Don Quixote.

Victor Ullate's new staging of Don Quixote marks a double anniversary: ten years for his company and the 450th anniversary of the birth of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of this literary classic. Based on Petipa's and Gorsky's versions for libretto and structure, this, the first Don Quixote to be produced by a Spanish ballet company, will go down in the books as memorably different -- with Spanish guitar music; snazzy, jazzy toreros; and gyrating Gypsies sandwiched into a classical frame.

Ullate's innovations are supposedly drawn from the roots of flamenco and Spanish dance, but his investigation hasn't developed beyond his offerings in previous works with Spanish overtones. For this production, the company has been boosted from twenty-four to fifty-two strikingly young, enthusiastic, and well-schooled dancers. They aren't always well directed however, as their inability to submerge themselves in unchoreographed moments demonstrates.

Ullate's modern interpolations make one wonder just how far a choreographer's poetic license should extend. His new material shows off the dancers in their full luminosity and strength, but is it so difficult in this day and age to offer a full serving of "the real thing" for an evening at the ballet? Modern meddling aside, this is the only company in Spain producing classical ballet of notable quality. This is manifested in the fine scenery and costumes designed by Roger Salas, who has carefully respected the epoch of Cervantes and avoided any kitschy pseudo-Spanishness.

The success of the evening must be attributed to the dancers, who combined effectiveness as an ensemble with shining individual qualities. In the lead roles on opening night, Maria Gimenez and Jesus Pastor made a splendid couple, counterpoised in attack and character, and both displayed technical prowess. Pastor is graced with a supple body that has now matured, yielding rich, pliant movement, effortless multiple pirouettes, and a bountiful ballon with a luxurious, cushiony landing. Gimenez is a very self-assured Kitri, a calculating coquette who lures her lover (and the audience) with her wonderfully extended limbs, perfect balances, and spectacular fouettes.

For the nymph scene, Ullate has chosen a male matchmaker, Carlos Pinillos, who is blessed with good looks as well as darting jetes and feathery light batterie that make him a delectable Cupid. Elsewhere, a 6and of hand-clapping, hip-thrusting Gypsies is led by a deliciously dashing Victor Jimenez and an extremely provocative Rosa Royo, who elicited some of the most enthusiastic applause of the evening.

In the title role, Victor Orive (also Ullate's repetiteur for this production) is a gaunt yet sprightly Don Quixote, with dramatically wild eyes provoking both nobility and pathos. Also notable is Eduardo Lao, a steady Espada whose phrasing most obviously flows in a classical medium. He is accompanied by Ana Noya, who elegantly slinks through her role of Mercedes, but who unfortunately had a rather shaky first night.

Ballet Victor Ullate, the pride of Madrid and the capital's own ballet company, gave the premiere of Don Quixote, its newest production, in Bilbao, an industrial city on the Bay of Biscay recently made prominent by the opening of a new architectural wonder, its own Guggenheim Museum. The company made its debut in Bilbao, so the occasion may have had sentimental value. But the location of the premiere is also a sad reflection of the desperate lack of dance theaters in Madrid. Political maneuvers have seen the temporary closure of two of the city's principal theaters and had produced constant delays in the reopening of its opera house until last October. Don Quixote will not be seen there until July 1998 and is scheduled for a New York City run the following autumn.