Possibly the greatest tragedy about this production before a house with plenty of spare seats was that, knowing the synopsis – even from reading the lavishly produced programme – and seeing the show were too far removed from each other.

It didn’t just lack authenticity; it lacked conviction and, sad to say, quality.

If the first act had been as good as the second it might have succeeded. Whether it was under – or even over- rehearsed it was difficult to tell, but from the muddled beginning of the opening overture, which admittedly Adolphe Adam scored in an indecisive, hesitant mode anyway, things didn’t improve greatly.

Albrecht, the Duke of Silezia (Dmitry Rudachenko), tall, imperious as he should have been but somewhat ungainly, with whom Giselle (Alla Bocharova) has fallen in love, seemed at times to be on another planet.

Bocharova, herself frail yet supremely dainty and destined to die mainly through her passion for dancing, was ideally cast and, particularly in Act II, danced quite enchantingly.

Her demeanour captured succinctly the supernatural world of the spirits and was a charming foil to Hillarion, the gamekeeper, (Dymchik Saykeev) – also originally in love with Giselle who rumbles Albrecht and reveals his true background. But there again, the drama and shock of that revelation was not fully exploited.

The corps de ballet, not numerous in this production under the choreography of Marius Petipa, was graceful, yes; but tired looking.

The conducting of the ballet theatre orchestra by Vadim Nikitin moved well and allowed the dancing to dictate but there were times when tuning and individual woodwind were not as good as they should have been.

Reg Burnard