It is never entirely fair to judge a Russian ballet company by its performance on the opening night of an American tour. For one thing, traveling conditions are not likely to be deluxe, and jet lag inevitably takes it toll; for another, dancers need time to adjust to the flat stages of this country (in Russian theaters, the stage is tilted downward toward the audience). No excuses needed to be made, however, for Monday’s opening night by Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, the start of a two-week run that marks its return to New York after a five-year absence. The company seemed minimally travel-worn and put on a glittering show.

“Don Quixote” was originally created by Petipa for the Bolshoi in 1869, but no less than six choreographers are credited in the present production. The narrative is vaguely inspired by a passing incident in the Cervantes novel in which a village barber stages a mock suicide to win back the engagement of his beloved, who is about to marry a wealthy dolt. The current production attempts to frame the dance action with a little more reference to Cervantes, in particular the inclusion of the duke and duchess and their court, whose charades to confuse and taunt the Don and Sancho Panza occupy nearly a quarter of Cervantes’s text. It is in their palace – rather than, as traditionally, in the village square – that the third-act wedding celebration now occurs.

On Monday night, Svetlana Zakharova danced the role of the heroine, Kitri. Ms. Zakharova is only 26 but might already be described as a bit of a monstre sacre. She joined the Kirov in 1996 and soon was given carte blanche to dance any role in the repertory and to do it her way, which meant using her long, svelte, and slender limbs with an insistent limberness that could border on contortionism. She moved to the Bolshoi in 2003, and while her extroverted temperament is really more suited to the Bolshoi tradition than the Kirov’s, she is as much a product of Kiev, where she received most of her schooling, as she is of either company. She is pert and very much aware of the audience.

During the adagios of Act 1 and Act 3 on Monday night, Ms. Zakharova at times threw her leg up so that it grazed her head and disturbed her balance. This appeared to slightly discomfit her partner, Andrei Uvarov, though he surely could not have been surprised by it. That said, her arms seem to have become more expressive since her Kirov days, and her acting was good throughout the ballet. Her best dancing came in her Act 3 solo, in which Kitri accompanies herself by waving a fan through the variation. The bravura charm suits Ms. Zakharova, and she performed the steps with impressive speed and elan without overdoing anything.

There is a dimension to the role that Ms. Zakharova cannot as yet reach: the sublime remoteness of the dream scene (Act 2, Scene 3), where a delusional Don imagines Kitri installed as the reigning queen of a celestial bower of bliss. Ms. Zakharova dances this scene stylishly and without excess, but she continues to manifestly twinkle for our delight, to cock a half glance at the audience.

Anna Antonicheva, dancing this same scene’s Dryad Queen variation, understood what the mood needed to be. She danced Kitri marvelously when the Bolshoi came to Boston last October, and on Monday night she offered what was probably the outstanding classical dancing of the evening. Ms. Antonicheva evinces the bold Bolshoi confidence, but her restrained style is more classically elegant than much of what I’ve seen recently at the Kirov, which has traditionally emphasized the more refined stylistic accent. Ms. Antonicheva’s body is a paradigm of what the classical ballerina looks like, and she dances with complete freedom of movement and a manner that is never overstated. She will in all likelihood repeat her Dryad Queen on Thursday night, and also will dance Phrygia in “Spartacus” on Friday; she is not to be missed.

“Don Quixote” is a showcase for all ranks of the Bolshoi, which seems to have brought over greater relays of dance personnel than on its tour of the United States last year. Mr. Uvarov’s partnering was masterly in the Act 1 tosses and the one-armed lifts of Act 1 and Act 3; he also conquered the pyrotechnics of his Act 3 solo. Many notable dancers performed solos throughout the evening, and in Act 3,Natalia Osipova’s leaps accomplished what every ballet jumper wants to do: She did actually seem to hover in the air. The sunbaked scenery by Sergei Barkhin and the restored 1906 costumes added another lovely element, both more sophisticated than standard Soviet fare and less garish than the tastes of the new Moscow. The corps de ballet, meanwhile, performed with vigor, joy, and dignity.

“Don Quixote” will be performed again July 20 & 21 (Lincoln Center, 212-501-3410).