Ludwig Minkus, a bandmaster and composer who came to Russia from Austria in 1850, wrote music for ballets. Together with choreographer Marius Petipa, they gave audiences two ballets that were not to be forgotten - La Bayadere and Don Quixote. The latter premiered in 1869 and was first staged in Lithuania in 1936, after which audiences saw many more versions of Don Quixote. The choreographer of Don Quixote, St Petersburg's Vasily Medvedev, set out to stage the ballet authentically, i.e. according to Petipa's original version. Based on the original Don Quixote staged in St Petersburg in 1871, he abandoned many of the elements that later appeared in the ballet. On the other hand, the choreographer brought back the Prologue, which had disappeared from later versions of the work. It is the Prologue, in which we see the Knight of the Sorrowful Image, that justifies the ballet's title.