Northrop Memorial Auditorium was awash in glorious excess Saturday evening, when Russia's 228-year old Bolshoi Ballet presented its extravagant "Don Quixote." Not since the Metropolitan Opera's annual tours has a production's sights and sounds so thoroughly filled the U of M's big barn. And lighthearted "Don Quixote" was a heck of a lot more fun than, say, "Parsifal."

The narrative, as thin as the margin in the Kerry-Bush race, is one of ballet's silliest: A doddering old coot, prone to illusions of grandeur, sets out in search of adventure. In Barcelona, he encounters a love-struck couple facing parental obstacles. Farcical complications ensue, capped by a dream sequence and all's-well-that-ends-well festivities in the duke's ballroom.

Luckily, the story creates a framework for several hours of grand-scale dancing. Half the fun in experiencing the Bolshoi (Russian for "big") is soaking up its over-the-top excess. Why settle for 20 villagers, for example, when you can fill the stage with 40? The ballet's Spanish scenario is also a perfect excuse to haul out a seemingly endless parade of snapping toreador capes, cracking lace fans, graceful mantillas and jangling tambourines, all moving in breathtaking unison. The company appeared to be having as much fun as the audience.

"Don Quixote" hangs on its young-lover leads, and Maria Alexandrova and Sergey Filin did not disappoint. Alexandrova, dancing with the sharp speed and intensity of a flashbulb, infused her Kitri with rebellious spunk. Filin was a brash, jet-propelled wonder as Basil.

The depth of the Bolshoi's talent pool was evident in the large number of well-cast supporting roles. A smouldering Maria Volodina, castanets flashing, brought the second-act tavern scene to a too-darn-hot halt. Ditto Maria Isplatovskaya, displaying possibly the most flexible back ever to grace Northrop's stage. An explosively dramatic Yulianna Malkhasyants channeled silent film star Theda Bara in the Gypsy scene. In the dream sequence, the elegant Maria Allash presided beautifully over the Dryads, assisted by a pixie Ksenia Pchelkina as Cupid.

Among the men, Alexander Petukhov was delightfully bumbling as Quixote's sidekick, and Viktor Alekhin was appropriately David Hyde Pierce-ish as the foppish Gamache. In the thankless Don Quixote role, Alexey Loparevich came across as a bit of a stiff.

The beyond-lavish costumes, countless in number and based upon hundred-year-old designs, were a spectacle unto themselves.

The vivacious score -- composer Ludwig Minkus shamelessly and affectionately taps every Spanish cliché in the book -- was played with muscular gusto by the Bolshoi's own 65-member orchestra, under the direction of Pavel Sorokin. Truly, a good time, had by all.