When Jonathan Cope first began dancing principal roles he seemed the archetypal English dancer, blessed with an elegant, elastic line and perfect partnering manners, yet cursed with a reticence that bordered on dullness. In recent seasons though, Cope has loosened up so interestingly that Crown Prince Rudolf, the demonised, damaged hero of Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling, is proving to be the unexpected high point of his career.
Rudolf is one of MacMillan's most lurid creations - genetically wonky, politically paranoid and morbidly attracted to the wrong women. Cope's blank, skittering gaze and subtle phrasing present Rudolf as a succession of savage, manic and needy states, circling around a dead centre. By the time he meets Mary Vetsera, the hysterical romantic who joins him in a double suicide pact, Rudolf is more than ready to fall apart.
Tamara Rojo is equally extraordinary as Vetsera and in the lovers' first pas de deux, her ruthless and extravagantly yielding little body goads Rudolf to such extremes of sensation there seems nowhere else for them to go but death. By act three Cope looks wasted, and the gagging intensity with which Rojo watches him inject his last shot of morphine is almost more scary than the shots that finally kill them.
The other women in the ballet have of course already sent Rudolf a long way towards destruction, although not all of yesterday's cast managed to signpost that route as vividly as Rojo. Neither Deirdre Chapman nor Jaimie Tapper as Rudolf's mistress and ex-mistress had enough exuberant sexiness and venality. But Gemma Bond as the poor, dull Stephanie allowed herself to be manhandled through her wedding night duet with a compliance that bordered on the reckless.
With performances like these Mayerling has rarely looked more harrowing, or more intelligent.
· In rep until June 16. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
