Don Quixote is a famous ballet based on the epic masterpiece (the first European "modern" novel of its kind) by Miguel de Cervantes. The most successful choreography for the ballet was created by Austrian composer Ludwig Minkus and choreographer Marius Petipa, who was then at the height of his artistic career. The first important production took place in the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1869. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the two main figures in Cervantes's novel, are not heavily involved in the storyline, but rather represent a conceptual frame and sentimental ambient of the ballet.