducted. Vasko Vassilev is the leader of the orchestra (first Violin). I have seen Don Q all over the place and I do think that firstly the orchestra played brilliantly, but secondly, in my opinion, the new orchestration is wonderful. There have been a lot of negative comments about the set, the costumes, the orchestration etc etc….I say these people should try looking at something from a fresh viewpoint rather than harping on about “only the Russians can do Don Q”. Good for your review for being so objective.
Thanks for the positive comments and the correction. I’ve just checked the cast list and you are quite right.