By Raymond Stults

This Monday evening, the ballet company of the Bolshoi Theater will open a three-week visit to London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden — its first appearance on Britain's most prestigious stage since 1986. On tap for London audiences are a quartet of Bolshoi classics, "Don Quixote," "Swan Lake," "Spartak" and "The Pharaoh's Daughter," and the theater's radical staging of "Romeo and Juliet," which premiered in Moscow last December.

All eyes will be on the leading lady opening night, as Maria Alexandrova dances the role of Kitri in "Don Quixote." Probably the most talented and versatile among an outstanding crop of young female soloists, Alexandrova has become something of an emissary for the theater's new image.