Franz and Swanilda, the village lovers in Coppelia, might not rank among the most aristocratic leads in the 19th-century repertoire but they stand out from the stage as brightly as any fairytale prince or princess. Simply, they have to be the most desirable couple in the crowd.
Swanilda is witty, brave, emotional and a little bit wild, and Franz is the flirtiest, most charismatic hunk in the village square. So it was slightly disappointing to see Jaimie Tapper and Johan Kobborg limiting their options on Thursday to some staid flirtation and solemn pranks.
They were acting by careful formula rather than with imagination. Yet if their performances lacked sparkle, their dancing was almost enough to compensate. Tapper combines two powerful attributes - a strong, rounded attack and quick feet - that equip her superbly for the choreographic range of this production. She scintillates through the concentrated, tricksy footwork of act one, and has all the muscular control to sustain her through the grandly classical pas de deux of act three. Kobborg is dancing at the top of the wonderful form he has shown all year - the lancing sharpness and elastic buoyancy of his jumps so airily displayed you wish you could rewind each solo. Significantly, both artists convey far more personality when they're purely dancing than when they have to act.
This Coppelia (Ninette de Valois's 1954 production, based on Petipa's St Petersburg staging) is an oddity for modern audiences, though - crammed with too many distracting minor characters and dance divertissements for either the narrative or choreographic drives to get fully into gear. A really dominating pair of lovers can sometimes hold it together, but on Thursday the effects remained scattered. Beyond Tapper and Kobborg's five-star dancing there was a nicely gummy-eyed Dr Coppelius from Alastair Marriott, and within a somewhat lacklustre corps was a scattering of junior faces dancing their socks off. They looked as if they had wandered in from another, better show.
Until July 31. Details: 020-7304 4000.
