Ballet: Don Quixote

I've never seen the ballet of Don Quixote before. Actually, I've never seen Don Quixote in any form, or even read it. And I only had a vague idea of the outline of the story. But it sounded intriguing, and I don't get to the ballet very often, so I was happy to go to the current production in the Royal Opera House.

Booking was definitely required: when I checked, a week ago, there were only two £25 seats left for last night, at the back of the Amphitheatre - the top level. This was the cheapest available - I'd missed a Time Out offer. Now, the Opera House performs a terrific public service, in that if you select any available seat on the website during the booking process, two photos are displayed: one of the seat (or that bit of floor, if it's a standing ticket), one of the view from there. And these are unique for every single one of the hundreds of seats in the building. Really, it's remarkable. Anyway, from these I could see that the view from those seats, while ok, was a little cramped - you're behind a dip in the ceiling, and while you can see the stage, it just does really feel as though you're squashed into a corner. So I bit the bullet and booked one of the few remaining £55 seats, at the front of the Ampthitheatre, instead.

Delays on the District Line yesterday morning filtered through the whole day, and I had an unusually long wait for a train to Earl's Court in the evening. Probably as a result of this, it was abnormally crowded for that hour. I was glad to change at Earl's Court, when I finally got there, and to get a seat on the Piccadilly Line. A bit of queueing for the lifts at Covent Garden, and I was out. I see the Christmas lights are still up, although not lit - a somewhat sorry sight. I also see they've removed the Paddington Bear statue that used to stand outside the entrance to the Opera House.

There's a sensor on the revolving door to the Opera House, and I think it was having something of a fit as we entered - stopping and starting. Maybe the crowds were too much for it. This is a really popular show, and the queue for ticket collection was the largest I've seen it. But it moved quickly, and I was soon on my way upstairs - not rushing for once, which was nice. Also nice not to have to take the extra flight of stairs to "Amphitheatre Upper". My row was very easy to find, being the one in front of the flight of steps I took to enter the Amphitheatre. And I was early enough only to have to squeeze past two people to get to my seat. And the view was very nice indeed:

Mind you, space is a little tight - there are no armrests in the Amphitheatre, and with a bag as well, there wasn't really enough space under my seat to squash my large, furry, winter coat, which necessarily sat on my lap for the first act. After the first interval though, the nice gent beside me offered to move it to the end of the row, where there's a bit of ledge that's not wide enough to put seats on, but very handy for leaving coats and such. This is a long performance, coming in at three hours, with two intervals. I'm not in the habit of buying programmes, but they do have free running orders at the programme stands, which include a show synopsis as well as timings of performances and intervals, so I picked up one of those on the way in. They're very handy.

Well, have I been lucky with my performances since I came back. This was terrific! The story, essentially, is of an elderly gent, a Walter Mitty-type character who spends his time daydreaming, and imagining himself as a daring knight, off to rescue the lady of his dreams. The prologue is set in his bedroom, and involves the most terrific fantasy sequence, shrouded in mist, where we meet this lady, in a long white dress and veil and en pointe for the whole scene. Indeed, I imagine that every little girl who fantasises about ballerinas imagines one just like this.

Anyhoo, he rides off to have adventures, with his faithful servant, Sancho Panza, and the next scene takes place in the village square. These large crowd scenes are so full of detail that I'm reluctant to get the dvd, which otherwise I might consider, but which tends to focus on the main action. Seeing it live, it's hard to know where to look - if you see it, do cast your eyes around the stage, there are several small stories happening at the edges!

The main story from now on centres on the inkeeper's daughter, who wants to marry her young man, but her father has a rich, foppish fellow in mind for her. Enter Don Quixote to save the day, and many adventures ensue. The dancing technique is fabulous. The backdrops are sumptuous. And what's lovely is that there's a real Spanish feel to the production - the ladies' costumes (apart from the dream sequences) have skirts reminiscent of flamenco dresses, there's Spanish guitar, castanets, tambourines. Also a real dreamlike quality to the whole thing, what with that old man having all those fantasies..

Marvellous show, and I couldn't see an empty seat from where I was. Only four performances left - two sold out, 9 tickets left for Monday week, the "last few" for the following Wednesday. I was lucky to see it when I did. If you want to, you'd better get moving!

As I was coming out, I came out a side door to avoid the crush at the main entrance, so came around the side of the Piazza, where I saw they were dismantling the reindeer that was up over the festive season. Aww. Weirdly though, they hadn't turned off his lights! A late finish because of the long running time, and ongoing delays on the District Line, meant I was back too late to blog last night.

And I'm doing my best to get through all the shows I didn't see over Christmas, of course. Tonight is 3 Winters, at the National. Set over 3 winters during the last 100 years, it gives a snapshot of the recent history of Croatia. I'm in the very back row of the house, for the cheapest tickets!

Tomorrow: a concert by the Pink Singers - Europe's longest standing LGBT choir. In Cadogan Hall. Nice n close.

Sunday: the last night of Potted Sherlock - all the Sherlock Holmes stories condensed into 80 minutes. In the Vaudeville Theatre. This is the only one of all these shows I got a deal for - I knocked a few quid off with lovetheatre.com.

Monday: The RSC production of Henry IV Part I, in the Barbican.

Tuesday: the opera Orfeo, at the Roundhouse. With Helen.

And new bookings: next Wednesday, I'm off to a gig at the Lexington, near King's Cross. They're running a week-long event - The Line of Best Fit - to showcase up-and-coming acts. With Wednesday free, I had a listen on YouTube to the headline act there that night and wasn't very enthused, but the act before that, Jagaara, sounded very good! So I said, with a ticket price of £6 (plus 74p in fees..?), not bad, and I booked. And not being that pushed about the headliners means I get home at a reasonable time! Also, it'll compensate in some small way for the fact that I'll be missing yet another Hard Facade gig next Friday - I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.

I'm very excited about Thursday - I'm going to something called The Magic Hour. Running at just over an hour, it's an old-fashioned, Victorian-style magic show, with spirit messages and everything. And the video looks impressive. It's running on Thursdays and Fridays for the rest of the month - with high demand for Fridays - and capacity is limited to 45. I like the look of the venue too - the Grand Royale, a glorious old Victorian hotel near Hyde Park. Also nice n close.

After I get back from Ireland, on Monday week, I've booked to go to a play in the only theatre within walking distance of me - the Finborough. The play is called Pig Girl, and the theatre is so small that it's always advisable to book. Their website seems to be down at the moment, mind. One of those controversial plays, I see..