Pierre Lacotte knows how to decorate a stage. In The Pharaoh's Daughter, his re-creation of the 1862 Petipa classic, an hour or two may have been trimmed from the original but we never feel there has been any skimping on cast or wardrobe. During any scene, six dozen assorted handmaidens, palace guards, female archers and child slaves may be milling around, with the occasional stuffed lion, fake cobra or live horse. All of the characters, apart from the animals, come dressed in several riotously inauthentic but beautiful outfits, with the heroine allocated no less than eight.
This catwalk spectacle is, of course, fitting for a production that is unabashed froth. The story is ballet fantasy by numbers, with an English explorer hero who dreams he is in ancient Egypt, battling for the love of the Pharaoh's daughter with the villainous, scimitar-nosed King of Nubia. Lacotte doesn't even try to take it seriously. Instead, he creates reams of pretty dance, weaving his corps de ballet through complicated patterns, while his principals and soloists are drillled through one exquisite variation after another, each jump and pirouette wittily embroidered to match the opulence of the costumes.
What's missing is the genius by which Petipa could turn nonsense into choreographic gold. Lacotte doesn't possess the poetic vision to charge up lines, moving bodies into a sudden thrilling abstract of emotion or pure music. Nor does he know how to pace his choreography so that a pas de deux can transcend from mere acrobatics to climactic revelation.
But he has created a glittering bauble of a ballet, allowing the Bolshoi to show off its rising new generation of soloists. Partnered by Sergei Filin, Svetlana Zakharova has rarely looked more assured, disciplining her long limbs into sharp etched rhythms and mellifluous phrases, and delivering them all to her audience with the creamiest of smiles.
· The Bolshoi season continues until August 19. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
