Only a few months ago, I would have assumed that London's first view of Alina Cojocaru in Swan Lake would be dominated by her performance of acts two and four - the White Swan rather than the Black. Anyone casting Cojocaru to type would have thought of maidenly reserve, of classic lyricism, of the vulnerability of Odette rather than the evil glitter of Odile. But that was before Cojocaru confounded expectations with the queasy eroticism and manipulativeness of her recent debut in Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling. During Monday's Swan Lake, it became evident that Cojocaru was far more excited by Odile the seductress than by poor, tragic Odette.
Not that her interpretation of the latter was lacking in intelligence, or in astonishing dance moments. Cojocaru thinks her roles through with infinite care, and I have rarely seen the story of this ballet told so clearly. In act two she opted to highlight Odette's status as a princess rather than her plight as a victim, and it was fascinating to see her opening encounters with Siegfried (Johan Kobborg) played as a meeting of royal equals, not besotted lovers.
Yet while Cojocaru's Odette was beautifully danced, it felt like the performance of an assured ballerina. I missed the spontaneous-seeming revelations that made her first Giselle, for instance, so miraculous. The impression that Cojocaru was not quite inside the role was further underlined by moments of detachment from Tchaikovsky's music, and also by the fact that she was sparking a less interesting performance than usual from Kobborg.
In act three, however, Cojocaru was suddenly fired up, enthralled by Odile's power, and by the dramatic pace of the action. She struggled momentarily with a couple of technical hurdles, but nothing made her character falter, and her complicity with William Tuckett's Rothbart was lucidly and deliciously malevolent.
Kobborg as the dazzled Siegfried also finally got into gear, and the combination of act three's melodrama and their darker erotic bond seemed to unlock the potential of this fine partnership. Towards the close of act four, as the two lovers battled against their impending separation, the stage became fraught not only with their personal agony but with the chaotic energy of a fractured universe. The corps of swans swirled around the lovers in a fierce storm of anguish as Cojocaru and Kobborg finally broke through to the darker places of the ballet. After an evening of rather controlled pleasures, the last five minutes revved into a jolting, ferocious catharsis.
· In rep until December 17. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
